And then there was one! In case anyone was still holding out hope that Shane Mosley was not going to be Manny Pacquiao's next opponent, sources close to the situation have informed us that WBC welterweight champion Andre Berto is officially out of the running for the April 16 Manny Pacquiao sweepstakes. Although promoter Bob Arum will maintain his stance that he'll be presenting Pacquiao with offers from Shane Mosley, Juan Manuel Marquez, and Andre Berto, it appears the decision has already been made.
"Lou [DiBella] just told me Bob isn't interested in doing anything with either guy, Martinez or Berto," the source recently confirmed. It's true that Arum has already ruled out a potential clash between Miguel Cotto and DiBella fighter Sergio Martinez, sighting differences in the amount of money that both fighters would share. "We couldn't come to terms. I talked to the Cotto people. They wanted particular terms and Lou wasn't agreeable. Lou wanted to do a percentage deal and Cotto didn't want to do a percentage deal," Arum would explain to Dan Rafael of ESPN.com just days ago. "But I'm not going to tell you what did happen because those things are supposed to be confidential. Lou called and we couldn't make a deal. Period."
Although there's yet to be any word from Bob Arum regarding Berto's chances to get the fight with Pacquiao, he's certainly made it clear that the Haitian-American is not the smart financial choice to make. "The bottom line, it's all about the Benjamins," Arum would tell Kevin Iole of Yahoo! Sports nearly 2 weeks ago. "I input what I think it will do on pay-per-view, and that's largely based upon how I can sell it. Berto is a tough sell, because nobody knows him. I could pitch it as the unknown, the undefeated guy, but how much that moves the needle, I'm not sure."
According to our source, it looks like Arum has come to the conclusion that Berto's name won't "move the needle" enough to outweigh a potential clash with Shane Mosley, who now looks like the last man standing even though he was always the first choice. Of course, the news should come as no surprise to anyone who has followed the business moves of Bob Arum. Keep in mind that this is the same promoter who made the decision to move forward with a Mayweather vs. Judah pay-per-view event despite the fact that Judah was coming off of a shocking unanimous decision upset loss to Carlos Baldomir. Even though fans would have preferred a potential showdown with then-undefeated jr. welterweight champion and fellow stablemate Miguel Cotto, it was Bob Arum who opted to go a different route.
"It's all about the Benjamins!" - Bob Arum
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