By Eric Thomas: In crushing blow in the continuing saga of negotiations between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and World Boxing Organization welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao, moments ago Mayweather adviser Leonard Ellerbe and Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefe, according to Yahoo Sports, rejected the final offer put forth by Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum, who had set a deadline for Monday for the offer to be accepted. As such, this means, according to Arum, that Pacquiao will instead be fighting Paulie Malignaggi on March 13th instead of Mayweather.
Arum’s final proposal was that both of the fighters and management teams should take the drug testing issue to the Nevada State Athletic Commission for them to decide in their next meeting in January. It was a take it or leave it offer by Arum, because if Mayweather and Golden Boy Promotions didn’t agree to this proposal, then Arum would begin to set up a fight with Malignaggi for Pacquiao to fight next instead of Mayweather.
Now it will be interesting to see what Arum does next, because Mayweather and Golden Boy Promotions have called his bluff. It’s hard to imagine that Arum would walk away from a bout that could bring over $25 million for Pacquiao and a huge chunk for Bob as well. We may see another final offer from Arum shortly. This will be funny to see how many final offers Arum will come up with before this is all over with.
The sticking issue is that Mayweather – and Golden Boy Promotions – want blood testing that is conducted randomly all the way up until the fight. Pacquiao and his management team want the blood testing to be conducted next month at the kick off press conference for the fight, and then 30 days before the fight and finally the day after the fight.
About the commission, Schaefer said “It does not make sense for this to become a commission matter. This is a contractual matter. The commission did not decide the weights or the purse split or how the foreign television rights would be sold. If this is Bob’s final ultimatum, then that’s what it is. That is his decision if he wants to take that position. I very much hope this fight can be made, but the reason it is at a standstill is because of the way they have handled things.”
Ellerbe, commenting on on the subject of how often the blood tests should be conducted, said “Random is random. We are all intelligent people and we know what random testing is. That is what we want and it has not changed.”
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