MAYWEATHER VS. PACQUIAO: THE RING EVENT OF THE YEAR 2010 (SECOND OF A SERIES)
By Maloney L. Samaco
PhilBoxing.com
Fri, 24 Jan 2014
On May 13, 2010, Pacquiao's promoter Bob Arum announced that he had proposed a November 13, 2010 Manny Pacquiao fight, possibly against Floyd Mayweather. Arum has even temporarily booked the MGM Grand in Las Vegas and the Dallas Cowboys' new stadium in Texas for the superfight. However, Mayweather demanded that Pacquiao submit himself to Olympic-style random drug testing which put the fight in jeopardy.
"When two sides negotiate in good faith, beautiful things can happen," Arum was quoted by USA Today. "The fight we want to do is the Mayweather fight. There is no question that is the fight the public wants."
On June 12, 2010, the President of Golden Boy Promotions Oscar De La Hoya stated in an interview with a Spanish network that the negotiations were very hard to come up with a done deal, but both camps were trying their best to negotiate. As reported, Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer and Arum worked out a superfight between Pacquiao and Mayweather.
Pacquiao agreed to submit himself to blood and urine testing until 14 days before the fight, as demanded by the Mayweather camp in the first round of negotiations. On June 30, 2010, Arum announced to the media that both camps had agreed to terms, all points of conflicts were settled, and only Mayweather's signature was lacking to seal a deal that would make each boxer earn at least $40 million each.
After terms of the treaty for the superfight were reportedly settled by the two parties, Top Rank imposed a two-week deadline for Mayweather to sign the contract. On Thursday, July 15, Pacquiao's camp gave Mayweather until midnight to sign the contract. The following day, the Top Rank website posted a countdown clock with the caption "Money Time: Mayweather's Decision."
"This really depends, as I see it, on whether Mayweather wants to fight," Arum told boxingnews24.com. "By mid July, he?s either in or out. We?re not going to wait forever. We?re going to have a fight on November 13 and we would love it to be Mayweather. Nobody is under any obligation to fight this year. He [Mayweather] may need more time. When he is ready, we are prepared to do the fight.?
On July 17, Arum announced that there was no advice from Mayweather's group and the deal for a November 13, 2010 fight was called off. Instead, Pacquiao faced Antonio Margarito for the vacant WBC light middleweight championship for his eighth division world title.
Schaefer denied sending a contract offering a 50-50 split. "If we had a deal, how come we didn't have a fight?" Schaefer told Yahoo! Sports. He said Pacquiao's objection on the drug testing Mayweather was demanding in 2009 was "a deal killer."
Arum told Dan Rafael of ESPN that Pacquiao accepted the terms of the random drug testing, blood and urine, leading up to the fight. Michael Koncz, the advisor of Pacquiao, said that there was also no argument regarding the 50/50 purse split.
Further conflicts to the realizaion of fight surfaced when Mayweather refused a 50-50 split of earnings with Pacquiao for the fight. Pacquiao was reportedly offered a fixed purse of $40 million, with no share of the pay-per-view earnings.
"Bob Arum likes to match Top Rank fighters with Top Rank fights. He keeps all the money in house," Mayweather said as reported by ESPN. He said he was not ducking Pacquiao. "If I'm scared and I'm a coward, why do you guys want to see me fight?" he said. "Do I want the Pacquiao fight? Absolutely. But it's going to be hard to make the fight because Arum is worried about getting money."
The Top Rank boss expects Pacquiao to have three more fights before hanging his gloves and Roach says the Pacman should run after Mayweather. "Both those guys are coming near the end and I'd like Manny to fight Mayweather and quit," he said.
Roach said the only real competition out there for Pacquiao is Mayweather. He told ESPN: ?Mayweather?s a good boxer and I just hope that fight happens because that?s the only challenge out there.? When asked about Pacquiao?s future in boxing, Roach replied: ?I feel if he doesn?t come to the table that we might have no options and Manny might just go to politics and get out of boxing because Mayweather won?t fight him.?
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Maloney L. Samaco.
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