Arum wants Pacquiao-Mayweather fight to take place in April or June in 2015

By Boxing News - 12/20/2014 - Comments

pacquiao7By Chris Williams: In a sign that Manny Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum may not fully understand that Pacquiao is the B-side of the equation for a Floyd Mayweather Jr fight, Arum says he wants a fight between them to take place in either April or June of 2015, but not on the Mexican holiday Cinco de Mayo on May 2nd.

Arum says the May 2nd date is for Mexican star Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, who just happens to be in negotiations with one of Arum’s fighters Miguel Cotto. Arum thinks that it’s wrong for Mayweather to be looking to fight on a Mexican holiday because he personally sees it as disrespectful to the Mexican people.

Cotto isn’t Mexican, and it’s unclear what Arum’s excuses are for him fighting on the Mexican holiday. Is it okay for non-Mexican fighters to fight on the Mexican holiday as long as they’re fighting Mexican fighters?

“April or June would be fine for that fight (Mayweather vs. Pacquiao),” Arum said via the Telegraph.co.uk. “What difference does it make?”

I’m not sure that Arum understands that Mayweather always fights on the Mexican holidays. For him to be saying that Mayweather shouldn’t fight on the Mexican holiday now just when he’s showing interest in fighting Pacquiao, Arum could very well get in the way of the fight taking place.

Arum’s fighter Pacquiao has been talking for ages about wanting to fight Mayweather, and now that he has the fight staring him in the face, Arum could wind up blowing his chances of getting that fight by acting like he’s calling the shots. Does Arum want the Mayweather fight for his fighter Pacquiao or not? If not, he’s doing a good job of driving Mayweather away by not agreeing to the May 2nd date that he wants for the fight.

The Canelo-Cotto fight is a nice little fight, but it’s not a fight that will bring in monster pay-per-view numbers. We are talking about a couple of fighters that have brought in recently a little over 300,000 pay-per-view buys when they were the A-side on pay-per-view cards. What does Arum expect a fight between them will bring? I get the picture that Arum is expecting a goldmine from a mine that is already played out and given the only gold that was in there.

“Everybody agrees with that, except Mayweather. He is putting his ego before respect for people,” Arum said. “I think it’s disrespectful to the Mexican people not to have Canelo fight on their holiday. I see Mayweather as poaching on a Mexican holiday and being disrespectful to the Mexican people.”

Canelo can fight on the Mexican holiday if the cable providers choose his fight over Cotto over the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight, but Arum appears to be taking the decision making out of their hands. If Arum doesn’t let Pacquiao fight on May 2nd due to him wanting the May 2nd date for a Mexican fighter [Canelo], then there’s no way that Mayweather will even have a chance at fighting Pacquiao. The decision will have been made for him.

If Canelo wasn’t in negotiations to fight Cotto, one Arum’s fighters, you have to wonder whether Arum would be taking this stance right now.

I really don’t think Mayweather is going to agree with Arum to fight Pacquiao in April or June like Arum wishes. More likely, this is going to upset Mayweather and cause him to wash his hands of the whole thing. Arum will likely get his wishes of Canelo fighting on May 2nd, but the cost will be tremendous with the Pacquiao-Mayweather fight likely not taking place as a result.



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