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Mayweather vs. Pacquiao: Arum Wants The Fight

Bob Arum says that he wants the Mayweather fight but then gives another excuse. Who do you believe? (Photo by Patrick McDermott/Getty Images)
Bob Arum says that he wants the Mayweather fight but then gives another excuse. Who do you believe? (Photo by Patrick McDermott/Getty Images)
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Keeping track of the excuses coming from both sides is starting to get very difficult. In an interview with Rick Reeno, Bob Arum has crafted himself a brand new excuse. Bob talks about the news that Richard Schaefer has called his office several times.

"Now wait a second. It's the same as you, calling me, and saying 'I want to do this fight, I'm promoting Mayweather, let's sit down and talk.' I wouldn't do that because I don't know if you're representing Mayweather or you aren't. You don't have a contract with Mayweather and neither does Schaefer. Schaefer has done some promotions for Mayweather for a fee, but that doesn't mean he's representing him on this type of situation.

Looking at it from Mayweather's perspective, with money this large, I wouldn't want to go naked and fight on a percentage. I would want a substantial guarantee. I know people have called me and said they talked to Mayweather and they were prepared to put up a guarantee, but I don't know if it's true or if it isn't true. It's not my f**king business. It only becomes my business when Mayweather says 'I want to do the fight and these are the people representing me because I made a deal with them.' "

So now the roadblock for this fight is that Floyd doesn't have anyone to represent him. Nevermind, that Golden Boy has promoted all of Floyd's recent fights, all after he fought Oscar De La Hoya. The excuses are piling up and each side is trying to win the PR battle. This move seems to be Arum's attempt at trying to pin the blame on Floyd, because everyone seems to believe Floyd's twitter challenge. Both sides seem to be more interested in winning the PR war than actually making the fight.

Later in the same interview Arum insisted that Floyd Mayweather was the top priority and that they wouldn't even discuss backup plans.

"I am not authorized to talk about who it is, because whoever it is - is Plan B. When they become Plan A, we'll talk about it. Plan A is Mayweather. We are locked and loaded on our side, we're ready."

If they were actually negotiations going on, you would want to talk about your Plan B. You could use this backup plan as leverage in order to get some concessions from the other side. To me, this suggests that Mayweather-Pacquiao is not going to happen and both sides are trying to put the blame on the other side. What is the percentage chance that a Mayweather-Pacquiao fight happens this year? I got 2%.

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