Arum: Chavez WILL sign contract and fight Martinez next

[El Angel]

http://r i n g t v.craveonline.com/blog/172487-mares

ARUM SAYS JULIO CESAR CHAVEZ JR. WILL FIGHT SERGIO MARTINEZ IF HE BEATS ANDY LEE

RING champion Sergio Martinez has signed a contract that is meant to guarantee him a Sept. 15 fight against the winner of a June 16 title bout featuring WBC middleweight titleholder Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. and southpaw Andy Lee.

Arum said Chavez has not yet done so, but that he intends to after getting beyond Lee.

"Chavez is fighting Lee, and if Chavez beats Lee, then our intentions to fight Martinez next," said Arum of Chavez (45-0-1, 31 KOs), who successfully defended his title by unanimous decision over Marco Antonio Rubio in February.

"Once this fight is over with Lee, then we'll sit with Chavez and talk about Martinez. But all things will happen in due course."

In a clash that will take place at the Sun Bowl in El Paso, Texas, Chavez will meet the Detroit-based Lee (28-1, 20 KOs), a winner of his past 13 fights, eight of them by knockout since himself being stopped by Bryan Vera in the seventh round in March of 2008.

Promoted by Lou DiBella, as is Martinez, Lee avenged his loss to Vera following a 10-round unanimous decision in October, and is coming off last month's second-round stoppage of Saul Duran.

"I already have a deal worked out with Lou, which is a 60-40 deal," said Arum. "I still have to obviously get some understanding of a guarantee with Chavez, but I'm not going to bother Chavez until after his fight is over with Lee."

[Larry the boss]

believe it when i see it

[Light_Speed]

LOL Arum is the king of lining up opponents months in advance but he doesn't wanna do it this time?

[Roman Moreno]

60-40 split? If true, not bad. I thought they would try to screw Martinez over.

[Hougigo]

60-40 split? If true, not bad. I thought they would try to screw Martinez over.

Me too, I thought they wanted 80-20.

[tupapa]

60-40 split? If true, not bad. I thought they would try to screw Martinez over.

Thats probably only the hbo money no way will they share the mexican television

[Hougigo]

Wait, didn't JCC want this fight? Last I remember he almost didn't sign with Arum because they were trying to course him away from Martinez.

[El Angel]

Wait, didn't JCC want this fight? Last I remember he almost didn't sign with Arum because they were trying to course him away from Martinez.

I think he does want this fight to prove he's not all hype. He's gonna get annihilated, but at least he wants to prove himself.

[Roman Moreno]

Thats probably only the hbo money no way will they share the mexican television

That's fine...HBO will most likely pay good money for this...Still surprised they went 60-40 if true. I thought they would have out priced themselves or just gave Sergio such a lowball offer to make him turn it down. 60-40 of HBO money is pretty good. Again if true.

[DoktorSleepless]

I was expecting much less. Interesting. A few weeks ago Steve Kim went into his Top Rank shill mode ranting on about how if the fight wasn't going to happen, it would be because of Martinez demanding too much money (while claiming Chavez could fight anyone on PPV and make more money than with fighting Martinez), but apparently Arum is fine with 60/40.

"I still have to obviously get some understanding of a guarantee with Chavez, but I'm not going to bother Chavez until after his fight is over with Lee."

Well, there's the catch. He could just be bull****ting. A while back Dibella was talking about having Arum put money in escrow (like half a million) and having Arum pay up that amount of the fight doesn't happen. Maybe they'll end up doing something like that instead of Chavez signing the contract before Andy Lee.