And, interestingly enough, it wasn’t greed that killed this fight. In fact, the financial aspect of this negotiation was surprisingly easy and all the other ancillary issues were agreed upon rather quickly. But it was the small little issue of Olympic-style drug-testing that eventually stonewalled this bout. Don’t need to re-hash the whole episode here; it’s been talked about, ad-nauseum. But hubris and arrogance (from both sides) squelched Pacquiao-Mayweather.
This was like a nuclear war. Lots of bombs were launched and, really, nobody came out the winner.
But perhaps there was one victor: Bob Arum. You could say, in many respects, that he got exactly what he wanted. Yeah, really. Just think about it. Arum knows that he has possession of boxing’s greatest attraction and, for all his bluster of Mayweather never wanting this fight (which I don’t think anyone believes for one second), he knows just how good “Money” is; having promoted the early part of his career. Before he was on the opposite side of the equation, Arum was telling folks that Mayweather was better than Sugar Ray Leonard. Arum was going to protect Pacquiao in and out of the ring, and he did so, masterfully. But he also deprived Mayweather and his adviser, Al Haymon- who he despises- of historically large paydays.
Just as importantly, he may now have Pacquiao all to himself. Back in 2007, as Top Rank and Golden Boy Promotions ended their original “cold war,” they agreed to share promotional rights to Pacquiao. Now in the wake of recent litigation, it’s not clear if Golden Boy will be involved in sharing in the proceeds of Pacquiao’s incredibly lucrative career going forward.
So let’s run down this checklist: Deprive Mayweather and Haymon of the fight. Check. Create a further wedge between Pacquiao and Golden Boy. Check. Then make a fight with one of his other fighters, Clottey. Check. Then make a deal with Jones to put the fight in Dallas. Check.
You could call that “The Arum Slam..”
Yeah, you might say the old fella has gone crazy. But crazy like a fox, perhaps. Nearing his 80th birthday, he hasn’t mellowed one iota. He still has plenty of piss and vinegar left in him. In fact, Arum is at the stage of his life- especially when it comes to individuals he doesn’t particularly care for- that he’d rather hurt them, then help himself sometimes. What people never really seemed to understand was that when it came to these negotiations, while it was huge business to everyone else, to him, it was also quite personal. Seriously, did you really think that Arum was ever going to really step away from these talks and let his step-son, Todd DuBoef, run the show?
No doubt about it, Arum may have cut off his nose to spite his face; as the saying goes. But he believes he has beheaded the other side. Arum’s made it clear, to anyone that talks to him, that should this fight be revisited, there will be no concessions given on the testing procedures. Bottom line, he will abide by what the Nevada State Athletic Commission or any other jurisdiction states. And he’s told people that perhaps a Don King- yeah, Don King, of all people- would’ve gotten this deal consummated. Now, did you ever think you’d see the day when Arum was yearning for his archrival at the opposite end of the table?
The good thing about Arum is that he’ll damn the torpedoes and do whatever he pleases. The bad thing about Arum is that, well, he’ll damn the torpedoes and do whatever he pleases. Case in point, while he’ll play nice with HBO when it’s convenient, no major promoter in recent years has battled them like Arum has and has had the temerity to put up self-financed pay-per-view shows (like he did with Pacquiao vs. Jorge Solis in San Antonio a few years ago) to prove a point. On the flipside, while he promised to deliver a “spectacular” undercard for Pacquiao’s last pay-per-view undercard, against the counsel of his own staff at Top Rank, he insisted on fulfilling a personal agenda in sticking in Foreman.
And Arum didn’t give a damn what anyone of us thought. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, he is boxing’s version of Frank Sinatra- he’s gonna do it his way; for better or worse.
That’s why when Richard Schaefer, CEO of Golden Boy, still held out faint hope this weekend of this fight being salvaged, Arum made it more than clear that he had moved on. It was going to be his way or the highway and he had already hit the highway to Arlington, Texas to see Jones and his ’Boys.
There is also talk that on this card will be the disgraced Antonio Margarito, which I’m sure will bring howls of protest from a segment of boxing fans. To some, this will be a Texas-sized double middle finger. And I’m sure the usual talks of boycotts will ensue on the various boxing forums. But do you think that will deter Robert J. Arum? No one bit. From his vantage point, he’ll have the biggest star in boxing headlining, with his expected Filipino fan-base in tow and a popular Mexican star in a state with a huge Latino contingent.
