Commentary by P.H. Burbridge – Now, that the Mayweather-Marquez and the Pacquiao-Cotto fights have come and gone and amidst intense fan interest in a meeting between the two victors Top Rank’s, Bob Arum and Golden Boy Promotions, Richard Schaefer have made it over the first hurdle, Floyd Mayweather Jr! Or at least it would appear that way. It has been long suspected that the most difficult aspect of signing this proposed super fight would be Mayweather’s assessment of his own market value. Many boxing insiders expected that Floyd would drag this process out by making outlandish demands and holding his ground. A lot of us flat out assumed that talks would go on for months back and forth while both camps traded insults along the way. Well, we may still get that but at least we know one thing for sure. Floyd Mayweather Jr. definitely wants this fight! He appears to want it badly enough (or need it badly enough! $$$) to forego his normal routine of “making things difficult”. Not this time. Whatever the terms are or whatever he agreed to in principal I’m sure will still be relatively favorable but the fact that Bob Arum is in the Philippines as we speak is a testament that it’s also at least REASONABLE which is somewhat of a miracle considering the stakes. Either Richard Schaefer is incredibly persuasive or completely incompetent and I very seriously doubt that he’s incompetent. It sounds like Bob Arum had all of HIS pre-deal concerns addressed because he went for it. Remember, Bob Arum said a long time ago that Manny had to be in the driver seat on this deal and he has been quite vocal in the press outlining why he felt that way. Also, remember that there is NO love lost between Bob Arum and Floyd Mayweather Jr so if ever there was a time to play hard ball this was it. So far, nothing..
Much to our surprise it doesn’t seem to be going down like that on the Mayweather side and we have something that looks like forward progress. Arum and Schaefer banged out a working agreement in a couple of days and Floyd has agreed to it or at least a portion of it “in principal”. There are no signatures.
However, there are a couple of things working against this fight from the perspective of Pacquiao. First, Freddie Roach does not believe he can get Manny ready for a fight on March 13th for a couple of reasons. The first one being the enormous challenge of fighting a guy the caliber of a Floyd Mayweather Jr and number two he feels that Manny needs more time to adequately heal from the injuries he suffered in the Miguel Cotto fight. I agree with Roach on both fronts. I think March 13th is a bit too soon because essentially Manny would have to turn right around and get right back into training camp sometime in mid-January. It’s just not the injuries it’s also the fact that he’s fought twice in the last 7 months and needs to rest his body. NO fighter should push themselves that hard at this level. Roach is showing his value to Pacquiao here. No question about it.
May 1st, , the other reported date floating around Top Rank land would seem to be the more realistic target date.
BUT, recent events have made that date questionable too.
The initial agreement focused on March 13th because as Mayweather understood it Manny was considering a run at a congressional seat in Sarangani in Mindanao in May during the 2010 national elections in the Philippines. Arum is the one who originally said “March 13th or nothing” to Mayweather and his people. That was Arum’s term and had nothing to do with any Mayweather demand. As it turns out Mayweather is also willing to fight on May 1st.
Well, apparently as of today NEITHER date really works for Manny Pacquiao. Both Roach and Arum made numerous statements after Manny beat Miguel Cotto that if a fight were to take place between he and Mayweather it needed to happen “early next year”. Again, these are their words. Now, both guys have altered their statements. My personal opinion is that neither Arum nor Roach EXPECTED Floyd to be so agreeable and they’re a little taken aback by it. It also appears that Bob Arum jumped the gun a little which is nothing new when it comes to making arrangements on Pacquiao’s behalf. In fact, it’s sounding eerily similar to the controversy surrounding the WBO belt when Arum said the Cotto fight was a done deal publicly and Cotto said “it is BUT, my belt won’t be up for grabs”. In that case, Arum hadn’t spoken with Manny first to ask him if the belt was that big of a concern to him. Of course it was. Same kind of deal here. Manny has his own plans. In fact, according to Manny’s lawyer, Franklin Gacal he’s recently on record as saying “If Manny fights on March 13, it means he should be training two months before that. He might have a hard time focusing because he’d be thinking about the elections,” Also, “Pacquiao had already decided to fight Mayweather, or whoever it may be, after the May elections. But you know Manny. There could be changes”. The last thing Gacal said, however, is that “he (Manny) doesn’t want to fight as soon as March 13 or May 1. As of today, nothing has changed. He wants to focus on the elections,”
So, according to Gacal, Manny’s NOT available for either date. Today, Arum has changed up his story a bit calling media reports “premature and inaccurate that this mega fight for March 13 is all but a done deal”. Well, yesterday Bob you said that “it has to be March 13 because of this crazy congressional thing where the original proposal of a May 1 fight date would not be feasible because of Pacquiao’s bid for a seat in the House of Representatives in the May 10 elections next year.”
Arum also recently said “you can make an argument that because he is running for office Manny can’t fight on May 1st but you can’t logically with a straight face make an argument (against) for March 13.”
Yeah you can, Bob. Roach has already done it!?!
Bob,what the hell?? I’m just asking as a fan!
Big time boxing, Folks…..Stand by for more drama to come in the days ahead!
(Please feel free to contact P.H. Burbridge via email at PHBboxing@yahoo.com with any comments or feedback.)