By Chris Williams: Top Rank CEO Bob Arum has finally once and for all ruled out a fight between Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr. for May 5th, telling Sports Illustrated writer Chris Mannix that Pacquiao instead will be fighting on June 9th in an outdoor stadium in Las Vegas against one of the four candidates that Arum has selected for him to fight. Pacquiao is on board with Arum’s decision with him not fighting Mayweather Jr. next.
The reason for not fighting Mayweather Jr. is because it’s not financially a smart move for Pacquiao, says Arum.
The lists of opponents for Pacquiao’s next fight are as such: Timothy Bradley, Miguel Cotto, Lamont Peterson and Juan Manuel Marquez.
These are the names that Arum has wanted to choose from the very start and it looks as if he’s not changed his mind about wanting to see Pacquiao fight one of them next.
Arum wants the Mayweather fight to take place in the 38,000 seat outdoor arena that’s currently being constructed on the Las Vegas, Nevada strip. Arum met with the construction people earlier today to see when the fight outside arena will be completed. Arum said “To be safe, they needed until the end of May to get it done. Economically, it’s a problem that Floyd created. The amount that would be lost by moving it up to May 5th is enormous. The fight is not going to happen on May 5th. We’ll do the fight in November. There is no real magic in doing it in May.”
So there it is. Arum doesn’t want the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight until later on this year in November. His rationale is the bigger revenue that can be pulled in by waiting until that date rather than taking the fight now. The MGM Grand in Las Vegas, which is the venue that Mayweather already has booked for May 5th, fits 16,800 fans. Arum wants an arena that’s twice the size to bring in an additional $30 million.
Arum says that Pacquiao will fight his next fight on June 9th in the new outside arena in Las Vegas and this will be a test of the facility.
As for Mayweather, he’ll now have to look for another opponent to fight on May 5th and will likely be facing WBC junior middleweight champion Saul Alvarez on that date. Miguel Cotto has already been ruled out as a potential opponent for Mayweather on that date by Arum, who said no way is Mayweather getting him. It’s believed that Arum has plans for matching Cotto with one of his other Top Rank fighters WBC middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. for later on in 2012.
What kind of gets you about Arum is that he’s assuming that just because he says the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight will take place in November that Mayweather will fall in line and take the fight like he’s someone needy. It gives the impression that Arum is calling the shots and that Mayweather is just another one of Pacquiao’s challengers instead of someone that brings in equal if not more revenue to a fight. Who knows? Perhaps Arum is doing it this way because he doesn’t even want the Pacquiao-Mayweather fight even in November. But by just saying that he’ll do the fight in November it comes across like he’s the one in charge and Mayweather will have to accept what he can get. I don’t know about you but I’d say forget it. If you don’t want the fight now, get lost.
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