Floyd Mayweather caused quite the Twitter tizzy on Tuesday as he tweeted to one Manny Pacquiao: ?Manny Pacquiao I’m calling you out let’s fight May 5th and give the world what they want to see,? and then a few minutes later, ?My Jail Sentence was pushed back because the date was locked in. Step up Punk.? To the masses, it meant the ball was now squarely in Pacquiao’s court. Realistically, it’s just probably more posturing as both Mayweather and Pacquiao seemed headed in opposite directions (at least for the time being).
Bob Arum, who is currently in the Philippines with his client, responded to Mayweather’s messages by stating, ?It’s really sad. What the hell are they doing? I mean, nobody?s paying attention to this anymore. I mean, obviously, what we said was, ?May 5th was not acceptable.? There’s nothing magical in May 5th. There’s two alternatives if you want to do a match- do it later in May or, even better, you go and ask the judge for a 15-day postponement and you put the fight on June 9th. It seems to me, the way I’m reading it, they picked [Robert] Guerrero and they just want enough smoke and mirrors so that when people say, ?Mayweather and Guerrero is hardly a competitive match, well, Arum this and Arum that?- well, nobody buys pay-per-view on that basis. They buy pay-per-view because they want to see what appears to be a competitive match.
?And that’s what they should be selling, not f**king around tweeting and making challenges, etc. That’s not responsive to anything.?
Right now, the blame has been put on Arum for being the ultimate stumbling block to this fight not coming to fruition. The veteran promoter takes it in stride, telling Maxboxing, ?Well, y? know, that’s a role I’m uniquely qualified for because if you’re looking for a target, I’m the natural target. It’s hard to make Manny the target. First of all, he’s over in the Philippines, so I’m the target, sure. So what? When does that advance anybody? This is not a political campaign.? He chuckles as he says this. ?I mean, this is where you put your best fights on the boards and you try to convince the public to buy it.?
Despite whatever proclamations are made by either party, there is still the whole issue of actually negotiating the deal bringing these two together.
?The point that I’m making is they have no intent on making the fight now because it’s rushing it,? Arum insisted. ?You’re up against a deadline. You really need that big stadium to justify it. Your numbers I read (http://www.maxboxing.com/news/sub-lead/dont-hold-your-breath-for-pacquiao-mayweather) were just laughable. The amount of money in this fight is relatively limited. Let’s assume you get 2.5 million homes to buy the fight and you charge $70 [for a pay-per-view order], so you’re talking about $87.5 million into the promotion and the foreign rights aren’t going to be worth more than $5 million. So now you’re coming down to where the fight is barely around $100 million- now it really depends on your gate. So if you can get $40 million from your gate or you can get $20 million from your gate- it?s a big f**king difference. It’s a big difference.?
While Mayweather has the MGM Grand on hold for May 5th, Arum has talked of constructing a temporary stadium down the street at the site of the old Frontier Hotel that could hold more than 40,000 patrons. Arum stated, ?I’m not pejorative about the MGM Grand. They’re terrific people. It’s a terrific place to hold a fight but this fight is so big. The demand to tickets in this fight is so big that you need a bigger venue. I mean, look, our brethren in college basketball picked up on that 10,15 years ago. They used to do that Final Four in college arenas and now they only do it in super-enclosed domes to increase the attendance. And for us to do this fight before 16,500 when we could do it for 45,000 is not being realistic to the fighters, not being fair to the public and leaving at least $20 million on the table.?
As for how things are going with the ?Pac-Man,? Arum says, ?We had a very, very enjoyable time last night, big meeting. Then we went over the script for the commercial that he’s going to be shooting for Hennessey. Then we had dinner that lasted till all hours of the morning where the topic was essentially Bible study. So I enjoyed it. I had a good time.
?I was the Old Testament,? he joked.
As for the options laid out to his client, including the likes of Juan Manuel Marquez, Tim Bradley, Miguel Cotto and Lamont Peterson, ?I didn’t push for a decision because I wanted Manny to reflect on it and I’m not leaving until Saturday, so Manny will get back to me,? said Arum.
