ARUM WORKING ON DALLAS VENUE DEAL FOR PACQUIAO-CLOTTEY TITLE
By Ronnie Nathanielsz
PhilBoxing.com
Sun, 10 Jan 2010
Top Rank promoter Bob Arum was scheduled to fly to Dallas on Sunday (Manila Time) to meet with Jerry Jones, owner of the $1.2 billion Dallas Cowboys stadium which is the likely site for pound-for-pound hero Manny Pacquiao?s WBO welterweight title defense against Ghana?s Joshua Clottey on March 13.
Arum said he was flying to Dallas ?to get the stadium venue deal done? even as he mentioned that Clottey ?is on board and Manny I believe is on board from what Michael (Koncz) told me so I think we?ll have that fight on the 13th.?
Even as he prepared to finalize details of the Clottey fight which will serve as an alternative since Floyd Mayweather Jr refused to accept the compromise offered by Pacquiao on the issue of random blood tests, Arum described as ?very interesting? a story by Scott Heritage that came out on Examiner.com.
In the story Heritage claimed it came to light that Floyd Mayweather Jr has used ?injectible pain killers such as Xylocaine in the past before fights? and that the irony is ?this drug is illegal in nearly all states with one notable exception, Nevada.?
Heritage said that perhaps the reason for Golden Boy and Mayweather not wanting to fight in Texas now becomes clear and that with the extensive testing Mayweather asked for, he would test positive for a banned substance if the fight took place in Dallas.
Mayweather apparently used these drugs because his hands are rather brittle and he has broken both several times in the past and with a numbing agent to stop his hands hurting he could throw punches more often and without fear of hurting himself as much.
Heritage said that after all the negotiating trouble and accusations about Manny Pacquiao and his supposed steroid use ?it appears that Mayweather is the one taking widely banned substances.? The sportswriter claimed that the disclosure will ?further damage the already shaky reputation of Mayweather who has seen his public opinion fall greatly with the drug testing debacle which, Heritage contends, ?has now backfired severely.?
Arum claimed Mayweather ?hoodwinked his own people because he never wanted to fight. Otherwise he would have gone along with the 24 days that Manny magnanimously agreed to. That was the compromise.?
Mayweather?s handlers said after the talks collapsed and former federal judge Daniel Weinstein said they couldn?t agree, that they had put forward an offer of a 14-day cutoff for the blood tests. Arum conceded that they ?put it forward on December 31. We contacted Manny and Manny rejected it and we told them it was rejected. Then at the conference they tried to put it forward as a compromise but we had already rejected it.?
Arum charged the Mayweather camp of ?trying to hoodwink the media? and that the idea was not conveyed to Pacquiao. He said they had emailed the proposal to Pacquiao?s adviser Michael Koncz and he spoke to Pacquiao and subsequently informed Arum that Manny turned it down and ?we let them (Mayweathers handlers) know that it?s a no go.?
Arum said that the Pacquiao-Clottey showdown should be ?a good fight because Clottey is a good fighter.?
The Top Rank promoter said that Clottey put up a very good fight before losing a split decision to them WBO welterweight champion Miguel Cotto but believes that Pacquiao ?is way too fast for him. But it?s a good fight for Manny and certainly for fans watching the fight, it?s a better fight to watch than Manny and Mayweather? even if it won?t approximate the Mayweather fight in terms of public interest.
Asked whether there is a chance to revive negotiations and get the Pacquiao-Mayweather fight done later in the year in either September or November, Arum replied ?we?ve been discussing that with Manny and Michael and our people. If it comes about, right from the get go no more nonsense, no more appeasing Mayweather. If you want to fight, we are the champions, we?ll fight. You?re the challenger. The money can be the same but sign on the dotted line and all of these issues about drug testing and blood testing and all this nonsense is for the Nevada State Athletic Commission to decide.?
Top photo: The Dallas Cowboys Stadium.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Ronnie Nathanielsz.
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