Promoters deny fight deal imminent
With Manny Pacquiao apparently on the way to victory for a seat in Congress in his native Philippines, boxing’s newest civil servant now can turn his attention back to the ring where a megabucks fight with Floyd Mayweather Jr. is waiting to be made.
Freddie Roach, Pacquiao’s trainer, said on Monday he anticipated negotiations to begin as early as this week in a second attempt to pair the sport’s two best pound-for-pound fighters in November. That, however, was news to Leonard Ellerbe, Mayweather’s co-manager. Ellerbe said there have been no discussions with Team Pacquiao since Mayweather’s May 1 win over Shane Mosley, and nothing suggests anything is imminent.
"We’re not even thinking about Pacquiao right now," Ellerbe said. "Floyd’s on vacation, and we haven’t talked to anybody."
It also was news to Top Rank chairman Bob Arum, who promotes Pacquiao.
"Freddie Roach is not in the loop," Arum said Tuesday from Vancouver, British Columbia, where he was changing flights en route to Las Vegas after spending the past few days with Pacquiao in the Philippines. "He knows nothing about any negotiations, and I wish he’d stop talking. The only people who know are Manny, myself and Michael Koncz (Pacquiao’s adviser).
"Manny’s intention is to fight Nov. 13. I’ll see if I can make a deal with Mayweather. If not, we’ll look at fighting (Antonio) Margarito or someone else."
Pacquiao was on his way Tuesday to earning his congressional seat by defeating Roy Chiongbian, whose family had political control of Mindanao in the Philippines’ Sarangani province for more than a quarter century. Arum called it as big an upset as Pacquiao’s victory over Oscar De La Hoya in 2008. The final votes still were being tallied, but Pacquiao was ahead by a better than 2-to-1 margin.
While Pacquiao is coming off a great showing at the polls, Mayweather is coming off a sensational performance at the MGM Grand Garden, taking a 12-round unanimous decision over Mosley to remain undefeated at 41-0.
HBO announced Tuesday the pay-per-view numbers for the fight were 1.4 million buys, which generated $78.3 million in revenue. It resulted in a financial bonanza for Mayweather, whose purse was $22.5 million, with the fighter expected to earn an additional $20 million from the PPV sales.
By comparison, Pacquiao’s March 13 welterweight fight with Joshua Clottey managed just 700,000 pay-per-view buys.
"We’re very happy," Ellerbe said. "Floyd has fought seven times (on pay per view), and he has the two biggest nonheavyweight pay-per-view numbers of all time."
Golden Boy Promotions chief executive officer Richard Schaefer said the numbers confirm what he has thought about Mayweather’s drawing power.
"I think it’s something to be proud of, especially given the economy," Schaefer said. "We’re still recovering, and to do 1.4 million buys shows Floyd’s popularity. Even those who don’t like him were tuned in to see if he would lose."
That kind of drawing power along with the fact both Mayweather and Mosley tested clean from Olympic-style random drug testing seems to indicate the negotiations the second time around would be in Mayweather’s favor. When the two initially were scheduled to meet March 13, Mayweather agreed to a 50-50 split on the money but insisted that Pacquiao submit to random drug testing, which Pacquiao refused to do.
Given his performance May 1 and the resulting pay-per-view numbers, Mayweather is in a position to demand more money this time around as well as maintain his insistence that Pacquiao submit to random drug testing.
"Floyd is the pay-per-view king," Ellerbe said. "He should be treated in that fashion."
Arum said he didn’t want to go through the same circus scenario that attached itself to the first attempt to make a Pacquiao-Mayweather fight, which included having a retired federal judge try to mediate the negotiations. As far as Arum is concerned, any new negotiations will start fresh.
"We’ll go into the negotiations with a totally open mind," he said. "I don’t have a timetable, but this is a fight Manny wants, and we’ll try to make it happen."
Neither Ellerbe nor Schaefer, who was the front man in the negotiations the first time, were talking publicly about how, by who or when negotiations with Pacquiao will be handled this time.
"I don’t want to have that discussion," Ellerbe said. "We’re not thinking about that right now."
Said Schaefer: "I think Leonard said it all. There’s nothing to talk about right now. But I’m not surprised Team Pacquiao keeps talking, and, frankly, it’s a waste of time. These things will be addressed at the appropriate time. But right now is not that time."
Contact reporter Steve Carp at scarp@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2913.
