By Scott Gilfoid: According to Michael Marley of Examiner.com, the Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Manny Pacquiao bout is breathing new life. Marley reports that Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum said that he’s willing to meet with Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer next week, as well as the attorneys for Pacquiao and Golden Boy, and see if he can work something out. As things stand now, Pacquiao is going to be starting training next week with trainer Freddie Roach at the Wild Card Gym, in Los Angeles.
Marley states that Arum doesn’t seem as excited about a potential bout between World Boxing Association light middleweight champion Yuri Foreman and Pacquiao compared to before. That’s not surprising, because few boxing fans seem all that interested in paying to see Pacquiao fight the little known Foreman.
Marley says that Arum is open to meeting with judge Weinstein, the same judge who assisted in mediation with Top Rank and Golden Boy Promotions in the past. “Something could be bubbling,” Arum says, hinting that there would be some movement between the hard-line stances between the parties of the two fighters Pacquiao and Mayweather.
As of now, the sticking point is over the random blood tests for drugs that Mayweather wants for the fight to take place. Arum says, “Our first priority, before any fight with anybody, is to clear Manny’s name. Would that be through an apology? I don’t want to get into that.”
This is very interesting. Would Mayweather be willing to make a public apology to Pacquiao about the drug using allegations? I don’t know if I can see Mayweather doing that, but then again he stands to make a lot of money if he did apologize. If it meant getting the fight back on track, and having Pacquiao’s lawsuit for defamation dropped, Mayweather would stand to gain a heck of a lot by doing a bit of groveling.
Arum continues, “I will say that, if they [Golden Boy Promotions CEO Schaefer, Mayweather, and the attorneys from both sides] to meet in front of judge Weinstein on Monday, Tuesday or any day, then we are willing to listen. If some mediation occurs, and I don’t know if it will, then we would have to listen to that.” This sounds very promising. Arum also said that ‘Rumblings” about mediation were given to him by Daniel Petrocelli, the lawyer for Pacquiao.
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