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Bob Arum: “Mayweather is from the school of propaganda that Joseph Goebbels, who was Hitler’s publicist, adopted”
On Saturday night Floyd Mayweather Jr. got into the ring against Miguel Cotto and despite being hit more than I can remember and pushed harder than he has been recently, Mayweather kept his unblemished record intact with a unanimous decision. Every time Mayweather fights and wins, the questions about fighting Manny Pacquiao in the future are not far behind though. The two guys are the best pound-for-pound fighters in the sport and it’s the fight that everyone wants to see. Unfortunately it just doesn’t seem likely at this point. There has been so much back and forth and so many negotiations that have come up empty that it just seems like a letdown to even think about the possibility of the fight happening. They have debated on the amount of money, drug testing, where the fight will actually be held and I’m not sure what can actually be done to make this fight happen.
Bob Arum joined ESPN 1100 in Las Vegas with Gridlock to talk about how difficult the negotiations have been with Floyd Mayweather to get a fight with Manny Pacquiao done, what he has to do to get the fight to happen, whether Manny Pacquiao would be willing to do any kind of drug test to make the fight happen and where they would want the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight to take place if there an agreement can get done.
(Editor’s note: It appears the beginning of this interview was cut off and it comes in late.)
On the difficulty of the negotiations with Mayweather:
“Well sure it is and it’s time to really talk it up. It’s outrageous. What do you mean take the test? For two years Pacquiao has said that he will take any drug test whoever administers it so why is that still being talked about by Mayweather? You see Mayweather is from the school of propaganda that Joseph Goebbels, who was (Adolf) Hitler’s publicist, adopted. The more you say things over and over again the more people believe them. The fact is clear that Pacquiao has agreed to unlimited drug testing so that is not an issue and for two years everybody agreed that the proceeds would be split 50/50. Now there’s an excuse and he doesn’t want to split it 50/50 so we say ‘okay here’s the deal. Let’s make it 45/45 to each fighter and then 10 percent, the missing 10 percent goes to the winner.’ (Host: You proposed that?) Yeah. (Host: What did he say?) What did he say? ‘Take the test!’ Or ‘I don’t want to get hurt.’ Don’t you understand? Look one thing about Floyd he’s a genius when it comes to boxing. He would be a great matchmaker. He knows styles and the fact is he knows that it would be extremely difficult for him to beat Pacquiao because Pacquiao is a fast, left-hander who hits with tremendous power in his left hand. I promoted Floyd for over 10 years and anytime you raised the prospect with him of fighting a southpaw he went crazy. Now with Pacquiao who has all that power and all that speed he doesn’t want Pacquiao. It’s clear. Everything he says is an excuse.”
What he has to do as a promoter to get this fight to happen:
“See why do you want it from us? Why do you want it from us? He says I don’t want to do a 50/50 split anymore and we say ‘okay if you think you’re so good then we will do 45/45 and 10 to the winner.’ If he wanted to do it less than 45/45 and the balance to the winner we’d be happy to do that also. Then he says well ‘he’s now entitled to more because I do better pay-per-view numbers than Pacquiao.’ The answer is no you don’t. No you don’t. We will match pay-per-view numbers over the last couple of years. Secondly when you look at the gate, our tickets are sold and Pacquiao brings in gamblers from all over the world. Mayweathers’ tickets sell for a discount on the face value and they clog up the streets. You know that.”
Whether Pacquiao would agree to any form of testing:
“Of course we would do any legitimate drug testing. We would to USADA, VADA, both I think are legitimate and we would do either one.”
Where the fight would be held if the two sides come to an agreement:
“I met with the MGM people and they have shown me the plans of where they would put up a temporary 40,000 seat stadium, they would get a license to keep it up for a year and maybe extend it for a year and they proposed a deal where the fighters would agree to fight and then there would be an automatic rematch some months later. (Host: Where is that location Bob?) It’s right near the Luxor. They have a very, very good space there, they showed me the plans, the plans are beautiful and it would be a great boxing experience, great press facility.”
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