by Ronnie Nathanielsz

TOP Rank promoter Bob Arum blasted Manny Pacquiao’s close associates, who keep commenting on the negotiations for the Filipino champion’s planned super fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr., saying they don’t have a clue as to what is going on.

“I know Manny is just as angry as I am that these guys, who have nothing to do with any of these negotiations, keep shooting their mouths off and inflaming the situation,” an upset Arum told BoxingScene.com/Manila Standard.

“What are Eric Pineda and Jeng Gacal, who know nothing about what’s happening, doing? Why are they shooting their mouths off?” Arum added.

The Top Rank promoter, who is trying to get negotiations with the Mayweather camp moving forward very quietly, said the public statements of some members of Team Pacquiao are jeopardizing the negotiations.

“They (statements) are more than irritating, because so much of this is ego and when you say that if he (Mayweather) says this Manny Pacquiao is not going to fight, that’s not the way you negotiate,” said Arum.

He revealed that Pacquiao was trying to put a stop to some of his team members talking about the negotiations.

Arum and Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer had agreed on a gag order so as not to hurt the negotiations.

“I spend half my time telling everybody to ignore these (expletive), who shoot their mouths off,” said Arum.

Pineda and Gacal reacted to reports that Mayweather Jr. was insisting on a 60-40 split in his favor, claiming that he was a bigger pay-per-view draw and compared his 1.5 million buys for the fight against Shane Mosley on May 1, 2010, against the 700,000 PPV buys for the Pacquiao-Joshua Clottey fight in Dallas, Texas last April.

The two indicated it was an unfair comparison, because Clottey was not a draw and said it should have been compared to the Pacquiao-Miguel Cotto World Boxing Organization welterweight title fight last November, which turned in pay-per-view numbers of 1.25 million.

It was also pointed out by other boxing writers that Pacquiao-Cotto drew a bigger crowd at the MGM Grand Garden Arena than Mayweather-Mosley and the Pacquiao-Clottey fight at the Dallas Cowboys Stadium attracted almost 51,000 fight fans and celebrities.