The show must- and will- go on. And Arum will do what he does best, which is to promote the hell out of it.
MOVING ON
Richard Schaefer, had held out hope of salvaging Pacquiao-Mayweather, but he has finally relented and began the process of moving on.
"Obviously, I started to see the writing on the wall a while ago. It seems like Arum and Pacquiao just didn’t want to do the fight," he told Maxboxing.com on Sunday afternoon. "They moved on now. I held out hope till the last moment because I really wanted to find a way to deliver this fight to the fight fans. But it wasn’t supposed to be. So life goes on. The sport of boxing goes on. I think it’s chapter that nobody can be proud of but, having said that, there are other great fights out there and I think because one fight doesn’t happen, that doesn’t mean that’s the end of boxing."
As of now, Schaefer says that they are not moving off March 13th.
"Fact is, we had the March 13th date for a long time going back, initially, to when we had it on hold for Hopkins and Jones. So Floyd Mayweather, based on what I have been informed, still fully intends to fight on March 13th. We have the MGM Grand, obviously, we have a site deal worked out with them. We started having conversations with possible opponents and we started to have some preliminary discussions with HBO, as well, and we’re waiting on what’s going on there. We’re basically moving forward as a team, [together as] Mayweather Promotions, Golden Boy and Al Heymon, and we’ll come up with the right game plan."
One option that has been floated around is a match-up against Mathew Hatton in England; which was quickly shot down by Schaefer. "No, no, no, no, that one I could rule out," he said emphatically. "And that’s one I can particularly say, no. Obviously, Floyd is going to fight March 13th, from the MGM Grand."
There is the expected talk of Shane Mosley, who faces Andre Berto on January 30th, but if Mayweather does indeed fight on March 13th, the timing would seem to not fit for those two to meet in the spring. "Obviously," agreed Schaefer, who wanted to keep the possible opponents to himself. "I was dragged into something I really don’t like to do, which is discussing fights before they’re done. But Arum, with this fight here with Pacquiao, he kept on poking and we were dragged into that and I just don’t believe in that. I believe in getting a fight done and then you talk.
"So I’m not going to discuss who the opponents are and who the possibilities are. I mean, look at Arum, he started discussing weeks ago, already. He said Malignaggi, then it goes to Yuri Foreman, now it’s Joshua Clottey.. So I don’t believe in that. But everyone moves on."
SMOKING EMAIL
ESPN2’s Teddy Atlas caused a bit of a stir, when he reiterated what Tim Smith of the New York Daily News penned around Christmas by stating that a source close to the Pacquiao-Mayweather negotiations had told him of seeing emails from Pacquiao’s side asking them to keep any positive tests from their fighter to be kept secret.
Now, here are my thoughts on this whole issue...
1- If such an email exists, I’d love to see it. I mean, if you’re Team Mayweather, isn’t something like this akin to a smoking gun? Couldn’t this be used as leverage somehow? Or at least used to shame Pacquiao?
2- Let’s say this request was made (and I really have no idea if it was or not), but wouldn’t that kinda defeat the purpose of the whole testing process? And did they really think any commission would agree to go along with this type of ruse?
3- Would anyone be stupid enough to actually put a request like this in an email? I mean, that would be dumber than the text messages and voice mails left by Tiger Woods to his gallery of women.
FINAL FLURRIES
Roman Karmazin still has his guts and courage. Unfortunately, he doesn’t have his legs and reflexes...For all this talk of Margarito’s return, shouldn’t he be re-licensed first? I think it’s anything but a slam dunk that he gets his license back...The promising Miguel Garcia, who fights on “Top Rank Live” on Fox Sports Net/Fox Sports en Espanol, this upcoming weekend, graduated from the Ventura County Police Academy on January the 8th...The rematch between Gabriel Campillo and Beibut Shumenov, for the WBA 175-pound belt, will be televised on Fox Sports Net on January 29th. They are billing it as “Fight Night with De La Hoya and Hopkins” and Schaefer says it’s a special edition of their “Fight Night Club” series, which starts up in February...Ray Lewis still has it. For my money, he’s the greatest “Mike” linebacker that ever was...Seriously, “Jersey Shore” just keeps getting better and better...”The Next Round” and “The Main Event” return this week...Any questions or comments can be made to k9kim@yahoo.com... twitter.com/stevemaxboxing…
