Early last month, Bob Arum declared, "we've agreed to everything, period...the people we have talked to on Mayweather's side have agreed to everything." Fast-forward three weeks later and it now appears the Hall of Fame promoter is digging his heels in when it comes to finalizing a deal for the long-awaited mega-fight between undefeated pound-for-pound king Floyd Mayweather and 8-division world champion Manny Pacquiao. Hours after HBO Sports released a brief statement yesterday making it clear that they were "not an impediment" and are "ready to go" as far negotiations are concerned, Arum claimed that there are still issues to be resolved between both the fighters and the networks.
"There are issues that should be solved in 10 minutes, but it's a slow dance. We send one draft to their side and their lawyer sends back a draft with something else that's an issue. And there doesn't seem to be any urgency about it on their side. It's terrible," Arum explained in an interview with ESPN.com. "I've asked Les to expeditiously handle the points there are issues with. Moonves can handle it. The question is whether the Mayweather side will listen to him. If they're sincere about trying to make the fight, it shouldn't be an issue, or are they playing a game?"
Mind you, just last week, following an unexpected private meeting between both fighters, it was Pacquiao's own adviser, Michael Koncz, who made the claim that any minor issues that existed between the networks were resolved. "I talked to Arum. Arum had conversations with [HBO CEO Richard] Plepler and [CBS CEO Les] Moonves and those issues are resolved now," Koncz informed multiple media outlets. That being said, it seems odd that Arum is now saying the exact opposite of what he had been telling everyone prior to that face-to-face encounter between Mayweather and Pacquiao. Why did Arum go from "sign the contract" to "there's a lot more work to do" and "there are no issues that I can see that mean anything" in just a matter of days?
It's also interesting to note Arum's use of the words "urgency" and "expeditiously". For the past several days, Mayweather has been on a Caribbean vacation, posting pictures and videos on his social media accounts. Obviously at this advanced stage of negotiations, Mayweather's influential adivser Al Haymon is perfectly capable of closing a deal, though Mayweather himself is only a phone call away should any issues need to be discussed. Given Arum's about-face regarding issues that still need to be resolved, however, it wouldn't be a stretch to think that he may be laying the foundation to blame the undefeated fighter if talks do indeed fall apart. Nevertheless, the clock is ticking and time is quickly running out to reach an agreement.
"The thing that really concerns me is that we are running out of time for May 2," Arum added. "If you want to drag this out a little longer, then move the fight to later in May -- May 30 is a good date -- or go in June. We agreed to go on May 2 because that is the date Mayweather is hung up on, but if we're going to go on May 2, we need to get this done." FightHype has been advised that contrary to some reports, a deal between the two networks is actually close to being reached, and from what we've been led to believe, there's virtually no issues left to be resolved between the two fighters, which is what Arum himself first told us three weeks ago when he boldly proclaimed, "we've agreed to everything, period!"
Is Arum really trying to finalize the fight, or has he dug his heels in, simply stalling until it's time for him to once again lay the blame on Mayweather? Time will tell, but from what we hear, regardless of Arum's latest comments, everyone involved is still optimistic that a deal will soon be reached.
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