Bob Arum: Mayweather's Criminal Cases the Only Hindrance to Making Pacquiao Fight

Bob Arum spoke with MaxBoxing's Radio Rahim about a range of topics, including Dana White, Manny Pacquiao going head-to-head with UFC on Fox on November 12, and Cotto vs Margarito II. Here's the video:

On Cotto vs Margarito II: "I don't believe that Margarito's gloves were loaded for the Cotto fight. Whoever wins this fight, wins this fight. I just know it's gonna be a great fight. ... I think it's gonna be better (than the first fight). Because these guys know what to expect from each other. And these are two warriors, and if you wanna see a really exciting, back-and-forth fight, this is the fight to watch."

On Pacquiao vs UFC on Fox, Nov. 12: "The UFC's gonna help us, really. Because their program is on for only one hour, 6 to 7, and Pacquiao won't be in the ring before 8:30 at the earliest. So if people wanna watch the UFC, I think they got a pretty good fight on, on Fox, that's great. Because a lot of them then will turn to the pay-per-view and see most of the pay-per-view card, and all of the Manny Pacquiao fight."

On Dana White calling Arum a 'scumbag': "I don't know where Dana is coming from. I never said anything bad about him. But Dana has to realize that because of the monopoly that UFC has, they pay their fighters maybe 20% of the proceeds that come in on a UFC fight, and we pay fighters over 80%. So that's the difference. I mean, talk about giving back to the sport. When you pay your talent 20%, and boxing promoters, myself and others, pay their talent over 80%, who's giving back to whom?"

On boxing getting back to network TV: "It's very easy for Dana to say that (boxing promoters are greedy) when his athletes get paid nothing. Our athletes get paid. But yeah, we're negotiating right now with a major network to do boxing in primetime on the network."

On Pacquaio vs Mayweather: "It depends largely on something that's out of everybody's control, other than the fact that Manny still has to beat Marquez. But even if he does, does Mayweather beat the criminal justice system in Nevada? That's the issue! Who knows if Mayweather's gonna be around next year to fight? I mean, he has real problems. Does he get them solved? I don't know. But before anybody starts talking about a Pacquiao-Mayweather fight, they better ask themselves, what is Mayweather's criminal situation, and will he be around in 2012 to fight Pacquiao or anyone else?"

On testing: "It's been agreed by Manny for a year and a half. So I don't know how you could get it more settled."

Scott's Take: On the topic of pay scales in UFC and boxing, I think this is just something that is plain different about the sports. Eventually, the UFC guys are going to seriously wonder why they're not being paid more. Probably, anyway. But you can also argue that the high purses are part of what hurts boxing as a sport. When there is so much money at stake, and such a major difference in being paid to fight on HBO or ESPN, I think that can contribute to sometimes guys being scared to take major risks with matchups. I'm not saying that it should change, even. I'm all for fighters being paid what they're worth and then some. They're the ones in there getting beaten up in a career that won't last long.

On the topic of Mayweather's criminal cases in Nevada being the only hindrance to a fight with Manny Pacquiao happening, that's some nice spin and a way to remind everyone that Floyd is a bad person or whatever. It's a pretty cheap tactic, but at the same time it's not Arum who put Floyd into those positions, and I guess in a world of lousy trash-talking and little action on the subject of the biggest fight in the world, all is, at this point, fair.