A relaxed, jovial Bob Arum is gripping his cellphone and expecting final word any minute or hour as to whether royal family investors in the United Arab Emirates are going to guarantee a huge site fee to land the troubled Antonio Margarito-Manny Pacquiao title bout.
?Michael (Koncz, Pacman’s peripatetic agent) landed at 3 am in Abu Dhabi,? Arum said Monday afternoon by phone from Las Vegas. ?He told me the Royal Family had him personally picked up in one of their limousines.?
What clinches or ruins the Middle Eastern deal, I asked.
?It depends on how many camels we can get from there,? the promoter known around his Top Rank offices as ‘The Sheik’ said jocularly.
Dallas, meaning Cowboys owner Jerry Jones and his sparkling stadium which hosted the listless Joshua Clottey-Pacquiao bout March 13, is in on the on deck circle, so to speak, and Arum has made preliminary plans to go a press conference in Big D on Aug. 31 if that’s the way the camel crumbles.
Arum did concede that Congressman Pacquiao has not signed a contract to fight anyone on the Nov. 13 date.
?That’s not important,? Arum said, ?because of the relationship we’ve got with Manny. Manny has orally agreed to the key terms but the whole thing changes if Abu Dhabi delivers because that deal is fully guaranteed and for more money.?
Promoter Bob Arum jokes that he wants camels thrown into any deal to bring Pacman-Margarito fight to Abu Dhabi
Arum has been lukewarm on the Abu Dhabi proposal and remains unconvinced it will move foreward.
?Their time has really expired but then they sent for Michael who flew to them from Manila,? Arum said. ?Maybe they’re just kicking the tires, I don’t know, but we’ll soon find out. If not for the time difference, I think we’d already know.
?Jerry Jones is great with us. And Todd duBoef (Top Rank president) is still talking to the MGM Grand to see what can be done about the (Nevada) commission (and its reluctance to issue a boxing license to the Mexican.)?
Arum continues to predict that Margarito’s appeal of his (time served) one year suspension by the California commission will be successful.
Bob Arum and chief client, Manny Pacquiao, Arum says Pinoy Idol has “orally agreed” to fight Antonio Margarito Nov. 13, either in Dallas or Abu Dhabi (Getty Images/Chris Cozzone)
?They found him guilty with a doctrine, that he’s like the captain of his own ship, that we believe is not the law in California, at least as to boxing regulations. I am telling you this legal appeal is a winner.?
Arum said that Margarito’s attorneys and the California Attorney General’s office have filed briefs and reply briefs in that ongoing matter.
Margarito has a scheduled appearance before California on Aug. 18 at which time he will ask for a clearance to get a new license there.
If California complies, he will have no problem getting licensed elsewhere.
The 4-1 majority on the Nevada boxing board suggested strongly that Margarito clear the air in California before they would reconsider his application in the gambling mecca.
In case you didn’t notice, Arum has stopped blowing his smoke about Monterrey, Mexico, as a fight site.
Maybe he has an aversion to goat meat.
