Arum reports no progress in Mayweather-Pacquiao negotiations; now looking to November for mega fight

By Boxing News - 01/26/2012 - Comments

Image: Arum reports no progress in Mayweather-Pacquiao negotiations; now looking to November for mega fightBy Dan Ambrose: Bob Arum doesn’t have any positive news for a mega fight between Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr. and is now looking for November to try and set the fight up in a temporary arena like the one Arum has been talking about having built on the Las Vegas strip.

Arum told the Manila Standard writer Nick Giongco “There’s been no movement on Mayweather’s side. As long as they win their next fights, Mayweather on May 5th and Manny on June 9th, they can absolutely fight in November. A fight that big deserves a bigger venue.”

Arum wants to try and get as much money out of the fight as possible and it’s likely that he’ll attempt to get it put in a bigger venue than the 40,000 seat outdoor arena that Arum wants built on the Las Vegas strip. The problem is Mayweather doesn’t want to fight in Texas, where Arum has previously staged a fight between Pacquiao and Antonio Margarito at the Cowboys Stadium in Arlington.

That fight brought in 41,000 fans. A Mayweather-Pacquiao mega fight would probably bring in close to twice those numbers if not more but Mayweather doesn’t want to fight in Texas, and there are serious doubts about whether Arum will be able to set up a Pacquiao-Mayweather fight even in November.

If Mayweather still insists on taking a larger 60-40 cut of the revenue, then the fight won’t be happening. Pacquiao could eventually get beaten by someone unless Arum can somehow negotiate the fight. Even if he has to agree to Mayweather getting the bigger cut, he needs to agree to that before Pacquiao ages much more and gets beaten by one of Arum’s fighters.

Pacquiao doesn’t have an opponent for his June 9th fight but it’s assumed that it will be Miguel Cotto if they can agree on a weight limit for the fight. At 147 isn’t agreeable to Cotto, who wants to meet Pacquiao halfway between 147 and 154 at 150. Thus far, Pacquiao hasn’t given in about not wanting to fight above 147 and Cotto isn’t giving either about not wanting to fight at 147.



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