The
On-going Saga of Pacquiao – Mayweather After weeks of back and forth demands the Manny Pacquiao-Floyd Mayweather, Jr fight may or may not occur in March. Both camps have made demands that their diehard fans can latch onto as a sign that the other side does not really want to fight. That either side would allow this final issue to jeopardize what is hyped as the biggest payday in boxing history – between $30-40 million for each fighter – seems unlikely. Top Rank’s Bob Arum, who promotes Manny Pacquiao, has threatened to kill the fight more than once over demands from Floyd Mayweather’s camp for blood testing that exceeds not only those of the state athletic commission in Nevada, where the fight is scheduled to occur, but, frankly, any fight in the past. According to an online Sports Illustrated story posted on Christmas Eve, Arum appeared to have had enough and said the March 13 fight was off. “It’s over,” Arum said. “O.V.E.R.” Well, that was not the end of it. The SI.com story reported that Arum was moving forward with plans to replace Mayweather with Paul Malignaggi. It is Arum’s card and his decision to make. But then Arum changed his mind and extended the deadline to Monday, because of the Christmas holiday it was said, for Mayweather to drop the blood test demand or the fight would be off. Again. Monday came and went with no progress from either camp. So the fight is off, right? Well, not exactly. Sportssummary contacted both Golden Boy Promotions (which is working with Mayweather Promotions) and Top Rank on Tuesday and was advised that there was no change from either camp and that because of the New Years holiday most employees were off work this week and that no further announcements would be forthcoming until next Monday. That neither side will be making comments to the press over the next five days seems equally unlikely. According
to the Denver Post, the Nevada commission on Monday ordered both
fighters to submit a urine sample for testing and Mayweather’s
camp has been watching reruns of HBO’s 24/7 and learned that
Pacquiao had blood drawn two weeks before his fight with Ricky Hatton.
The mandatory urine test seems unlikely to satisfy Mayweather as
urine will not detect all performance enhancing drugs (PEDs) –
for that a blood test is needed – but perhaps the 24/7 footage
will cause the Filipino to compromise in his time table for testing. |