Arum to Open Negotiations with Yuri Foreman

Pacquiao promoter, Bob Arum announced today that he will open talks with super-welterweight champion Yuri Foreman. This comes after an offer was made to Mayweather’s camp to allow the Nevada State Athletic Commission to handle the drug testing for the mega-fight. Golden Boy Promotions hasn’t responded to the offer.

Today Arum said, "This is only my opinion, but I don't see the fight happening now. Positions are hardening. I talked to [Pacquiao's advisor], and Manny's fit to be tied. He's very angry." Way to go Floyd.

Let’s try to look at the bright side. Manny Pacquiao could one-up his current world record of having attained 7 world championships in 7 weight divisions, an honor that he alone has managed to achieve. Having 8 weight division titles would put his record 2 places above Oscar De La Hoya who holds 6 weight division titles. De La Hoya’s already bruised ego will likely take yet another blazing straight left.

What about Floyd Mayweather? Most likely he’ll move on to impress the world with his brilliant boxing athleticism against someone he’s certain he can beat without breaking a sweat, proving that he is the greatest ducker of all time. Mayweather’s despicable antics outside the ring may have cost boxing fans the fight the world wants to see.

Who will be next in line to fight Floyd? Nobody knows and frankly if it’s not Manny “Pacman” Pacquiao, who cares?

You knew you couldn’t beat him, didn’t you Floyd?

YURI FOREMAN's Boxing Record
WBA World light middleweight Champion
28-0-0, 8 KO's
click here for complete record..

Source: Lorne Scoggins  Bleacher Report

Arum to ask Pacquiao to rethink blood objection

MIAMI (Reuters) - World champion Manny Pacquiao's promoter Bob Arum says he will ask the boxer to reconsider his objection to blood testing, raising the prospect that the proposed bout with American Floyd Mayweather could yet go ahead.

Just hours after Arum said that he was going to announce a new opponent for world champion Pacquiao, Mayweather's camp highlighted footage from a television documentary that appeared to contradict Pacquiao's objection to blood testing close to the fight.

Pacquiao has balked at Mayweather's demand for random blood testing within 30 days of the fight, preferring urine testing as he says losing blood weakens him -- a stance which has threatened a highly anticipated and lucrative match-up.

But scenes from the HBO reality show 'Pacquiao/Hatton 24/7' which documented Pacquiao's build-up to his fight with Briton Ricky Hatton in May, showed the Filipino fighter giving blood.

Mayweather's camp said the scene was filmed just 14 days before the fight -- a fact Arum said he wanted to verify before speaking to his fighter.

"I will transmit it to Manny once (HBO Sports president) Ross Greenburg establishes the actual date of the test in '24/7' and (the Mayweather camp) makes a proposal based on what Ross has come up with," Arum told ESPN.com.

"If that happens, I am sure I can convince Manny," he said.

NOT BACKING OFF

Arum had set a Monday deadline for Golden Boy to accept a "final offer" in which both sides let the Nevada State Athletic Commission make the final decision on testing.

Leonard Ellerbe, CEO of Mayweather Promotions, said that there was no question of accepting that proposal.

"Random is random. We are not backing off and the ball is in their court," he told Reuters.

Arum then threatened to find another opponent for Pacquiao which in turn prompted another sharp response from the Mayweather team in a statement on Monday.

"Let the record be clear: Manny Pacquiao and his promoter Bob Arum are threatening to walk away from the largest fight in history," it said.

But the Mayweather camp also left the door open for further talks.

"Team Mayweather and Golden Boy Promotions is still open to the earlier discussions of having both parties work out a mutually agreeable understanding of the testing, which would be conducted by a mutually agreed upon agency," the statement added.

Pacquiao won the WBO title in November by stopping holder Miguel Cotto in the 12th round in Las Vegas.

The Filipino (50-3-2) won an unprecedented seventh title in seven weight classes to set up the best pound-for-pound showdown against unbeaten Mayweather (40-0) in what was expected to be among boxing's biggest earning fights.

Arum to proceed with lawsuits against Golden Boy

Top Rank promoter Bob Arum says that the planned lawsuits against Golden Boy Promotions will proceed even as he revealed that the major litigation will be against Golden Boy for the promotional rights of pound-for-pound king Manny Pacquiao.

In a lengthy interview with Greg Leon of Boxing Talk, Arum said that as a result of the settlement he had reached with Golden Boy Promotions over the Pacquiao contract which was resolved through arbitration, Golden Boy Promotions was making money on Pacquiao fights and that he was “going before the arbitrator to get that removed and that’s going to cost them millions of dollars.”

Arum told Leon that it would include the profit that Golden Boy would have gotten from the Cotto fight which is probably between $1.5 - $2 million on their end.” Arum said the Golden Boy take on Pacquiao fights is about to go “bye bye.”

Arum insisted in his conversation with Leon that “Manny Pacquiao is 100% an honest kid. He’s never cheated and virtually every doctor except for this guy from USADA says you can determine everything from urine analysis. People in that organization hate that guy that has been a loudmouth. Ask him how many blood tests there were from 29 days before the Olympics until after the competition was over. You know what the answer is? ZERO. If they didn’t do any blood tests until after the athlete competed what the hell are they talking about? What are we trying to subject these fighters to?”

Arum and Pacquiao who had agreed to having Pacquiao’s blood tested one d ay before the kickoff press conference to announce the fight officially, 30 days before the fight and in the dressing room immediately after the planned March 13 bout conceded that there is a need for better standards of testing. He told Boxing Talk that while he thinks there should be more pre-fight urinalysis the doctors and experts Top Rank consulted have said that “ every single thing that can be picked up in blood, is better picked up in urine analysis. The only reason they do the blood after the guy competes is because they freeze the blood and it stays good for eight years, the urine decomposes after a while. If they want to take blood after the fight, if they want to freeze it fine, who gives a shit? But that’s why there’s no blood testing until after the competition at the Olympics and that’s something this scumbag never said.”

The astute Top Rank promoter who remain livid over the allegations that Pacquiao was on performance enhancing drugs referred to this reporter’s conversation with Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer in h is office last September before the Mayweather-Juan Manuel Marquez fight in which Schaefer told us he was sure Pacquiao was on some performance enhancing drug although in the face of a planned huge lawsuit, Schaefer denied making the statement although he confirmed the other details of the meeting in the Golden Boy Promotions conference room

Arum said there was no way he would bend after he learned what Schaefer told us. He told Leon “ And his dialogue with this creep from the USADA started in September. We have evidence of that, we have all of the inside stuff. This is a whole campaign on his and that creep Oscar’s part to smear Pacquiao because he chose us over them. I’ll bet you all the money in the world, I don’t know this for a fact, but this whole idea was put in their ear by Schaefer.”

Even WBC president Don Jose Sulaiman Sulaiman told www.insidesports.ph, Standard Today and Viva Sports from his home in Mexico “Manny has had many WBC title fights . He’s always been clean. I know him as a decent, exceptional, clean person and I don’t think it was fair” for such allegations about being on performance-enhancing drugs to be made.