By Lem Satterfield, FanHouse
FanHouse caught up to Golden Boy Promotions' CEO, Richard Schaefer, whose company is handling the negotiations on behalf of Floyd Mayweather (40-0, 25 knockouts) for the potential blockbuster bout with seven-division world champion, Manny Pacquiao, who is the current WBO welterweight (147 pounds) titlist.
Tentatively slated for March 13 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Mayweather-Pacquaio was all-but done until a controversy surfaced over pre-fight drug-testing.
Mayweather's camp is demanding that both fighters be tested using random urinalysis and bloodwork; Pacquiao is fine with the urine-testing, but would prefer not to have blood drawn within 30 days of the fight.
Mayweather's side has softened its position of having the United States Anti-Doping Agency do the testing, just as Pacquaio's promoter, Top Rank's Bob Arum, seems to have eased up on the notion of random blood-testing, as long as it is done by the Nevada State Athletic Commission.
Arum stated that Monday is the last day to get the deal done, or he will move on to signing up Pacquiao (50-3-2, 38 KOs) to face either New York's, junior middleweight (140 pounds) Paulie Malignaggi (27-3, five knockouts) or New York's WBA junior middleweight (154 pounds) champion Yuri Foreman (28-0, eight KOs) on March 13.
"I can't imagine Manny Pacquiao walking away from $25 million because he refuses to have blood and urine drawn, and then going off to do something else and making half of that," said Mayweather's adviser, Leonard Ellerbe. "The clock is ticking, but I think that Manny Pacquiao will eventually step up and take the test."
Schaefer sheds his views on the state of affairs in this Q&A below:
FanHouse: Where are the negotiations now?
Richard Schaefer: Well, obviously, the fact that our side was requesting random blood and urine testing is something which the Nevada Athletic Commission is not doing. And based on the comments that I've read from Mr. [Keith] Kizer, I don't think that they are likely to adapt.
Basically, our position was that both sides would jointly agree on a procedure which would be random, which would be blood, and which would be urine, and which would be cut off prior to the fight at a reasonable time.
That time would be at two, three days, four days, whatever the right number of days are to insure that the integrity of the test can still be maintained. That was our position. That was one of the deal-points, like there were many other deal-points.
And the fact that Manny Pacquiao and Bob Arum are not willing to do that and are setting these deadlines -- I think that they set another deadline, which was last Thursday, which came and went. Now, they're setting another one for today.
If they're going to impose these deadlines, I don't think that's a very good manner in which to conduct these negotiations. A better way would be to work out a mutually agreeable procedure. But it seems that they don't want to do that.
They've stated -- at least Bob Arum has stated -- that they are going to be moving ahead with another fight. I can't stop Arum from doing what he's doing. There's nothing we can do about that.
FH: Bob Arum has said that Top Rank president, Todd duBoef has tried to get in touch with Goldben Boys' Bruce Binkow today, so to your knowledge, has there been any contact between the two?
Schaefer: Well, Bruce has been trying to reach Todd for the last two days and to work out a procedure, but their position is clear: The cutoff for the random blood-testing is 30 days before the fight. Unless the Nevada Commission rules differently.
But again, this is not a commission issue, this is a contract issue. Just like many other issues were contract issues that had nothing to do with the commission. I think the commission should do the testing as they do, but this is a contract issue and not a commission issue.
So, I don't understand where they are coming from. So there's nothing to really add to that. I need to focus on either getting this fight done or not. If it does get done, great, then I'll be very busy. And if it doesn't, then we're going to be very busy too.
FH: At this point, what do you think it would take to make this fight?
Schaefer: What it would take is something which I recommended a week ago is that we would have Todd and Bruce pick up the phone and talk to each other and work out a reasonable procedure conducted by a third party agency that we would all mutually agree to.
Bruce has reached out to Todd many times, and the only thing that has been communicated to us is this final and last position, which I don't have to repeat. That's all that's been said. There's been no movement, no willingness to really work out anything.
I think that it is that hard-nosed negotiating which is going to ultimately kill the fight, because it sounds like to me that Bob Arum is already working on getting another fight done -- I believe with Paulie Malignaggi.
FH: If there was a third party involved or hired to do the blood-testing, who or what would it be?
Schaefer: I have some suggestions. One of which was actually the one which Top Rank had recommended, which is the agency that does the NFL and Major League Baseball [The National Center for Drug Free Sports, based in Kansas City, Mo.] The problem is they only do urine.
But I'm sure that if they do urine, they could probably retain someone else to do the blood testing as well. If it would be that agency, that would be okay with us as long as it's random, it's urine, it's blood, and it is cut off at a date prior to the fight which maintains the integrity of the tests.
FH: If the fight with Manny Pacquiao doesn't happen, would you still work with Floyd Mayweather Jr. on his next endeavor?
Schaefer: Floyd and myself and Mayweather promotions, we have a great relationship and we're growing into a friendship as well, so I absolutely think yes, as it relates to working together. As it relates to what's next for Floyd Mayweather, I don't really know. Because, unlike Bob Arum, we haven't looked at anything else.
If Arum walks away, then we obviously will be starting discussions in that regard. But right now, unlike Top Rank which has pretty much said for the last week, 'We don't need this, we don't need this' and has been setting deadlines, we have been trying to save the fight.
I wanted to make sure, and I want to make sure that we've exhausted all avenues to see if this fight can be saved. But it seems to me that, based again on the statements Bob Arum has been making -- 'final' and 'last offer' and 'deadlines' being Monday morning.
Based on the ultimatums that Top Rank has issued, it seems like this is not going to happen. It seems to me that they have made up their mind that they want to go in a different route. And if they're walking away from this, then they're walking away from this.
Source: boxing.fanhouse.com
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