Schaefer is of the belief that while Marquez and Peterson will square off, Pacquiao will face Tim Bradley on June 9, with the winners to meet in the fall. He warns, “I hope that Lamont Peterson and his people know what they’re doing because I’m not so sure that the million-and-a-half we offered them against a 50/50 [split], they might end up finding themselves with nothing- or much less.”
When asked about the possibility of a Peterson-Marquez bout on Monday, Arum said, “We’re pretty close. I’ve been talking to Barry Hunter; he’s pretty much on board. I don’t know completely but pretty much on board and Marquez is on board.” The build-up to the fight would take place south of the border. “What we’re going to do is give them tune-up fights on March 17th in Mexico City. They’re opening up a new arena.”
As for the showdown between the two, Arum stated, “We’re looking at July 14th at Cowboys Stadium.”
This card would be a pay-per-view offering.
“Because look,” explained the veteran promoter, “I don’t begrudge them. The premium networks pay the money. If they don’t like some of my fights, they have a right not to like them because they’re paying the money. Fine, but I have the right when I do pay-per-views to say, ‘OK, you don’t like my fights; I’m paying the money and I’ll put whatever the hell I want on it,’ and that’s what I’m going to do.”
The goal is to work off of volume in Arlington.
“We’d be aiming for 30-to-40,000 people and we would have very reasonable ticket prices and other championship fights on the program,” Arum said. “It would be a really good show. We learned from San Antonio that if we do really good ticket prices and not go crazy, we do great. Like this week (where Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. and Nonito Donaire headline at the Alamodome), our top ticket price is $200, which are all sold out. All sold out. And in the next few days, the 100’s will sell out. And the 25’s, the cheapest tickets are practically sold out. So the only tickets we still have to move are the 60’s and 40’s and those will go pretty good.”
APRIL 14TH
As for a potential bout between Brandon Rios and Yuriorkis Gamboa on April 14th at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, Arum said, “We got great news that the fight is virtually closed.”
To this, Top Rank President Todd duBoef (@ToddDuboef) tweeted:
@stevemaxboxing it is NOT virtually closed. We are working on it now!!! Just for clarification
He says that Gamboa’s manager, Ahmet Oner, is currently in Europe and they still have some work to do to make this bout come to fruition. Arum says that Mike Alvarado would open up this HBO card and a fight they would like to explore (with HBO’s blessing) is one against Ruslan Provodnikov.
TUESDAY FLURRIES
The March 23rd edition of “ShoBox” from the Casino del Sol in Tuscon, AZ will feature Diego Magdaleno...The next fight card at the El Faro Plaza in Vernon, CA. takes place on Feb. 10th and will feature prospect Jesse Roman. For info, call 323-233-2261 or 323-353-3212...OK, the conspiracy theories are already in full bloom. Will it be Andre Berto or Victor Ortiz facing Floyd Mayweather on May 5th now that that rematch may not take place on Feb. 11th?...Al Golden looks to be closing like Secretariat in the final days of recruiting...Is it just me or is the NBA unwatchable thus far?...I can be reached at k9kim@yahoo.com and I tweet at www.twitter.com/stevemaxboxing. We also have a Facebook fan page at www.facebook.com/MaxBoxing. 
