There is Greenwich Mean Time and Daylight Savings and maybe even “Money” Time, but there is nothing standard about the digital countdown Top Rank added to its website in an attempt to get a decision, yea or nay, from Floyd Mayweather, Jr., about a proposed fight with Manny Pacquiao on Nov. 13.
Mayweather has his own clock.
From minute-to-minute, it is hard to know what that clock says. But it is safe to assume that it doesn’t include any alarms, or even an acknowledgement, for deadlines imposed by anyone other than Mayweather himself.
The guess is that Bob Arum won’t have to check his web site when the final split-second expires at midnight Friday in Las Vegas, where there aren’t many clocks, No yea. No nay. No decision either.
Any answer at all would be a concession from Mayweather that Arum has the upper hand in reported negotiations. If there is anything to be learned from failed talks late last year, it is that Mayweather will not allow anybody to dictate terms or time, especially Arum. They are locked into a deadly rivalry that starts –and thus far ends — with one-upmanship at the bargaining table.
During the last few days, questions have been raised about whether there is an agreement at all. Despite a reported gag order, Arum said there is. Mayweather and his representatives, including Golden Boy Promotions, have said almost nothing, although Golden Boy President Oscar De La Hoya was quoted in Spanish-speaking media a few weeks ago that a deal was close.
De La Hoya told Golden Boy CEO Richard Schaefer that he had been misquoted, but nobody has denied that there have been talks. It is safe to say that the talk included more than juts gardening tips. Still, there has been only speculation about all those devils in the details. The purse? Pick a percentage: Fifty-fifty or 55 percent for Mayweather and 45 for Pacquiao. Random blood-testing? Pick a timetable: Two weeks before the welterweight bout or the night before opening bell.
Other than comments from Arum and to a lesser extent De La Hoya, there has been no real way to determine whether terms are in place for a deal that would lead to the biggest fight in years. Maybe you can blame the gag order, although has anybody ever been able to silence Mayweather, uncle-trainer Roger Mayweather and dad Floyd, Sr.? They talk as often as they exhale. Yet, they’ve said nothing.
Then, there is a defamation lawsuit, alleging that Mayweather, his uncle, father, Mayweather Promotions, De La Hoya and Schaefer slandered Pacquiao. The suit charges that Pacquiao, who balked at Mayweather’s demands for random blood-testing late last year, was smeared by comments that made him look like he was guilty of using performance-enhancing drugs despite his clean record in tests conducted by the Nevada State Athletic Commission.
There has been no news that the lawsuit has been dropped. As long as the lawsuit is still there, it’s hard to imagine that negotiations can move forward. Maybe, a yes from Mayweather would take the lawsuit and legal expenses off the table. That would be a surprise. Santa Claus in July would be too. But I suspect that Santa is not anybody’s clock.
Instead, Arum is talking and acting as if he doesn’t expect an answer, which presumably will be interpreted as a no. For a couple of weeks, he has said that Mayweather might not want to fight again in 2010 in part because Roger Mayweather faces a trial in August on an assault charge..
Then, Arum traveled to Puerto Rico where he spoke to Miguel Cotto about a rematch with Pacquiao in the wake of Nevada’s tabling last week of Margarito’s attempt to regain a U.S. license since his revocation in California a year-and-a-half ago for altered hand wraps.
A day in May has been designated as the next possibility for Mayweather-Pacquiao. But the next couple of weeks loom as sudden death if Mayweather starts talking not long after he lets the deadline pass without a word. There’s no telling what Mayweather might say. But accusations are possible, even likely, in another chapter of a feud without end or an opening bell against Pacquiao.
NOTES, QUOTES
· Arum says he has an offer for Pacquiao to fight Margarito in Monterrey, Mexico, where Margarito faces no licensing problems. But if Pacquiao-Mayweather is a real possibility in May, a fight for Pacquiao, Arum’s major star, against a popular Mexican in Mexico sounds like a crazy gamble. Talk about Pacquiao in Monterrey is a good way to negotiate, but a bad move. A Pacquiao rematch with Cotto in Dallas or Las Vegas makes a lot more sense.
· Timothy Bradley, who has assumed the title of the fighter most avoided by the game’s biggest stars, tries to get in line for a shot at either Pacquiao or Mayweather Saturday night in his 147-pound debut against Carlos Abregu in Rancho Mirage, Calif., on HBO.
· And Detail magazine’s fascinating Q-and-A with Mike Tyson includes a quote that raises one question: Where were the regulators? In talking about his disqualification on the infamous night in 1997 when he bit off a piece of Evander Holyfield ear at Las Vegas MGM Grand, Tyson says: “I wasn’t thinking. I wasn’t training for that fight. I was on (expletive) drugs, thinking I was a god.” Forget about random or blood. How about a test of any kind?
