WHO is celebrating?
I am.
Why wouldn?t I?
From the very start, I never wanted a Pacquiao-Mayweather bout. I had always considered this a farce of a fight if ever it materialized.
It?d just be held for the money, never in the best interest of boxing.
Of course, money can never be discounted in most, if not all, boxing bouts.
But if money becomes the focal point, I can sense it, smell it.
That is all there is to it in a Pacquiao-Mayweather fight. Money, money, money.
Everybody?s saying it could be the richest ever in boxing history.
Pacquiao could earn as much as $50 million. Mayweather, too.
Pacquiao, despite being the pound-for-pound king, said yes to a 50-50 split of the purse.
Mayweather countered, ?No way.?
?Sixty percent for me and Pacquiao 40 percent, plus he won?t get anything from pay-per-view and gate revenues,? said Mayweather. ?If Pacquiao won?t agree, then there?s no fight.?
Who is he to demand those?
Bob Arum, Pacquiao?s manager, is definitely pissed off.
?The trouble with Mayweather is, he?s the manager of himself,? Arum said. ?It?s hard doing business with a boxer who manages his own affairs.?
I can understand Arum. He?s been in fight promotions longer than anyone in the business.
Now 80-plus or something, Arum was with the promotions team of the Ali-Frazier fight in the 1975 ?Thrilla in Manila,? the immortal bout that gave the Philippines a niche in world sports.
That?s why I believe that like me, Arum is also celebrating now that Mayweather is set to fight Miguel Cotto and not Pacquiao on May 5.
Arum saw money flushed down the gutter with Pacquiao not fighting Mayweather?
Of course. But then, Arum is too seasoned a promoter that he?s now past any sulking shocks, crying over spilled milk even.
Definitely more than a man of wisdom now, Arum would just sit back, relax and gaze at the landscape he?s known the longest among all animals in the game, dead or alive.
So, when the Mayweather-Cotto fight is finally on, Arum might just simply say, ?So what??
But I?ll still watch the fight.
I know Mayweather is boxing?s boredom.
I need to see if Cotto would contribute to the bore.
