Comments Thread For: SHO's Espinoza: Arum 'Not Truthful' on Mayweather Talks

[AP♠]

**** YOU ARUM

[Sugar Adam Ali]

dont count on it. this ship has sunk and its time for people to move on.

I'm holding out hope until floyd or manny sign for a different opponent.. Until then, I'm hopeful..

[TLC8]

Tax free. If you are an American citizen, it doesn't matter what country you earn your money in, you have to pay American taxes on all income.

Get your facts straight next time bozo.

You could not be more wrong clown

[Unseen]

He's scared that Arum wants HBO involved.

[Flash13]

Okay yeah i read it. I'm not sure what it was suppose to prove? He never said though that Arum or Pacquiao's side hadn't agreed on everything... Never said that. So i'm not sure what the article proves. What message are you trying to convey?

[wlliam]

So we have one side claiming they signed a contract and one side saying their isnt a contract thats been drafted...somebody is lying. And its the audience whose gonna choose who they prefer to believe...do you believe Bob? Or do you believe Espinoza?

I remember the 1st article when Arum stated that Pac has agreed and that they were just waiting for hin to arrive(state-side) so he can "sign on the dotted-line". The media just ran with that and Floyd doesnt help himself being a conplete jack@$$ in his interviews.

I suspect Bob isnt being completely honest about a 60/40 split as he says. What if the split isnt 60/40 at all? if Floyd does go public with his real terms its gonna look like hes "coming up with a new demand"

I think Bob has everybody fooled.

[IMDAZED]

Okay yeah i read it. I'm not sure what it was suppose to prove? He never said though that Arum or Pacquiao's side hadn't agreed on everything... Never said that. So i'm not sure what the article proves. What message are you trying to convey?

I asked you if you thought he was lying. Didn't ask you whether he thought Pacquiao agreed.

[ThePrince]

There's been only one time besides now where both parties negotiated with each other. The rest is just media banter. And in that one negotiation, Team Pacqiao walked away. But like I said, continue your Blame Mayweather at all Costs campaign.

Pure nonsense.

There were at least 2 other official negotiations. Everyone knows about $40millionwithnoPPV-gate, but it seems everyone forgets when Floyd and co. tried to hoodwink everyone (again) and were outed by the head of HBO.

If you recall, after Pac-Clottey and May-Mosely there were rumblings of secret negotiations going on behind the scenes. Both sides kept talking about gag orders until Floyd ducked again and went on 'vacation'. Arum told everyone they had been negotiating through Ross Greenburg, then president of HBO, Floyd's side went into damage control mode and said no such talks were happening... despite their ongoing gag order.

After a few days of back and forths between Arum and Ellerbe in the media (pretty much the same scenario here), Greenburg broke his silence and made it clear what was going on:

HBO Exec: Mayweather-Pacquiao Talks True

As pound-for-pound king Manny Pacquiao moves on to a probable Nov. 13 fight against Antonio Margarito -- now that Floyd Mayweather has said he is not interested in making boxing's biggest fight, at least this year -- there is still some unfinished business from the messiness of last week's cliffhanger: Were the Pacquiao and Mayweather camps negotiating the fight or not?

Top Rank's Bob Arum, Pacquiao's promoter, insists they were, using HBO Sports president Ross Greenburg as an intermediary.

The Mayweather camp said that is not true and that there were never any negotiations.

The man in the middle of the storm, Greenburg, remained silent even when pressed repeatedly to offer his version of events.

On Monday night, Greenburg finally did.

He took the Arum/Pacquiao side.

"Fights like Mayweather vs. Pacquiao are significant because of these fighters' ability to connect with sports fans around the world. It's unfortunate that it won't happen in 2010," Greenburg said in a statement. "I had been negotiating with a representative from each side since May 2nd, carefully trying to put the fight together. Hopefully, someday this fight will happen. Sports fans deserve it."

The date Greenburg mentioned was the day after Mayweather's resounding decision win against Shane Mosley.

