By Rick Reeno
Top Rank head honcho told boxing writer Robert Morales that it was Main Events and Arturo Gatti that backed out of the Mayweather fight. Arum says that everything was agreed upon and Main Events pulled the plug on the fight, he doubts that Main Events will ever match Gatti with Mayweather. As most know, Main Events claims that Top Rank missed the 5PM deadline this past Friday to complete negotiations for the fight and now Main Events will seek a new opponent for Gatti.
"It took a while for these guys to solve Mayweather's (legal) problems. Once they did, I negotiated a contract with Floyd. On Friday, everything was agreed upon." said Arum
"I called Pat English, and he said, 'Not good enough, they're not fighting. They were playing around with me. They were hoping Mayweather would fall on his ass and screw it up. Once Mayweather committed and signed for the fight, they backed out because they don't want to fight Mayweather, who they know they can't beat."
Arum said that he has even contacted the WBC and the WBC will likely strip Gatti of his title for refusing to face Mayweather, the number one contender. Mayweather will end up fighting the number two contender for the vacant title.
"They are not going to let Gatti fight someone else when Mayweather has agreed to fight. Mayweather is no angel, but here they have really done him a disservice."