ARUM GIVES ABU DHABI TWO DAYS TO DECIDE
By Ronnie Nathanielsz
PhilBoxing.com
Wed, 04 Aug 2010
Abu Dhabi.
Top Rank promoter Bob Arum has given Manny Pacquiao?s adviser Michael Koncz who was meeting with individuals claiming to be representatives of The Royal Family in Abu Dhabi, two days to find out whether the announced offers are real.
Koncz who arrived in Manila from the US and turned around and grabbed a flight to Abu Dhabi to continue negotiations for a possible Pacquiao-Margarito showdown in the United Arab Emirates although Arum remains skeptical of the deal pushing through despite Koncz? optimism.
One of Pacquiao?s assistant trainers who also doubles up as a cook, Nonoy Neri, has also gotten into the act by telling the Gulf News he is 90 percent certain the fight will push through in Abu Dhabi although he has no role at all in the talks. Pacquiao has made it known that he?d love to fight in the U.A.E because of the number of Filipinos working in the region who could get a chance to see him in action.
Koncz for some inexplicable reason didn?t answer numerous phone calls and didn?t even want to admit he was in Abu Dhabi while Arum told us it seemed like a possibility ?only in the mind of Koncz? offering to buy him a drink if the deal pushes through.
Arum has indicated that odds are the Pacquiao-Margarito fight will take place at the Cowboys Stadium in Dallas, Texas and expressed confidence that the Texas Commission would license Magarito to fight.
While Koncz himself disclosed after initial meetings with the Abu Dhabi group along with Arum in the US that a package deal worth a huge amount of money was on the table, the added come-on was that Pacquiao?s purse would not be subject to withholding tax unlike in the US. Arum told Lem Satterfield of FanHouse.com that the Abu Dhabu venue was fine and that he had been told that the Royal Family would attend the fight.
In fact with low ticket prices and the huge Filipino workforce in the region Arum said that he had learned the venue can hold between 60,000 to 70,000 fans. But Arum noted that with the huge Mexican population and Pacquiao having endeared himself to the people of North Texas the almost 51,000 fans that Pacquiao drew for his fight against Ghana?s Joshua Clottey last could balloon to 70,000 or more in Dallas.
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