Arum: “If Mayweather wants to fight Manny, it will have to be under the rules of the commission”

By Boxing News - 01/22/2010 - Comments

Image: Arum: “If Mayweather wants to fight Manny, it will have to be under the rules of the commission”By Dave Lahr: Manny Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum doesn’t sound like he’s ready to give in any about the random blood tests for a future fight between his fighter World Boxing Organization welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr. In an article at the Manila Bulletin, Arum, 79, said this: “If Mayweather wants to fight Manny [Pacquiao], it will have to be under the rules of the commission that governs the fight. You cannot have fighters in this sport imposing regulatory restrictions on other fighters because they damn well please.”

This doesn’t sound like a positive sign for a future fight between Pacquiao and Mayweather. If Arum is going to leave it to the commission, which doesn’t have any rules about fighters having to take random blood tests before a boxing match, then it looks like Arum is leaning towards there not being blood testing for a future fight between Mayweather and Pacquiao.

The Nevada Athletic Commission only requests that urine best tested for the presence of illegal performance enhancing drugs, not blood. Leaving it to the commission to decide about the testing methods for the fight is kind of a cop out if you ask me. Instead of saying, ‘Our fighter doesn’t want to take the blood tests.’ Arum, in this case, is putting the ball in the hands of the commission that oversees the fight.

Obviously, since there are no rules about this, it’s unlikely that the commission is going to ask for blood to be tested. The thing of it is this is something that Mayweather was asking for, just as Pacquiao’s team asked for the $10 million per pound penalty in case Mayweather comes in over weight for the fight.

It’s something that would be worked out with both fighters and not something that was written into the rules by the commission. If Arum and Pacquiao want to leave this to the commission, it seems to me that the chance of their being random blood tests for a Mayweather-Pacquiao fight is fairly remote at best. You might as well say ‘I don’t want to fight Mayweather,’ because I can’t see a fight with him moving forward if they take that stance and leave it to the commission to decision.

Of course, the commission will say they only check for urine and not blood, so Pacquiao and Arum will get their way. But really, they won’t get their way because it means a fight won’t take place unless Mayweather gives in and decides not to have random blood testing take place for the fight. That’s possible, but I wouldn’t bet on it.

Arum continues “That is chaotic,” speaking about the random blood tests. “Nobody in their right mind should allow that to happen, whether it’s Mayweather or God knows who else.” I see things different from Arum. The blood testing is just one of the things that Mayweather wants just like any other thing. Picking out the location of the fight, the glove size, and the penalty for coming over weight are all things that are open to negotiation.

I don’t see that Mayweather is asking for all that much to make this fight happen. But if Pacquiao and Arum don’t want to have the blood tests take place, then there is no fight. It’s as easy as that. If they absolutely don’t want to bend on this issue like they were willing to do previously, then as I said recently, there’s really no point in continuing to mention fighting Mayweather in the future because it probably won’t be happening unless random blood testing is part of making the fight.



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