Talks did take place over mega fight
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
As pound-for-pound king Manny Pacquiao moves on to a probable Nov. 13 fight against Antonio Margarito -- now that Floyd Mayweather has said he is not interested in making boxing's biggest fight, at least this year -- there is still some unfinished business from the messiness of last week's cliff hanger: Were the Pacquiao and Mayweather camps negotiating the fight or not?
Top Rank's Bob Arum, Pacquiao's promoter, insists they were, using HBO Sports president Ross Greenburg as an intermediary. The Mayweather camp said that is not true and that there were never any negotiations.
The man in the middle of the storm, Greenburg, remained silent even when pressed repeatedly to offer his version of events.
On Monday night, Greenburg finally did. He took the Arum/Pacquiao side.
"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."
The date Greenburg mentioned was the day after Mayweather's resounding decision win against Shane Mosley.
Arum had said over and over during the past two weeks, beginning on a 3 a.m. ET July 17 conference call to announce that the exclusive window to negotiate with Mayweather had closed, that he was negotiating the fight with Al Haymon, Mayweather's adviser, with Greenburg as the go-between.
Arum said he would discuss deal points with Greenburg, who would then take them to Haymon and vice versa.
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."
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