By Mark Vester

Leonard Ellerbe, adviser to Floyd Mayweather Jr., fired some verbal shots at Top Rank's CEO Bob Arum, promoter of Manny Pacquiao. Ellerbe tells the Grand Rapids Press that Arum has tried to mislead the public during the entire negotiations period by leaving out information. Mayweather-Pacquiao fell apart on Wednesday after the two camps could not agree on the cut-off date for random blood tests. After a nine-hour mediation on Tuesday in California, Pacquiao's camp proposed a cut-off period of 24-days before the fight, while Mayweather's camp wanted a cut-off of 14 days.

Ellerbe says the offer of 14-days was made before Tuesday's mediation.

“Arum is trying to trick the public into thinking there was no compromise at all,” Ellerbe said. “He never mentioned that a 14-day compromise was offered -- and rejected -- prior to mediation. I think it’s more than a fair compromise, particularly since, realistically, it’s not an issue that should be compromised on at all.”

Arum had said Mayweather's business adviser Al Haymon and Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer had urged Mayweather to accept Pacquiao's proposal.

Ellerbe confirmed an earlier story that was posted on BoxingScene.com - by telling the paper that Haymon never made an attempt to convince Mayweather to accept Pacquiao's offer. He says Schaefer had also backed Mayweather's play.

“It’s a childish, amateurish attempt by Bob Arum to divide and conquer,” Ellerbe said. “It’s absolutely not true. It never happened. It’s a lie. I said last week that Manny Pacquiao has surrounded himself with smart people but I have to retract that statement. They’re not very smart people at all, because Manny Pacquiao is going to wake up, another deal is going to be presented to him, and he’s going to say, ‘What? I’m not going to make eight figures?’

“The bottom line is that what we’ve been proposing all along is random, Olympic-style drug testing. Why would the guy refuse random blood and urine testing? Why?”

There were a lot of dirty tactics being used during the negotiations for Mayweather-Pacquiao. Two weeks ago, a source [likely close to Mayweather] told the New York Daily News that Pacquiao's camp had asked for a penalty outline if Manny tested dirty for performance enhancing drugs. The source also claimed that Pacquiao's camp made a request for both sides to cover up any information if a test result came back positive. Tim Smith, a well-known veteran boxing writer, would not have printed the information unless it came from someone involved in the negotiations.  

The information in that NY Daily News article was denied in furious fashion by Arum and Pacquiao's Team. The negotiations were never the same after that article came out. That particular article was included in Pacquiao's defamation suit against the Mayweathers and Golden Boy.

Send News Tips and Comments To Mark Vester @ boxingvester@gmail.com