By Lem Satterfield
Although BoxingScene.com's Rick Reeno reported late Tuesday evening that an earlier discussion between promoter Lou DiBella and Top Rank's CEO Bob Arum had reached an impasse, Arum said that he still might consider hearing what boxing adviser Sampson Lewkowicz has to say with respect to a potential March showdown between WBC middleweight champion Sergio Martinez and three division world champion Miguel Cotto.
Lewkowicz is meeting with Arum at his Las Vegas office on Wednesday morning to discuss a potential featherweight fight between Chris John and Yuriorkis Gamboa. Lewkowicz represents John, and Martinez. While he's there, Lewkowicz will sit down with Arum and try to work out an agreement that satisfies both parties in a possible Martinez-Cotto deal.
DiBella told BoxingScene that Arum tried to buy him out and turned down the possibility of a co-promotion. DiBella in not looking for a buyout, he wants to co-promote the event.
"He wanted a buyout. He offered $2.5 million against the upside [of the pay-per-view]. I told him that 'I'm not a booking agent, I'm a promoter,' and I told him 'my fighter is not an opponent,'" DiBella told BoxingScene.com.
"I offered him $5 million to buy him out, and he said he wasn't interested," said DiBella. "We weren't mad at each other. He doesn't want to do a co-promotion. He only wants to do a buyout."
Arum said the refusal was not entirely his call. He brought DiBella's terms to Cotto, who rejected them. The Puerto Rican fighter was not willing to entertain a percentage based deal. He wants Arum to pay Martinez a fee.
"Miguel Cotto's people asked me to talk to Lou DiBella. I offered DiBella a deal where I would pay Martinez 'X' amount of dollars plus an upside based on the number of buys. And Lou said that the only way that he would make a deal was on a percentage basis. But the Cotto people don't want to do that, so it can't happen," said Arum.
"I took Lou's offer back to Cotto, and they told me to forget about it. So I would just as soon have Cotto fight [Antonio] Margarito. That's the biggest fight for Cotto."
Lem Satterfield is the boxing editor at AOL FanHouse and the news editor at BoxingScene.com. To read more from Lem Satterfield, go to AOL FanHouse by Clicking Here .