When asked whether Pacquiao had any reaction to the tweets sent out by Mayweather, Arum said, ?No, nobody reads about it here. Nobody cares about it. It floats off everybody’s back. The one thing that you see here is nobody is trash-talking [Mayweather?s side]. We’re satisfied in our skin. If they want to do a Pacquiao-Mayweather fight, it’s available. If they think the fight would do better in November and they want to fight somebody else and have us fight somebody else, that’s a realistic option. I can envision him going to jail in June and getting out in the beginning of August. That’s when you do a tour, anyways. There’s no reason to get excited by any of this.?
This match-up has been discussed and bantered about for the better part of two years. You get the sense that the fans are suffering from fatigue in discussing and debating the particulars of why it hasn’t taken place. There is a distinct possibility that they might even be losing interest in this fight as the months and years go on. There is also this fact: both men are now well into their mid-30s. The sell-buy date on this fight, if it hasn’t already passed, is quickly approaching.
Arum doesn’t disagree.
?I would say that it may turn into sour milk if it doesn’t happen this year, yeah.?
JERRY’S WORLD
Should this fight become a reality, Cowboys Stadium in Dallas would seem to be a natural destination, given the fact it has experience in hosting big boxing events and it has more than enough room to satisfy everyone involved. The only problem is, Mayweather was essentially allowed this continuance on his sentence based on his fight taking place in Las Vegas.
?I don’t know what the ruling says but, obviously, it’s based on the fight being in Nevada and that’s the representation they made,? commented Arum. ?So would they be in trouble with the judge if they moved the fight to Dallas? They might be. I don’t know for sure but it would certainly give pause, yes, I agree. It would give pause if I was counseling Mayweather’s people.?
MYSTERY MAN
The IBF released this statement on the ?mystery man? Amir Khan recently referenced that was ringside near the judges during his fight versus Lamont Peterson in Washington DC on December 10th. Not sure if this placates everyone but here ya go…
Springfield, NJ, January 8, 2012 – At this point in time the IBF has decided to break its silence and provide some clarification on the matter of Mr. Mustafa Ameen?s presence at the IBF/WBA championship bout between Amir Khan and Lamont Peterson. Initially, the organization chose not to publicly address this matter to preserve the integrity of the hearing scheduled for the appeal filed by Golden Boy promotions on the ruling of the aforementioned bout. The sole purpose in doing so was with the intentions that all parties, and most importantly, the panelists could go into this hearing with clear minds and no preconceptions or prejudices.
Mr. Mustafa Ameen does outreach work for the IBF?s SARB/Education Fund. This fund was initially created to financially assist retired professional boxers experiencing monetary difficulties. Shortly over a year ago, IBF President Daryl Peoples and Mr. Ameen agreed that he would network on behalf of the organization with the purpose of connecting with these fighters in order for the IBF to provide them with some financial assistance. Mr. Ameen?s role with the organization is limited to just this. He is not an employee or an official of the organization, nor does he receive any monetary compensation from the organization for his efforts.
Previous to the Khan-Peterson bout, the IBF made a request for the Washington, D.C. Boxing and Wrestling Commission to extend Mr. Ameen the courtesy of a credential to enter the arena. Mr. Ameen was not assigned by the IBF to officiate this bout. Despite all that has transpired, at this point the IBF has not changed its stance and plans on moving forth with the hearing as scheduled on Wednesday, January 18, 2012. Mr. Ameen will be present at the hearing to explain his actions and what transpired during the bout between him and Mr. Welsh, the WBA supervisor.
STOMACH FLU FLURRIES
Main Events won the right to stage the bout between Zab Judah and Vernon Paris (an IBF title eliminator) with a bid of $70,112. Kathy Duva tells me that they plan to put this on their NBC Sports Network series on March 24, provided that Paris takes this fight. I guess he’s been on Twitter stating that the money had to be right, etc…I’ll say it right now; the bout between IBF light heavyweight titlist Tavoris Cloud and Gabriel Campillo is by far the best fight on Showtime’s Feb. 18th card that has Paul Williams taking on Nobu Ishida in Corpus Christi, Texas. Now the question is, will Chris Arreola be televised on that night?…I know LSU is no offensive juggernaut but can you believe how ?Bama throttled them in the BCS title game? Like in boxing, the best match-ups don’t always make for the best games. The other BCS games, for the most part, were very entertaining…I had the stomach flu on Monday night; it’s the worst I’ve felt in a loooong time. How bad did I feel? I didn’t even tweet that night. Yeah, I was that ill…
