According to Dan Rafael of espn.com, attempts to make a fight between Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather did occur through intermediary Ross Greenburg of HBO despite denials from the Mayweather camp.
“Fights like Mayweather vs. Pacquiao are significant because of these fighters’ ability to connect with sports fans around the world. It’s unfortunate that it won’t happen in 2010,” Greenburg said in a statement. “I had been negotiating with a representative from each side since May 2nd, carefully trying to put the fight together. Hopefully, someday this fight will happen. Sports fans deserve it.”
Leonard Ellerbe, Mayweather’s other adviser and the public voice because Haymon refuses to speak to the press, said a few days after Arum outlined how the talks went that there had never been any negotiations.
He released a statement a few days after Arum’s teleconference that said, “Here are the facts. Al Haymon, (Golden Boy Promotions CEO) Richard Schaefer and myself speak to each other on a regular basis, and the truth is no negotiations have ever taken place, nor was there ever a deal agreed upon by Team Mayweather or Floyd Mayweather to fight Manny Pacquiao on Nov. 13. Either Ross Greenburg or Bob Arum is not telling the truth, but history tells us who is lying.”
Arum was pleased that Greenburg supported his version of events and cut him slack for taking a week to say so publicly.
“He works for a major public company and he has to clear this sort of thing with his bosses,” Arum told ESPN.com. “I understand that he had to get his statement cleared.
“The one you should all be taking to task is Schaefer for lying to the press,” Arum said. “You don’t do that. You can say ‘no comment’ or say nothing. Richard Schaefer owes an apology to the press, not to me, because I’ve written him off a long time ago. But now anything he says will be suspect. I don’t feel vindicated by Ross’ statement because that’s what happened. I knew what happened because I know I lived through the negotiations. I knew what I said about them was absolutely truthful so I didn’t give a damn who believed me. No skin off my back.
“Indeed, when I made the statement about the negotiations on the conference call, I wasn’t looking for controversy. I was kind to Mayweather. But Mayweather is the boss on his side and when he says, ‘jump,’ you’re supposed to ask, ‘how high.’ That’s why none of them have any credibility. Schaefer and Haymon and Ellerbe, they cling to the Mayweather boat because that’s the source of their riches. So the fact is that Ellerbe, who is not a bad guy, will do anything that Floyd asks, but Floyd is not quite a rational person. For Schaefer to be part of this drinking the Kool Aid is really pathetic. It’s really sad. Doesn’t he have any pride?”
“I think it’s unfortunate that Ross made that statement,” Schaefer told ESPN.com. “I fully stand behind the statement I made. I have not negotiated with Ross and I am not aware of any negotiations that have taken place.
“If Ross or Arum wants to go through a lie detector test, we can arrange that. I can only tell you I have regular contact with Al and Leonard and there were no negotiations going on. I don’t know exactly what Ross is referring to or what he is talking about. But I have been very consistent. There were none going on. Arum should just get a life and stop attacking me on a nonstop basis. This is really childish.”
Arum is now focused on finalizing the Pacquiao-Margarito fight, which if completed, will take place at a maximum weight of 150 pounds for the WBC’s vacant junior middleweight title. If Pacquiao wins, he would extend his record of winning world titles to an eighth weight class. Pacquiao has won titles from flyweight to welterweight.
“There’s a lot of pressure on me to get it done in Las Vegas from everyone in town,” Arum said. “The fight is important to the city. But I want it known that if it is not in Las Vegas, it’s not because of Bob Arum. I live there and I feel the town needs this. It’s not because of me if the fight is caused to go elsewhere.”
