By David Mayo, The Grand Rapids Press Fans awaiting a Floyd Mayweather-Manny Pacquiao fight probably will have to wait until 2011 -- if it happens at all.
Bob Arum, who promotes Pacquiao, confirmed in a 3 a.m. EST conference call today that Mayweather did not respond to Pacquiao’s offer for a bout arrangement this year, so the period of exclusive negotiations had closed and he would move on to other potential opponents for Nov. 13.Arum kept some narrow window of opportunity open for a Mayweather-Pacquiao bout on that date, saying that until a fight commitment from Pacquiao and another opponent was in place, Mayweather still could accept terms and the fight could be made.
That period will not exceed 10 days, Arum said, although the lack of response from the Mayweather side throughout the negotiation renders a complete about-face unlikely.
The unusual timing of the conference call was based on a midnight Friday deadline in the Pacific Time Zone, set by the Pacquiao camp, for Mayweather to respond to its proposal during a period of negotiating exclusivity.
Pacquiao will move forward with plans for a Nov. 13 fight anyway, Arum said, most likely against Miguel Cotto or Antonio Margarito.
Arum said he never negotiated with anyone from the Mayweather camp and that Ross Greenburg, president of HBO Sports, was the sole intermediary through whom he relayed terms to the Mayweather side.
"The problem is that Floyd, for whatever reason -- and I’m sure he had some valid reasons -- didn’t want to commit," Arum said.
Arum, after several weeks of saying that Pacquiao had agreed to Mayweather’s demands -- including those related to random Olympic-style drug testing -- declined to disclose exactly what those agreements were.
Last winter, when talks for a proposed March bout failed, Mayweather agreed to a 14-day pre-fight cutoff during which there would be no blood testing, while Pacquiao would not agree to less than a 24-day window.
After the first talks failed, Mayweather repeatedly said he had withdrawn the 14-day cutoff and would accept only random blood testing right up until the bout.
Arum said Greenburg, after talking with Mayweather’s adviser, Al Haymon, indicated to him that the drug-testing issue "was resolved."
These were the second Mayweather-Pacquiao talks to break down in a bit more than a six-month span, although the nature of this negotiation was far sketchier than the first proposal, scrapped in January, for a March fight.
For one, the Mayweather side never commented on these negotiations and never even acknowledged they occurred.
The only public statements about the talks came from Arum and Michael Koncz, Pacquiao’s adviser, both of whom said Pacquiao had agreed to all Mayweather’s terms.
The lack of direct talks between the two sides, using HBO as exclusive intermediary, also was an extremely unusual twist.
There also may have been some dispute over financial considerations. Since their first talks failed, Pacquiao went on to defeat Joshua Clottey and Mayweather defeated Shane Mosley. But Mayweather-Mosley did substantially better pay-per-view television numbers, prompting Mayweather to say he wanted a financial split in his favor before agreeing to fight Pacquiao.
Leonard Ellerbe, Mayweather’s adviser, did not return a message seeking comment.
E-mail David Mayo: dmayo@grpress.com and follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/David_Mayo
Source: mlive.com
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