By Mark Vester

Manny Pacquiao's defense of the WBO welterweight title against Joshua Clottey may head to Dallas, Texas on March 13. Top Rank CEO Bob Arum told Michael Marley that he plans to head to Dallas on Saturday, with Top Rank President Todd Todd duBoef, to close a possible deal with Jerry Jones to stage Pacquiao-Clottey in Cowboys Stadium.

“I spoke to the son of Jerry Jones (Dallas Cowboys owner) earlier today. Todd and I are flying to Dallas at 10:30 Saturday morning and we’re going to go the Cowboys playoff game on Sunday,” Arum said.

Arum cleared the air on the recent claims by Golden Boy CEO Richard Schaefer that certain information regarding the failed negotiations for a possible Floyd Mayweather Jr. fight was being witheld from Pacquiao, including their proposal for a 14-day cut-off on the random drug tests. He said the 14-day offer was presented, and turned down, by Pacquiao. 

“They made the 14 day offer and Todd sent a text message to (Pacquiao's agent) Michael Koncz in the Philippines. Five minutes later, Koncz replied and said Manny rejected that. The point is we have a written record of that,” Arum said.

Arum plans to close the deal for the Clottey fight early next week and laughed at Schaefer's recent comments that he won't give up on a possible Mayweather-Pacquiao clash for March 13. Arum told Marley there is chance for Mayweather-Pacquiao to come off late in the year, but he advised Mayweather to dump Golden Boy and retain a new promoter like Don King. I bet nobody thought they would ever hear Arum say that.

“I have not spoken to Schaefer in days now,” Arum said. “And neither has Todd who I just left as he got into his car to go home for the night. This is really getting absurd and almost comical now. We’ve spoken to Joshua Clottey’s manager Vinnie Scolpino and lawyer Pat English about fighting Manny March 13. Clottey will be back in New York on Tuesday."

“The fight can be made later but Mayweather should go out a get a real, professional promoter. He should get someone like Don King. Can you imagine Floyd telling King he wants all this testing? King would smack him upside his head and that would be that."

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