By Robert Morales

The war of words have continued between promotional rivals Bob Arum, CEO of Top Rank, and Richard Schaefer, CEO for Golden Boy Promotions.

For the last few months, Arum told numerous press members that his company was negotiating a deal to make a Floyd Mayweather-Manny Pacquiao fight in November. On July 16, Arum held a telephone conference with the press to announce Mayweather's failure to meet a mid-July deadline to accept a proposal to face Pacquiao.

The situation began to escalate when Mayweather's adviser, Leonard Ellerbe, issued a statement on July 19, stating that Mayweather, and manager Al Haymon, were never involved in any negotiations for a November fight with Pacquiao.

"Here are the facts," Ellerbe wrote. "Al Haymon, Richard Schaefer and myself speak to each other on a regular basis and the truth is no negotiations have ever taken place nor was there ever a deal agreed upon by Team Mayweather or Floyd Mayweather to fight Manny Pacquiao on November 13. Either Ross Greenburg or Bob Arum is not telling the truth, but history tells us who is lying."

According to Arum, he never spoke to any member of Mayweather's team directly. Arum says HBO Sports president Ross Greenburg handled the negotiations between him and Haymon for the last two months. Arum's version of the events received a major boost on Monday when Greenburg issued a statement confirming his intermediary role in the Mayweather-Pacquiao negotiations, but more importantly his statement acknowledged that there were ongoing negotiations since the month of May.

“Fights like Mayweather vs. Pacquiao are significant because of these fighters’ ability to connect with sports fans around the world. It’s unfortunate that it won’t happen in 2010. I had been negotiating with a representative from each side since May 2nd, carefully trying to put the fight together. Hopefully, someday this fight will happen. Sports fans deserve it.” Greenburg said.

Greenburg never named the representatives involved, and Schaefer is demanding to know the name of the individual Greenburg was negotiating with on behalf of Mayweather. Schaefer, Ellerbe, Haymon and Golden Boy president Oscar De La Hoya have continued to dispute the existence of these negotiations.

During a Tuesday Los Angeles press conference to announce Juan Manuel Lopez vs. Rafael Marquez, Arum ripped De La Hoya over the comments he made to Univision reporters back in June, and for De La Hoya's explanation on why those comments were made.

When De La Hoya made the televised Univision appearance, he said "... we are very, very close in finalizing the contracts [for a Mayweather-Pacquiao fight]." De La Hoya was responding to questions from Univision's reporters who were inquiring about the status of making a Mayweather-Pacquiao fight.

When De La Hoya spoke to BoxingScene.com a few days ago at the Fortune Gym in Hollywood, he explained why those comments were made.

"I think I said it because I get the question asked so many times that, obviously, I was fed up and tired of it and I just said like, yeah, yeah, it's gonna get made. So it was a quick answer that I should have obviously thought about. But, obviously, negotiations weren't going on. Nothing was going on," De La Hoya.

Arum, speaking to BoxingScene on Tuesday, had choice words for both De La Hoya and Schaefer.

"Very sad. For him to say something like that really demeans himself. Who's he kidding? The statements from Univision were lengthy statements; they weren't just off-handed quotes. ... I really feel sorry for him," Arum told BoxingScene.com.

"He's not a bright kid and he's in over his head and he's looking to Schaefer, who really doesn't understand journalism in this country; you may equivocate, you may evade, but you never lie to a newspaper guy. Because once you lie, you're dead. They're not going to believe anything you say."

Schaefer shot right back at Arum's comments. And Schaefer also made it clear, he's starting to get tired of being called a "liar" - and if the accusations continue - he plans to get his lawyer involved. As reported several days ago, Schaefer is willing to challenge any of the parties to take a lie detector test.

"It is really laughable that is coming from somebody like Bob Arum, whose famous comment is, `Yesterday I was lying, today I'm telling the truth,"' Schaefer said. "This is laughable, a joke. "Again, Bob Arum calling me a liar-you are not the first reporter to tell me that-is something I'm going to refer to my attorney."