MANILA, Philippines ? Top Rank chief executive officer Bob Arum wished Jimmy Kimmel luck after the host offered to mediate between the camps of Filipino ring icon Manny ?Pacman? Pacquiao and unbeaten American Floyd Mayweather Jr.
Pacquiao recently made his sixth guesting on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” and the host offered ? perhaps in jest ? to broker the negotiations for the boxers? camps in order to get them to agree to a mega-fight.
?What if I tell you that if I can get you and Floyd in a room on television, you could each have one representative, I could make this happen. I really feel like I could be the mediator,? Kimmel said.
?Would you agree to something like that??
When Pacquiao said yes, Kimmel invited Mayweather to visit the studio where they will ?hatch out an agreement and get this fight.?
?Good luck,? Arum told Kimmel. ?Maybe Jimmy Kimmel will have better luck than any of us.?
Arum claimed that two years ago, the only remaining issue that stood in the way of the fight was the random blood and urine testing that Mayweather required of his opponents.
But Pacquiao has already agreed to that, though Mayweather?s camp continues to tell the Filipino boxer to ?take the test.?
Another issue popped up when Mayweather refused to give Pacquiao an equal share of the pay-per-view revenue.
?They sent us a contract, a draft of an agreement which we still have and we?re going to distribute it in the press room,?Arum said. ?It shows that there are absolutely no issues in making this fight. None.?
?And it seems to me that Mayweather is being really sort of clever, if we assume that he doesn?t want to fight Manny. He?s finding ways to get out of the fight,? he added.
?Go back to the contract that we had in place where the only issue we had was drug testing which has been solved. I?ll show you the contract, everything was worked out, everything. There?s no reason to go back and re-negotiate anything.?
Mayweather is coming off an impressive unanimous victory over Puerto Rican star Miguel Cotto last May 5.
Meanwhile, Pacquiao is set to defend his world welterweight championship against unbeaten boxer Timothy Bradley Jr. on June 9 in Las Vegas. ? Report from Steve Angeles, ABS-CBN News North America.
