By Ronnie Nathanielsz

Top Rank promoter Bob Arum tells BoxingScene.com that pound-for-pound king Manny Pacquiao will not make any concessions in order to ensure that a mega-buck fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr. takes place. He branded numerous internet reports claiming Pacquiao agreed to a 14-day cut-off on the drug testing as “totally false.”

Arum made it clear that both he and Pacquiao are standing firm on a 24-day cut-off period for the random blood tests and the previously agreed upon 50-50 split on the money. Arum told us “all I’m saying, right now we are holding to our position.”

Discussing the Mayweather-Mosley fight Arum said “Mosley really got old and slow and offered no opposition. If Manny had hurt Floyd the way Mosley did in the second round he wouldn’t have stopped till he took him out.”

He said Mosley “had no energy, had no rhythm, had no speed and his trainer (Naazim) Richardson was telling him what to do and he couldn’t do it.”

Arum said that should a Mayweather fight not materialize, Pacquiao has several options. The first would be a possible fight against former champion Antonio Margarito who takes on Roberto Garcia in Margarito’s first fight after a one year layoff due to a suspension slapped on him by the California State Athletic Commission over the use of padding in his hand-wraps before his fight against Mosley last January. 

Arum also raised the possibility of a rematch with Miguel Cotto from whom Pacquiao won the WBO welterweight title with a 12th round TKO last November.

Arum told BoxingScene.com, insidesports.ph, Standard Today and Viva Sports “if Cotto beats Yuri Foreman, Manny may want to fight Cotto at 150 pounds for the junior middleweight title in a rematch.”  Arum added, “that fight is sellable because Cotto has Emanuel Steward training him etc.”

Arum is arriving in Manila early Thursday morning and will take a connecting flight to General Santos City where he will stay until Tuesday, May 11 which is one day after the Philippine presidential elections in which Pacquiao is running for the lone congressional seat in Sarangani against Roy Chiongbian of the wealthy and politically entrenched Chiongian dynasty.

In the meantime Keith Kizer, executive director of the Nevada State Athletic Commission disclosed that both Mayweather and Mosley had “at least 5 urine tests tests each for Mayweather and Mosley and at least 5 blood tests for Mayweather and 6 blood tests for Mosley.”

Kizer was unable to confirm the claim by Pacquiao’s conditioning expert Alex Ariza that the US Anti Doping Agency subjected Mosley to a blood test one day before he arrived in Las Vegas on fight week. However, Kizer said Mosley’s first test was on March 23 and Mayweather’s on March 22.

Following a report that said the blood tests cost $20,000  Kizer said he didn’t know how much the tests cost and who paid for them. At the same time he said with the random blood test issue being raised, the NSAC “always revisit our drug testing policies and have made several changes thereto over the years.  I do not know what changes the Commission may make in the future.”