Arum had said over and over during the past two weeks, beginning on a 3 a.m. ET July 17 conference call to announce that the exclusive window to negotiate with Mayweather had closed, that he was negotiating the fight with Al Haymon, Mayweather's adviser, with Greenburg as the go-between.

Arum said he would discuss deal points with Greenburg, who would then take them to Haymon and vice versa.

Leonard Ellerbe, Mayweather's other adviser and the public voice because Haymon refuses to speak to the press, said a few days after Arum outlined how the talks went that there had never been any negotiations.

He released a statement a few days after Arum's teleconference that said, "Here are the facts. Al Haymon, (Golden Boy Promotions CEO) Richard Schaefer and myself speak to each other on a regular basis, and the truth is no negotiations have ever taken place, nor was there ever a deal agreed upon by Team Mayweather or Floyd Mayweather to fight Manny Pacquiao on Nov. 13. Either Ross Greenburg or Bob Arum is not telling the truth, but history tells us who is lying."

http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/box...ory?id=5412488

Greenburg later made it clear it was Floyd and Floyd alone who inexplicably ducked the fight en route to his woman-beatig 'vacation':

Greenburg insists the fight was close to being made twice for this year. ***8220;Both times, the fight was very close to being made,***8221; Greenburg told Satterfield. ***8220;And, the second time around, you know, all that I can say is that you would have to ask Floyd Mayweather why the fight wasn***8217;t made. To this day, I really don***8217;t know why Floyd decided that he didn***8217;t want the fight any more in the fall.***8221;

***8220;To this day, I don***8217;t know why he wanted to take some more time off,***8221; said Greenburg. ***8220;Only Floyd has that answer. I certainly don***8217;t have that answer. But, you know, it was very close. It was so, so, close. I think that it was so close that I don***8217;t think that it***8217;s going to take much to make the fight the third time around.***8221;

http://www.*************.com/headlin...vs-mayweather/

This is just History repeating itself. We just need a neutral party to come forward and give details about what is happening behind the scenes. Espinoza is a Haymon stooge through and through much like Schaefer and Ellerbe were before him. I would love to hear Moonves thoughts.

[Bronx2245]

A little history lesson for the haters:

July 21, 2010:

Defending Bob Arum is quite hard for a number of reasons. He's a famous liar, well-known to veteran fans as a promoter that tends to totally exaggerate negotiations to ensure that he comes out looking holier than thou.

Team Mayweather wasn't even the first to make these claims. It's been coming out of his own camp.

Michael Marley, the day after Arum's infamous "teleconference," came right out and said it. This was days before Leonard Ellerbe spoke.

Marley, a Top Rank/Pacquiao writer, and a close friend of Arum's, was just as perplexed by Arum's deadline. He didn't get it; he couldn't work out what Arum was up to. So he went digging.

He spoke to his Top Rank people, and was shocked with the answer. Again, this was days before Ellerbe spoke.

Negotiation just hadn't been happening. They'd started, briefly, but capitulated almost instantly, according to Marley.

Marley claimed that Arum had only spoken to Greenburg once, months ago. And that conversation was little more than Arum telling him his demands. Demands that Golden Boy just weren't interested in.

That's basically it. No meetings, no talks, no agreements, no contracts, no deals.

Bob Arum, according to Marley, just spent the next five weeks "blowing smoke to the media," to try and confuse the situation and giving the impression that he was breaking his back to make the deal.

When in truth, Mayweather vs. Pacquiao was the last thing Arum wanted for 2010.

Why did the talks fail? According to Marley, contrary to most reports, Pacquiao was unwilling to move an inch on drug testing. And Mayweather was unwilling to move an inch on money.

Pretty predictable.

As another example of the way Arum operates, it also turns out that "Pacquiao accepting 14 days" was just more "smoke" as part of the Arum charade.

The original quote from Pacquiao was 100 percent fake. Arum has admitted as much. The second quote from Pacquiao was real, but for PR purposes. Pacquiao's manager denied it was accurate, when quizzed soon after.

To confirm the charade, only days ago, Arum was asked straight up, what drug terms Pacquiao had agreed to and he was unable to give an answer.

