By Bob Velin, USA TODAY
Two days of mediation and negotiation hoping to save the proposed March 13 megafight between Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr ended Wednesday with no deal, and Pacquiao's promoter, Bob Arum, said "The fight is off."
"Floyd Mayweather walked away," Arum said by phone late Wednesday night. "The fight's off. Our guy was agreeable, Mayweather wasn't. The fight's off."
Arum said Pacquiao will now look at fighting undefeated Israeli WBA super welterweight champion Yuri Foreman either March 13 or March 20 in Las Vegas. "We're going to check out all the sites tomorrow," Arum said.
Arum said he couldn't discuss the sticking point in the negotiations with retired federal judge Daniel Weinstein in Los Angeles — which Arum said before the mediation began was the drug testing, as well as a demand for an apology from Mayweather's side for saying that Pacquiao had taken performance-enhancing drugs. But he said, "the fight's off not because of us, not even because of (Mayweather's) people —he was represented by Golden Boy Promotions) — it's because of him personally.
"It's not surprising. I always felt that he wasn't going to do the fight. He knows Manny will beat him. Mayweather's never stepped into the ring with a guy he had any question but that he was going to beat.
"That's why there's never been a (Shane) Mosley, there's never been a (Antonio) Margarito, there never was a (Miguel) Cotto, and there's no Pacquiao.
"Floyd Mayweather is a coward. He will never fight anyone that will remotely give him a tough fight."
Will the fight ever happen?
"No," said Arum. "Here's a guy who, the rematch with (Oscar) De La Hoya was a huge fight, it would've made millions and millions, and he walked away from it.. .. I'm not disappointed in the sense that I always knew it was going to be this way."
Source: usatoday.com
No comments:
Post a Comment