CEBU, Philippines - With the way things are going on, it appears that legal intervention is the only recourse to resuscitate the dying talks of a Manny Pacquiao-Floyd Mayweather superfight.
The ‘battle for the ages’ was initially scheduled on March 13 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, but negotiations went awry when the camp of Mayweather demanded for both fighters to be subjected to an Olympic-style drug testing.
Pacquiao strongly thumbed down such demand as it does not bode well to his pre-fight ritual on belief that giving blood may weaken him.
The revered Filipino sports hero further put in peril what promises to be the richest fight ever when he filed a lawsuit alleging that Mayweather and several others defamed him by falsely accusing him of using a performance-enhancing drugs.
Inspite of Pacquiao’s legal move, both parties are still trying to exhaust all possible ways and means to prevent the shaky negotiations from complete collapse.
A report by Lem Satterfield of boxing.fanhouse.com stated that representatives of Pacquiao and Mayweather will meet on Tuesday (Wednesday RP time) in retired federal judge Daniel Weinstein’s Santa Monica office of Judicial Arbitration and Mediation Services (JAMS) in a last ditch effort to revive talks for the potential megabout.
Top Rank Promotions CEO Bob Arum and his stepson Top Rank president Todd deBoef will attend the meeting on Pacquiao’s behalf as well as a representative of the Los Angeles-based law firm O’Melveny and Myers, whose attorney Daniel Petrocelli has been retained to take the case.
Petrocelli has earlier remarked that Pacquiao could lose millions of dollars if fans believe he used steroids or human growth hormone to carve a historic seven world titles in seven weight divisions.
In the same internet report, Richard Schaefer, vice president of Golden Boy Promotions that handles Mayweather, declined to comment on the scheduled meeting, but Mayweather Promotions CEO Leonard Ellerbe told FanHouse “we’re still trying to make a deal. We feel that this is the biggest fight in the history of boxing. We want to give this fight to the fans.”
If ever Pacquiao-Mayweather will be scrapped, Arum said Pacquiao’s next possible foe would be either ex-IBF light welterweight titlist Paulie ‘Magic Man’ Malignaggi or the undefeated WBA junior middleweight champion Yuri Foreman (28-0, 8KOs), both New Yorkers. (FREEMAN NEWS)