Bob Arum was back at his Las Vegas headquarters on Friday after having met with Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones on Wednesday in Texas.
The two discussed the possibility of holding the proposed November 13 fight between Manny Pacquiao and Antonio Margarito at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington.
Arum, speaking by telephone, did not want to go into specifics about their conversation.
?We had a very, very good meeting,? said Arum, Pacquiao?s promoter. ?But I don?t want to discuss anything about it until after the Margarito thing in California.
?And then we?ll announce the venue and the press conference schedule. I don?t want to disrespect anybody or anything. California is going to decide on Wednesday and then whichever way California decides, various state commissions will decide whichever way they think is best.?
Margarito will be in front of the California State Athletic Commission on Wednesday. He will be attempting to get another license after his was revoked in February 2009 after he was caught with plaster inserts in his hand wraps prior to his fight with Shane Mosley that January at Staples Center.
Arum?s first choice for Pacquiao-Margarito is the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. But when Margarito tried to get a license there last month, he was told he needed to go back to California.
Keith Kizer, executive director of the Nevada State Athletic Commission, said that didn?t necessarily mean California had to grant Margarito a license in order for him to get one in Nevada. The Nevada commission just wanted to see him first go in front of the commission that punished him.
Arum said a week ago the Texas commission already has told him it would license Margarito whether he gets his license back in California, or doesn?t.
One thing is certain, Arum said.
?This fight will come off,? he said. ?Guaranteed.?
Even though Arum previously said Cowboys Stadium is the front-runner, expect him to go back to Nevada if California grants Margarito a license on Wednesday.
Nevada would then almost assuredly do the same, and there still is no better place for a superfight than Las Vegas.
It?s not the fight Arum and everyone else involved wanted. That would have been Pacquiao against Floyd Mayweather Jr., which would likely have broken pay-per-view and live-gate records.
But a second round of talks did not bear fruit.
Instead, Arum is going with a fight that is bound to be met with some resistance within the industry.
Rival promoter Oscar de la Hoya has been very outspoken regarding Margarito. De la Hoya believes Margarito should be banned for life for his attempt to enter the ring against Mosley with loaded gloves.
De la Hoya is not the only one, but perhaps the most vocal.
Arum, however, continues to point out that it was never proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that Margarito knew his wraps?applied by trainer Javier Capetillo, who also lost his license?contained the inserts.
Several high-profile trainers recently went on record as saying they are not convinced a fighter would be able to tell if his wraps were tainted in this manner. Several fighters have said over the past 18 months they would know.
An area trainer, who requested anonymity, said this week that out of curiosity he performed an experiment on one of his fighters. He said he simulated the best he could what was found in Margarito?s wraps and inserted them into his fighter?s.
He said his fighter told him he could not tell there was anything abnormal in the wraps.
All that said, Arum is not worried about any negative publicity a Pacquiao-Margarito fight might receive in this regard.
There is something else that is drawing the ire of scores of posters on the Internet.
Pacquiao will be trying for yet another title in another weight class. He has won major-sanctioning-body titles in five weight classes, and has beaten two people?s champions in two more?giving him championship-like success in seven divisions.
But his victory over Miguel Cotto for a welterweight title was at a catch-weight of 145 lb?two under the limit. The fight with Margarito?for a vacant super-welterweight title?will be at a catch-weight of 151, three pounds under the limit.
This is not cool. If Pacquiao and his team want to make history, they should do it at full weight.
Welterweight is 147 lb. Cotto should have been allowed to weigh 147. Super welterweight is 154, so Margarito should be able to weigh 154.
But because Pacquiao has come up from such smaller weights, Arum doesn?t want to take a chance on Pacquiao losing to guys who have always been bigger.
If Arum is concerned Pacquiao won?t be able to hang with Margarito at 154, then they should fight a nontitle fight at 151?not a title fight.
Arum counters, saying that in one of their fights, Sugar Ray Leonard and Thomas Hearns fought at a catch-weight of 162 for a super-middleweight title, that limit being 168.
Good for them. That doesn?t make it right.
A weight limit is a weight limit.
