ARUM'S PLAN: To Keep All The Mayweather-Pacquiao Money For Himself

Bob Arum's Mayweather-Pacquiao dream includes investors, but not Oscar De La Hoya Published: Wednesday, November 30, 2011, 6:35 AM David Mayo | The Grand Rapids Press By David Mayo | The Grand Rapids http://cdn.mmabay.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/bob-arum.jpg Top Rank president Bob Arum, left, would rather not share any of Floyd Mayweather-Manny Pacquiao pie with Oscar De La Hoya. Here's where Bob Arum really sits on a Floyd Mayweather-Manny Pacquiao fight: He wants in, he wants Oscar De La Hoya out (and perhaps a few others, too), and he wants a tiny pool of people divvying a massive pool of money as long as he’s part of both. http://egyptsaidso.com/files/2010/12/FloydMayweather.jpg Yes, in Arum’s perfect world, Mayweather and Pacquiao would fight next year. He also would be the promoter of record, as well as the only promotional company involved. He would set the purses and the pay-per-view price. He would use other people’s money, he says. And boxing would have its financial record-setter, and a fight which might hold that distinction for a very long time, given the general fiscal arc of the sport and the unusual interest in these fighters and this fight. First, Arum said, there will be "10 days to two weeks" to hash out offers from two potential investors who essentially want to buy the fight, whom he has refused to identify. Arum said these investors, whoever they may be, are not interested in some exotic fight locale like Manila was for Muhammad Ali-Joe Frazier III; or Kinshasa, Zaire, for Ali-George Foreman. The fight would be in the United States, in one of the boxing-rich jurisdictions where there’s no state income tax to slash into the historic paydays, "like Nevada or Texas," Arum said, the latter coincidentally being where Jerry Jones lives and periodically pursues big fights for his big football stadium, and already launched one failed bid for Mayweather-Pacquiao, as if there’s been any other kind. De La Hoya, who in Arum's perfect world would be sliced completely out of the equation despite his recent history promoting Mayweather, beginning with their fight against each other, apparently disputes some or all of what Arum says. At least, whoever operates De La Hoya's Twitter account does, if this post Tuesday is any indication: "Bob arum please please stop lying to the public. Sit down with my CEO Richard and make the big fight happen. Before manny asks questions" Aside from capitalization, punctuation and a sentence fragment, the message is pretty clear. So is Arum's. "Right now, I’m involved in a huge promotion in New York," Arum said, referrring to Antonio Margarito-Miguel Cotto II on Saturday, "so I’m not going to get exercised about that fight. If we move forward, it’s not appropriate to engage in the name-calling, or to make statements. And I’m not making statements. I’m just talking about the process I’m going through." Oh, and at the end of the process, if one of these financial investors indeed underwrites the fight, is this: "If a deal is done like this, there will be some people left out," Arum said. :boxing: "The investor would have the authority to determine who they want on the ground, taking care of their business." :lol1: Lest anyone think the negotiating and posturing for Mayweather-Pacquiao isn’t under way, consider all of that for a moment. This isn’t the malarkey in early 2010, when the two sides passed a few verbal messages, using an HBO executive as liaison, and it was passed off as negotiating. This is Arum firing a warning shot directly over the bow of Golden Boy Promotions, its president De La Hoya, CEO Richard Schaefer, and maybe even Mayweather’s inner-circle advisers Al Haymon and Leonard Ellerbe: If you want to deal with Pacquiao, you have to deal with me, but Mayweather is a promotional free agent, so while the fight can’t be done without me, it can be done without any of you. No one disputes that Michael Koncz, Pacquiao’s business adviser, visited Mayweather’s gym last week in Las Vegas. What is in dispute is whether business was discussed. Arum said Koncz relayed information to Mayweather about the investment offers, in a meeting facilitated by Roger Mayweather, the fighter’s uncle and trainer. Ellerbe said no business was discussed and it was just a cordial meeting, with pictures taken and hands shaken. From what’s known of the camp dynamic, it would be extraordinary to believe Koncz popped in unannounced, asked for a personal meeting with Mayweather from which Ellerbe was excluded, and had that wish granted. That is, unless that meeting at the gym wasn’t the only one between Koncz and Mayweather. Arum said he knows the two potential investors have the financial wherewithal to commit to the fight. Whether they do is another story, he said. Regardless, there's still December to address Mayweather-Pacquiao possibilities for next spring. "What’s the rush?" said Arum, who has taken that stance on Mayweather-Pacquiao all along. "If neither investor works out, I’ll go to Manny, and if he says he wants to negotiate the conventional way***** (see below) , then that’s what we’ll do," Arum said. "Floyd will pick whoever he wants to represent him, and Koncz will represent Manny. (???)" As to the probability that the fight actually will happen, Arum sounded like exactly what he is, an octogenarian who is already extremely wealthy and doesn’t much care if these young welterweights leave nine-figure windfalls on the table. "I have no idea," he said. http://www.mlive.com/mayweather/index.ssf/2011/11/bob_arums_mayweather-pacquiao.html ***** GINO ROS note: Why in the hell would the promotional structure hold up the fight? Why isn't the FIRST consideration "whatever gets the fight done"?