By Ronnie Nathanielsz
Top Rank's CEO Bob Arum tells BoxingScene.com/Manila Standard that Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Golden Boy Promotions are using Manny Pacquiao and Top Rank as targets to justify an already agreed-upon fight between Mayweather and Robert "The Ghost" Guerrero. Mayweather took to his Twitter account on Tuesday, calling Pacquiao a "punk" and daring him to "step up" and fight on May 5th at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. Meanwhile, Pacquiao is ready to face Mayweather - but at the end of May at a larger outdoor venue that guarantees both fighters more money.
Arum states - “They have already agreed to fight Robert Guerrero on May 5. They feel that if they blame Manny and myself for the Pacquiao-Mayweather not happening and therefore they are fighting Guerrero and that somehow the public will excuse them and buy the Mayweather-Guerrero fight. That is stupid. Nobody is going to buy the fight unless they believe it's a good fight. The fact that I did this or Manny did that is not going to make a guy buy or not buy a Mayweather-Guerrero fight.”
He claimed that what they are doing “makes absolutely no sense. They should spend their bullets somehow making a case as to why Guerrero is a dangerous fighter.”
Arum said “the one thing we are not going to do is to respond to the nonsense.”
The astute promoter said Pacquiao’s statement that he is ready to face Mayweather at the end of May because of the financial considerations is absolutely correct even as he insisted “they have no intention of fighting Manny before he goes to prison.”
He said “they want to grab some quick bucks fighting a non-dangerous opponent, go to jail if Mayweather has to, come out and then go right into a big fight with Manny Pacquiao. They know we got to have time to build that outdoor stadium because that can bring to the bottom line an additional $30-$40 million. That becomes a big percentage of the total estimated gross.”
Arum stressed “all that’s going on is posturing.”
