Floyd Mayweather Jr. is not running away from his fight with Manny Pacquiao. One of his advisers, Leonard Ellerbe, made sure about that following reports coming out on the Internet that the undefeated American is trying to “wiggle” out of the fight being set for March 13.
“There have been a lot of erroneous reports out there and I don’t know where they come from. All I can say is both sides are working very hard to get it done,” Ellerbe told The Grand Rapids Press.
He described as “absurd” reports that there’s problem with the negotiations – from the fight venue to drug tests and the weight, issues that could be keeping the fighters from signing the contract.
Bob Arum of Top Rank told The STAR the other day that everything should be settled soon and that means in the next couple of days. Once sealed, a major press conference takes place in New York on Jan. 6.
Pacquiao’s lawyer, Franklin Gacal, would like to believe that Mayweather is indeed trying to “wiggle” out of the fight, and that’s the reason why the negotiations seemed to be taking longer than expected.
It took Arum just one lunch meeting with Mayweather’s representative, Richard Schaefer of Golden Boy, to get things going two weeks ago, and that only minor details are being ironed out to make everything happen.
Arum even flew to Manila to get Pacquiao into a verbal agreement that he’d fight Mayweather on March 13 at 147 lb anywhere in the world. However, the choice of fight venue is now down to Dallas and Las Vegas.
A report said Mayweather could be bluffing and when Pacquiao called it, suddenly the negotiations slowed down.
“Maybe Floyd is scared of Manny,” said Pacquiao’s lawyer, yesterday, as he waited to board the private plane that took him and other guests here for the boxer’s grand birthday bash scheduled last night.
“Baka natatakot talaga. Baka hindi pa ready labanan si Manny,” said Gacal.
Freddie Roach, the trainer, thinks otherwise.
“I can’t see that because where else can he get this kind of money? Nowhere but from fighting Manny. They’re splitting the PPV money 50-50 so that tells you something,” he told Michael Marley in New York.
Before the Arum-Schaefer meeting, the camp of Mayweather said the ex-pound-for-pound champion was going to England to fight Matthew Hatton early next year, and only after that fight would he consider facing Pacquiao.
Mayweather slept for nearly 21 months and came out of retirement only last September to beat the smaller Juan Manuel Marquez. He could use another tuneup, one against Matthew, before taking on the hard-hitting Pacquiao.
The Filipino icon, on the other hand, can use the time to focus on his bid for a congressional seat in Sarangani in the May 2010 national elections. Or he can go out and fight Yuri Foreman in March.
Foreman is the reigning WBA super-welterweight champion from Israel, and if Pacquiao takes on him there’s the possibility of the 31-year-old Filipino winning his eighth world title in eight different weight classes.
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