Not long after boxing promoter Bob Arum threatened legal action against the MGM Grand for flooding the casino with ads for a rival fight between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Marcos Maidana, the promos were taken down and ones hyping Saturday?s bout between Manny Pacquiao and Tim Bradley were put up.
But Arum was powerless from stopping the real Maidana from appearing at the MGM Grand on Saturday in a brazen act that served to only deepen the tensions between the promoters of the two bouts.
Golden Boy, which is promoting Mayweather vs. Maidana on May 3 at the MGM, staged a press gathering at Wolfgang Puck?s restaurant — just hours before Pacquiao challenged Bradley for his WBO welterweight title in the same venue.
Top Rank president Todd DuBoef viewed the move by Golden Boy as ?disappointing.? Out of respect, promoters usually don?t invade another?s turf when they?re staging a bout.
?It?s a usery type of relationship where they?re using our promotional stuff for their benefit,? said DuBoef, who?s also Arum?s son-in-law. ?I?m going to piggyback you pretty good. Not only that- I?m going to go into your hive. I just think it?s kind of [insensitive] – you need me to help your event.?
DuBoef reasoned that Golden Boy must be struggling to gain interest for the Mayweather bout, and thus resorted to such a tactic to draw attention.
?You?re in trouble,? DuBoef said of Golden Boy, which is a bitter rival of Top Rank. The sides refuse to work with each other. ?Why do you need my stuff?? he went on. ?You guys say how great you are and how big of an attraction [Mayweather] is. I don?t understand why you need us. So I think it?s most of all disappointing.?
Reached at his home on Friday night, Golden Boy CEO Richard Schaefer refused to be drawn into the conflict. ?Oh, I?m not going to go there – nice try,? Schaefer said, before adding, ?I?m actually looking forward to watching the fight tomorrow.?
A Golden Boy representative said the decision to have Maidana at the MGM was made to take advantage of all the reporters already on the scene and shouldn?t be taken as a dig by Top Rank.
?This is our show today with Maidana,? his trainer, Robert Garcia, said on Saturday. ?I have nothing to do with tonight. It doesn?t bother me at all [to have it here].?
With arguably the two biggest fights of the year taking place at the same venue just weeks apart, it?s no surprise that something like this happened. The fuss started earlier in the week when Top Rank executives arrived at the MGM to find signage for the Mayweather bout plastered all over the casino with little showing of their own. Arum mentioned the fact during the final press conference on Wednesday, calling the MGM Resorts Entertainment and Sports executive Richard Sturm the ?president of hanging posters and decorations for the wrong fight? and later branding him a ?moron? to reporters.
Top Rank?s legal counsel sent the MGM a letter, expressing the company?s concerns that having advertising for a competing bout could hurt the sponsors involved. Top Rank attorney Daniel Petrocelli told the Daily News on Friday. The beer company Corona is sponsoring Mayweather?s bout while rival Tecate is backing Pacquiao. On Friday, there was noticeably more signage for Pacquiao and much less for Mayweather at the MGM.
?I presume that was a result of this issue having been raised,? Petrocelli said in a phone interview. ?I simply put them on notice. We were reserving our rights for any claims that we might assert down the road. We?re not looking to have a needless dispute with them but it was a serious issue that we needed to protect the rights of Top Rank and its sponsors.?
Petrocelli said the success of the Pacquiao bout will dictate if further legal action is necessary. ?If there?s any fallout from it then we may have a legal issue with them,? he said.
DuBoef said it was never explained to him why the casino chose to emphasize the Mayweather bout with its signage over the Pacquiao bout to begin with, even though Pacquiao?s fight was just days away. Contacted on Friday, the MGM did not respond with a comment.
