By Dan Ambrose: It seems that Top Rank promoter Bob Arum has been speaking out about the mega-fight negotiations between Floyd Mayweather Jr and Manny Pacquiao without there being any real agreement.
According to an inside source on what’s going on, Arum is exaggerating the status of the negotiations when he says they’ve agreed to everything that Mayweather has asked for.
The source says that Mayweather hasn’t agreed on any of the negotiating proposals, and Arum is making things worse by talking to the media as if things have been ironed out.
“When Arum says he agrees to his side of their deal, what does that mean?” the source said via Mlive.com. “The best way to get the fight not done is for Arum to feel in charge. He did it with drug testing, he did it with trying to put the fight in Cowboy Stadium, he did it with the financial split. Arum talking is the best way to not get it made.”
If Mayweather doesn’t agree to the negotiation terms for the fight then Miguel Cotto or Amir Khan are the backup options for Mayweather, according to the inside source. The reason why Cotto hasn’t agreed to a fight with Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, who his management has been in negotiating with, is because he’s waiting on hold in case the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight fails to happen.
The fact that Cotto is still sitting back waiting is a clear sign that the Mayweather vs. Pacquiao might not happen, especially with Arum talking so much in the media. Arum is the only one who is talking right now, and that’s not a good sign.
A fight between Mayweather and Cotto would do well on pay per view. It might not do nearly as well as Mayweather vs. Pacquiao, but it’ll do well enough to keep Mayweather happy until his next fight in September. The reality is that Mayweather isn’t going to agree to a fight against Pacquiao if the negotiating terms aren’t what he’s looking for.
A Mayweather-Khan fight is a little more questionable due to Khan still being promoted by Golden Boy Promotions, and him not being a big star in the U.S like Cotto. It would be another fight where Mayweather would be expected to bring in most of the PPV buys due to him being the main name.
It would also be a fight where Mayweather might have to deal with Khan’s running, holding and shoving that he likes to do against his opposition. It would be the opposite of Mayweather’s last opponent Marcos Maidana. Instead of Khan looking to mix it up, he’d be jabbing and moving and making a mostly dull fight of it.
That’s probably not an appealing option for Mayweather, especially if he has to deal with Golden Boy Promotions to make the fight happen.
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