By Steve Kim
So we are now officially less than two weeks away from the May 2nd showdown between Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather. But as of Monday, there were still no tickets on sale to the public (which would be very limited, regardless) or for that matter, for the closed-circuit. Also, those involved in the event, from the host hotel (the MGM Grand) and the promoters don't have their tickets.
As of now, there is no evidence of actual tickets for that event.
"Look, all of that will come out and be plain,"said a frustrated Bob Arum on Monday, who promotes Pacquiao and has been growing impatient with this process.
"All of this is on the MGM, I mean, if you think that the MGM is calling the shots here, you're totally mistaken. It's the man behind the curtain."
Arum is making an obvious reference to one Al Haymon, who advises Mayweather, and will certainly make a fortune putting tickets (whenever they become available) on the secondary market as he customarily does.
The veteran promoter stated - "This is going to the governors office, this is an absolute disgrace what's happening." But he did add - "Hopefully it'll get ironed out in the next day or so."
Or course, he's been saying that for the past few weeks.
"What do you want from me, it's not on us," said an exasperated Arum.
In hindsight, in negotiating this event, should Top Rank have asked for more control of the logistical side of the promotion?
''I have no comment on any of this," answered Arum."All I know is that we have a paper trail saying - 'Don't do a press conference unless everything is set out on paper with the promoters and the site.' Nah, nah, nah, nah - hey, we have an agreement with Mayweather Promotions, it's a binding agreement and we're going to enforce every bit of it."
Regardless, there will be a fight on the night of May 2nd, right?
"Yes," confirmed Arum, who then joked (well, we think he was joking) - "there may not be anybody in the arena but we'll have a fight."
Yeah, this promotion has had a rather bizarre feel to it.
"It's been the worst nightmare that I've ever experienced in almost 50 years of boxing,''claimed Arum.
Steve Kim is the news editor for BoxingScene.com.
