By Rick Reeno
MGM Grand, Las Vegas - Top Rank's CEO, Bob Arum, laughed off the recent statements that were made by Floyd Mayweather Jr., who said Manny Pacquiao would be making a lot more money if he would've retained the services of manager/adviser Al Haymon [who works with Mayweather and at least 160 other fighters].
Mayweather and Pacquiao had a chance meeting at a Miami Heat game, in Florida, back in January. The two fighters met face to face, and had a conversation which both indicate was the turning point in their negotiations and ultimately led to a deal being finalized for Saturday's mega-fight showdown.
Mayweather claimed on Tuesday that Pacquiao was being financially mistreated by Top Rank and longtime adviser Michael Koncz.
"I told him that I'm surprised that he's not working with Al Haymon. If he was working with us directly, I think he would have made a lot more money. He would have really made $100 million, if he would have worked with us," Mayweather said. "Financially I don't think Top Rank treated him right for this fight."
Arum jabbed back, claiming that if Pacquiao would have secured the services of Haymon, then the powerful adviser would have pocketed all of the revenue secured from endorsements.
"[If Pacquiao would have hired him] then [Haymon] would get all of the endorsements, meaning [the] nothing that Mayweather gets. There are a lot of aspects to this and Floyd is entitled to his opinion and I'm not going to engage in a dialect with Floyd Mayweather. But it is rather strange that you have Floyd Mayweather, [who proclaims to be] the leading fighter in the world, and he doesn't have an endorsement for chewing gum. A lot of money Manny is making from endorsements. A lot of money he makes all the time from endorsements. People working all the time for him, not for us," Arum said.
"Here you have all of the major reporters in the sport. How many of you have talked to Al Haymon? How many of you know what he looks like? That's what I mean by hiding in the shadows. How many of you know Bob Arum. How many of you know what Bob Arum looks like? I rest my case."
