Promoter Bob Arum has made a stand and there is no way the WBC will be sanctioning Manny Pacquiao-Erik Morales III as an official world title eliminator if the boxers have to pay for it. Pacquiao’s manager Shelly Finkel clarified on Friday that the fight on November 18 at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas on HBO Pay-Per-View, will not be an official WBC eliminator.
“Manny’s WBC International championship will be the one that is on the line,” he said. “This is not an eliminator. Bob and I spoke about that yesterday and we both feel the same way, that it is just the same as it was for the last fight.”
Arum had erupted during a media conference call for Erik Morales on Wednesday, outraged that the WBC were trying to sanction the fight as a world title eliminator for a shot at WBC world champion Marco Antonio Barrera.
“I found out for the first time today that the WBC wanted to call this an elimination match so as to get a sanction fee,” he said. “And the last fight we allowed them to call it WBC International where the total sanction fees were US$5,000 and that’s fine, but shit nobody is – I mean they have nothing to do with this fight, nobody wants this fight as an elimination, neither fighter, and certainly I’m the damn promoter. Nobody’s even talked to me about it and there is no way, there is no way, that I’m going to let these two fighters who are hard working fighters who bleed in the ring, who come with everything, pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for bullshit!”
The Hall of Fame promoter wanted to know how many world title eliminators the WBC were actually sanctioning at 130lbs.
“It seems to me that in the last promotion I did, a pay-per-view with Hasim Rahman and Oleg Maskaev,” Arum explained, “a fighter named Humberto Soto fought on that card, right? Fought on that card and paid a sanction fee for an elimination bout. That’s the same weight as these guys, 130lbs. So how is it another f******* elimination bout. I mean I’m really, I mean this is a f******* disgrace.”
