Before leaving to support seven-division world champion, Manny Pacquiao
, in his effort to win a congressional seat in the province of Saragani in his native Philippines, Bob Arum, insisted that he would not talk boxing, in general, nor, Floyd Mayweather, in particular.But not long after the savvy, 78-year-old promoter landed, and a Philippine network camera was in his face, Arum just could not resist.
A potential fight between Mayweather (41-0, 25 knockouts) and Pacquiao (51-3-2, 38 KOs) is simply too big.The 33-year-old Mayweather is coming off of Saturday night's lopsided, 12-round unanimous decision over 38-year-old, WBA welterweight (147 pounds) champion, Shane Mosley (46-6, 39 KOs).
The 31-year-old Pacquiao is coming off of a similarly, one-sided, March 13, unanimous decision over 33-year-old Joshua Clottey (35-4, 20 KOs).
Together, they are boxing's most lurcative draws: Mayweather earned a non-heavyweight record guaranteed $22.5 million purse for his win over Mosley; Pacquiao took home $12 million for dispatching of Clottey.
Even though there is some lingering acrimony between Mayweather and Pacquiao, whose proposed March 13 bout dissolved over a negotiational impasse over drug testing, Arum believes that there is too much money involved for that bout not to happen.
"No question now, especially since both of their last fights are perceived as walkovers, that 99.5 percent of the public wants to see Manny Pacquiao fight Floyd Mayweather next. Those two bouts were not competitive because both guys are so good," said Arum, who promotes Pacquiao and once promoted Mayweather.
"This is the biggest fight of all time, Mayweather against Pacquiao, and it has to happen. Now the fight is doable. I mean, out of 100 people, over 99.5 percent want this fight next. The other .5 percent, they don't care and they don't really give a spit," Arum told ABS television, according to an article written by Examiner.com's Michael Marley.
"With any big fight, there is a right time to make the fight," said Arum. "The public demand reminds me of when Muhammad Ali fought Joe Frazier the first time in 1971, so you have to everything you can [as a promoter] to support that, to make it happen."
Mayweather said that he wanted the fight with Pacquiao during a post-fight press conference following his win over Mosley.
Mayweather did insist, however, that, like Mosley, Pacquiao, would have to undergo random blood and urine testing by the United States Anti-Doping Agency.
"I want to give the fans a pleasing fight. I want to give the fans what they want," said Mayweather. "If the fans want to see me and Pacquiao fight, I want to give them that. But we must be on an even playing field in the sport of boxing."
Pacquaio has indicated that taking blood from him too close to a fight would weaken him, citing his last loss by unanimous, 12-round decision to Erik Morales at 130 pounds in March of 2005.
Pacquiao had blood drawn within days of facing Morales, but since then, is 12-0, with eight knockouts, including 10th, and, third round stoppages of Morales.
Arum felt that Mayweather's insistance on drug testing was a way of getting out of the fight with Pacquiao.
"I had my doubts on Mayweather wanting it, but now, Floyd now genuinely wants the fight against Manny. Floyd knows you can't putter around. For right now, I will not talk about negotiations and I won't go into negotiations showing my cards," said Arum.
"These issues have to be talked about in private, not in public, and that was the mistake by Mayweather's people last time we tried to make it," said Arum. "I don't want that to happen again. If everything goes well, a good time for that fight would be November, that would be a perfect time."
Source: boxing.fanhouse.com
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