Arum says Mayweather 'retirement' all talks

MANILA, Philippines - It’s either Floyd Mayweather was lying or he was just fooling around.

Top Rank’s head Bob Arum thinks it could be both.

“I’m used to Floyd saying a lot of things like that. Floyd says a lot of things and I chose to believe differently,” Arum told Michael Marley of The Examiner amid talks that the American fighter had once again retired.

A couple of days ago, the 33-year-old Mayweather was caught on video saying he wants “a year or two” out of boxing. If true, then it practically rules out a superfight with Manny Pacquiao in November.

“That’s the Make A Wish (charity) video,” said Arum, who’s not taking it seriously.

Of course, the 78-year-old Top Rank president has only one wish to make and that’s to make the fight between Pacquiao and Mayweather on Nov. 13, most likely in Las Vegas.

It’s a fight that could earn around $40 million each for both fighters, and it’s the fight the entire planet wants to see – regardless of all the arguments and disagreements regarding the drug-testing procedure of purse split.

What Arum wants is for both camps to continue talking and one of these days come to an agreement to stage the fight.

But first, Mayweather should set the record straight whether he has really retired or if he was just trying to fool everybody.

“It could have been just spur of the moment, him saying he was taking a year or two years off. I’m sure, if it is true, he will make that statement in the proper way which is to put out a press release,” Arum told Marley.

While Jerry Jones of the Dallas Cowboys itching to host the superfight, following the highly-appreciated Pacquiao-Joshua Clottey contest before 51,000 fans last March, it seems that Las Vegas now has the upperhand.

“I’m sure MGM (Grand) will make a huge offer,” Arum said almost a month ago, just before boarding his flight out of General Santos City where he came to the May 10 elections and watched Pacquiao earn a congressional seat.

The Las Vegas venue must have pitched its offer, and Arum is now sounding like it’s a done deal.

Marley quoted the legendary promoter, based in Sin City, as saying something like him “not minding putting a fight where I can sleep in my own bed.”