Bob Arum now knows what exactly Manny Pacquiao wants and it will be up to his negotiating prowess whether the mouth-watering fight with Oscar De La Hoya will become reality or just remain a fantasy.
“I spent quite some time with Manny today,” Arum told the Bulletin from Las Vegas yesterday, but he declined to provide details.
Arum sent a private plane in Los Angeles that fetched Pacquiao, his wife Jinkee and kids to Sin City and the 76-year-old Hall of Fame promoter is keenly awaiting the arrival of Richard Schaefer from a European vacation so they could meet and discuss business.
Arum said he and Schaefer, who holds the position of Chief Executive Officer in the De La Hoya-owned Golden Boy Promotions (GBP), should be talking by the middle of next week since Arum will be making a brief visit to Macau to attend a party of a dear friend.
De La Hoya is shopping for an opponent for his farewell fight on Dec. 6 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas and Pacquiao, the current World Boxing Council lightweight titleholder and pound-for-pound king, is tops on the list.
Arum said only the proposed De La Hoya fight was discussed in their meeting but made it clear that (Mexican) Humberto Soto and (Venezuelan) Edwin Valero have been placed on standby status in case negotiations bog down.
“Soto and Valero are Plans B and C,” said Arum. “If the De La Hoya fight doesn?t happen, we will talk about Soto or Valero.”
Arum was reluctant to come up with numbers that were discussed but reports coming from Team Pacquiao that the lethal-hitting lefty is asking around $ 20 million.
De La Hoya has told philboxing that “we can come out with a formula where Manny can make two or three or even four or five times what he?s making now so I feel Bob Arum and Richard Schaefer can realistically make this fight happen.”
Pacquiao lawyer Franklin Gacal said he will make sure that should a fight between De La Hoya and Pacquiao is signed, it will include a stipulation in the contract that the Golden Boy will have to shell out $ 750,000 for every pound in excess of 147 pounds.
“Oscar might weigh in at 150 and he?s just too big for Manny,” said Gacal.
Trainer Freddie Roach told multititled writer Ron Borges that he is “pushing for a same-day (as the fight) weighin.”
Nowadays, the official weighin is held on the eve of the fight so it could allow the fighters sufficient time to recover from the difficulties of making the weight limit.
A couple of weeks ago, Roach was quoted as saying that Pacquiao can stop De La Hoya. The 48-year-old cornerman even described Dela Hoya as “somebody who can no longer pull the trigger.”
Roach added that if De La Hoya wants the fight at 150 pounds ? the weight limit in his fights with Floyd Mayweather and Steve Forbes ? he will not allow that fight to happen.
