by Radio Rahim
A few months ago, Top Rank's CEO Bob Arum was in serious negotiations with manager/adviser Al Haymon to finalize a fight between former world champion Manny Pacquiao (58-6-2, 38KOs) and Adrien Broner (32-2, 24KOs), for November 5th at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas.
Broner reportedly turned down $4 million to face Pacquiao. Once he was ruled out, WBO welterweight champion Jessie Vargas was more than happy to step in and take his place.
The outcome may have been a blessing in disguise, as Broner was dealing with an assortment of issues outside the ring. On July 19th, Broner showed up three hours late to a court appearance for an alleged attack which took place in January, and the judge sent him to 30 days in a Cincinnati jail.
Now that Arum and Haymon are very willing to work together, there could be a possibility of that fight taking place at a later time? Arum says "no."
According to Arum, at one point during the negotiations they were only $100,000 apart on the money. Broner then killed the entire deal, says Arum, when he came back with an unexpected counter-demand - of 50% more than the amount being discussed.
"Broner's out of his freaking mind. We offered the fight to Broner. I was dealing with Al Haymon Al wanted to make the fight. We offered him a really good purse. We were maybe 100,000 apart. And Broner then asked for 50% more than the purse we were talking about - which made it outlandish. Broner, there's something mentally wrong with him," Arum said.
Broner has only fought once in 2016 - a stoppage win over Ashley Theophane back in April. He is now scheduled to fight again on February 11th against the rugged Adrian Granados. The fight will be televised by Showtime, but the exact location and venue has yet to be determined.
