By Tim Smith, New York Daily NewsThere are few occasions in boxing when you witness something that you think is completely ridiculous, because most of the over-the-top things in the sport have been tried or have happened in the past.
But Bob Arum may have topped himself. The promoter called a telephone press conference for midnight Pacific time Friday night (3 a.m. Saturday morning EDT) to inform reporters about whether Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao had reached an agreement to fight each other in November.
Arum was using the stunt to gain some kind of public-relations advantage over Mayweather in a one-sided war of words. That's because Mayweather and his representatives have maintained their silence throughout the touchy negotiations for what is the biggest boxing match looming for the sport in the near future.It was the same vow that both sides took when they decided to try to pick up the talks again after they fell apart last December. They first tried to negotiate a fight for this past March, but the negotiations fell apart because of the constant back-and-forth in the press over whether it was proper for Mayweather to ask Pacquiao to take random blood and urine tests for performance-enhancing drugs before the fight.
Ultimately, Pacquiao refused the testing protocols and the fight fell apart. Soon after Mayweather beat Shane Mosley in May, the two sides decided to try to make the fight again. But this time they thought it was best not to negotiate through the press. So far only Mayweather's side has steadfastly kept to that agreement.
Arum and Michael Koncz, Pacquiao's adviser, have been chirping throughout the "private" negotiations about Pacquiao agreeing to the stipulation of random drug tests and a 50-50 split. Even Freddie Roach, Pacquiao's trainer, has gotten in on the act, saying that Pacquiao would take any test that Mayweather wanted him to take as long as Mayweather got into the ring.
Here is what you've heard from Mayweather's side, which includes advisers Al Haymon and Leonard Ellerbe, and Richard Schaefer, CEO of Golden Boy Promotions: nothing.
Every time Schaefer has been asked about the negotiations, he has said "no comment" and has even refused to acknowledge when or if the talks have started. But we know they have started because two weeks ago Arum and Koncz announced they were giving Mayweather a deadline of this weekend to accept Pacquiao's deal or they would move on. Thus the 3 a.m. EDT telephone press conference.
Mayweather and his team have played this the right way. They have allowed Arum and Koncz to do all the talking and haven't even publicly stated what their terms are. There is no public-relations battle for them to win. This is all on Arum and Pacquiao, who is intent on fighting on Nov. 13 with or without Mayweather.
The last thing we heard from Mayweather was that he was taking a long vacation after his dominant performance against Mosley.
Arum and Koncz offered speculation to Lem Satterfield of AOL's Fanhouse that the legal troubles of Roger Mayweather, Floyd's uncle and trainer, may have caused him to back away from making the fight. Roger Mayweather goes on trial in Clark County District Court in Nevada on Aug. 2 on an assault charge stemming from his allegedly choking and assaulting female boxer Melissa St. Vil last year.
"We understand that there are problems as far as Roger is concerned. So they will have until midnight on Friday. If we don't hear favorably from him at the time, which I don't think that we will, then we move to somebody else," Arum told Fanhouse. "That's all. It's not adversarial. In other words, in my opinion, there are reasonable grounds for him not to want to fight this year. And those grounds essentially relate to Roger."
No word from Floyd Mayweather as to whether this is true or not, because his side isn't talking. Good for them. Deadline or no deadline, the fight still looms for boxing fans, but I wouldn't expect it to happen until May of 2011.
timsmith@nydailynews.com
Source: nydailynews.com
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