Mayweather circumvents Arum to speak to Pacquiao, but fight still likely won’t be made

By Dan Ambrose: Floyd Mayweather Jr. did a smart thing by circumventing Manny Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum by going straight to Pacquiao himself to try and get a mega fight put together between them on May 5th.

Mayweather has had zero luck in having Pacquiao’s promoter Arum as the go between guy, as Arum has his wishes that the fight take place in a specific venue – his outdoor arena’s having built – and during a specific time frame.

Arum isn’t all that open to fitting into Mayweather’s time frame of May 5th or his venue, the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. Mayweather was able to get Pacquiao to agree to the fight when they spoke on the phone earlier today, according to abs-cbnnnews. Pacquiao wants a “50-50 split,” which is pretty easy because that’ what Mayweather already had in mind for the purse split of the revenue.

With Arum now briefly out of the equation, Mayweather now needs to get Pacquiao to sign a contract that he’ll agree to fight Mayweather on the 5th of May at the MGM Grand. The thing you got to like about Mayweather is that he doesn’t care that he could make a little more money by fighting in Arum’s venue, because all he wants to do is make the fight.

Pacquiao sounds like he’s of the same mind. He just wants to make the fight and be able to give the people what they’re been asking for. The only thing that needs to be done now is make sure that Arum is following Pacquiao’s instructions instead of the other way around.

Ideally, Pacquiao should be the one calling the shots here because he’s the guy that’s going to be getting hit by Mayweather, but a lot of boxing fans feel that Arum has got Pacquiao doing what he wants him to do as far as facing the guys he wants him to fight and fighting when and where.

Unfortunately I feel that Pacquiao will give in to what Arum wants him to do regardless of what Pacquiao said to Mayweather on the phone about being open to fighting him wherever and whenever he wants. I think Pacquiao will change his mind about that if Arum puts a little pressure on him, and with Mayweather not there to make his own case, Arum will convince Pacquiao to fight one of the four guys he’s already picked out for him.