This is a man who had an agreement with Mayweather's people? He couldn't even answer what the supposed drug agreement was?

So what actually happened? According to Marley, Arum made these claims days before anyone from team Mayweather spoke out.

Well, Arum has allegedly been fixing a Pacquiao vs. Margarito bout in the Middle East for months. But he knew full well that he couldn't make the fight without being seen to be trying to make Mayweather vs. Pacquiao first.

Plus, HBO, after pressure from Golden Boy, flat out told him that he'd have to approach Mayweather first, or they would not work on a Margarito fight.

Arum, according to Marley, approached Greenburg with his terms for the fight. Terms, Marley suspects, that were never going to be accepted. Terms, that in regards to drug testing, were even worse than the last fight.

That's basically it. Golden Boy felt Arum was not being serious, and had no intention of negotiating further.

Arum played the media, and proclaimed that he was "waiting for Floyd to accept his offer." Which, I guess, was technically true. The big lie came with Arum's claims that these terms had been negotiated and accepted.

Marley claims that this is just 100 percent false. There were no real talks. No deals. No agreements. No contracts.

In a strange way, neither side is technically lying. Most likely, after taking legal advice, they've worded it all very carefully.

Arum claimed that he was waiting for Mayweather to agree to his offer, and had been dealing with Greenberg. The problem being, his dealings with Greenberg amounted to one conversation in which he sent him an awful offer, knowing full well it wouldn't work. No negotiations, talks, or discussions whatsoever.

Arum's offer. Countdown clock. Lots of BS about "terms being agreed by both sides."

Mayweather's people are technically speaking the truth as well. There were never any negotiations, talks, agreements, deals. Just Arum blowing smoke to the press.

Why did Arum exaggerate his efforts so much? Because he wanted to set up Margarito vs. Pacquiao and couldn't justify it without trying to pin the blame on someone else.

Golden Boy? Well Marley claims that there quite literally was a gag order. It's just the fact that the negotiations ended after about two days. You can tell when the fight fell through. Arum started talking to the media twice a day!

Marley claims that Golden Boy's position with Arum is to just let him talk, and not justify his claims with replies, safe in the knowledge that most of the sport world knows he talks out of his behind.

Arum could well find himself in a tough position, however. Dan Raphael reported that Ellerbe is not only one of the most honest guys in boxing, he's also been speaking to Greenberg regularly for weeks. These daily conversations have reportedly gone on after his claim that basically either Greenberg or Arum is a stone cold liar.

Which suggests to most that Greenberg agrees with his pronouncement.

Again, Marley is a Top Rank guy, and a noted Pacquiao backer. He reported that Arum's claims of "negotiations" and "agreements" were phony, days before any Mayweather person made any comment.

Mayweather's guy's wording is probably a bit controversial, and not 100 percent true, but both Marley and Ellebre are basically singing from the same hymn sheet.

Arum completely and utterly exaggerated all claims of "agreements," "deals," "contracts," and "negotiations."

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/4...before-ellerbe

[Scipio2009]

Arum is a snake. But in this case, he has publicly went on record saying they agreed to terms and even named Moonves and Plepler to back him up. Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KP73mqS1vhg

If Arum is lying, then Moonves (Espinoza's boss) & Plepler (CEO of HBO) would dispute his claims and call Arum a liar, which they haven't. And Espinoza's public statement NEVER disputed Pac & Arum's claim that they agreed to terms. Espinoza was only defending Mayweather by saying Arum is "misrepresenting" Floyd. No sh^t!! Arum doesn't represent Floyd, so he can say anything he wants about him. Espinoza's statement basically claimed Arum's antics of ridiculing Floyd might kill the deal. Really?? I doubt his boss Moonves would agree with him.

What CEO of a reputable public company is going to go public while high-level negotiations are still going on?

The fact that Pleper hasn't come out to even acknowledge Arum's position is damning, tbh. Everyone knows how big the fight is expected to be; if everything was done, at least HBO would be out pushing, yet they're not.