Pacquiao-Matthysse title fight in peril
By Recah Trinidad
PhilBoxing.com
Fri, 22 Jun 2018
VETERAN promoter Bob Arum has declared he was not 100% convinced if the WBA welterweight championship fight between Manny Pacquiao and Lucas Matthysse would take place.
The championship, slated in Kuala Lumpur on July 15, is being handled by Pacquiao?s MP Promotions, with Artum?s Top Rank Inc. appointed as a broadcast participant.
Nothing came after that initial Arum statement.
Yesterday, Arum was quoted as saying he would try to put up Matthysse against WBO welterweight champion Terence Crawford if the Pacquiao-Matthysse fight doesn?t come off.
Arum said he would try to talk to Golden Boy Promotions, which handles Matthysse.
**
Money mess has obviously imperiled the WBA welterweight championship.
ESPN Senior Writer Dan Rafael said MP Promotions has missed several deadlines to finance various aspects of the fight and it is at risk of being called off.
Reports Dan Rafael: ?An initial payment of $500,000 was made to the Golden Boy/Matthysse camp when the fight was signed, but the rest of the money for their side--$2 Million according to a source?is more than a month past the deadline for when it was supposed to be deposited into an escrow account to hold the money until after the fight takes place.
?MP Promotions has also failed to make deadlines to deposit funds needed to cover production costs of commercials spots and other aspects of a fight that was initially going to be an ESPN pay-per-view event. However, Arum said that is no longer feasible because so many deadlines were missed and if the fight comes off, it would air in the U.S. either on ESPN or ESPN+, but that the television deal still needed to be finalized.?
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Recah Trinidad.
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