By Lorne Scoggins:
www.8countnews.com
Floyd Mayweather Jr. is an interesting character. He’s a man of extremes. Inside the ring he is undeniably brilliant, but outside of it, his egomaniacal persona can only be evidence of one of two things. He is either an extremely insecure individual hiding behind a carefully constructed and perfectly maintained facade, or he has severe delusions of grandeur. There’s no other possibility. Take your pick.
In comparison, Manny Pacquiao is a man of contrasts. He is widely considered one of the gentlemen of the sport. He speaks of his opponents with respect. His calm demeanor and humility are in direct contrast with his killer instinct, ferocity and frenzied fighting style inside the ring.
Pacquiao will fight Joshua Clottey on March 13, and Mayweather will fight Shane Mosley on May 1. Although both fights promise to be exciting events, boxing fans the world over are still itching to see a bout between the top two pound for pound fighters in the world. The still hypothetical bout between Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr. has already been fought vicariously through fans of both pugilists on various boxing forums a thousand times over.
Both fighters are continually asked about the possibility of a future match-up, even as they are promoting and training for their upcoming bouts. Pacquiao has to contend with questions regarding allegations of PED use that were fabricated by Team Mayweather. Despite the constant questioning about the doping allegations, he hasn't fired back with irresponsible or distasteful remarks about his accusers. In fact, he has kept his replies short and simple, wisely refraining from an all out attack against Mayweather. He has simply stated that he believes that Mayweather doesn’t want to fight him. Mayweather, on the other hand, has been more vocal. In a recent interview with David Mayo of the Grand Rapids Press, Mayweather upped the anti for the possibility of a future match with Pacquiao.
“Instead of 20 or 25 (million dollars), he may have to drop to 15, or 17,” Mayweather said. “And you know me, they may have to throw that extra five or 10 on mine, and we can rock and roll. Take it or leave it.”
Mayweather also said, “I gave him a chance, up to 14 days out. But my new terms are all the way up to the fight. They can come get us whenever, all the way up to the fight, random drug test. That’s what it is.”
How kind it was for Floyd to have given Manny a chance. He's a swell guy. But now Floyd's had enough. No more Mr. Nice Guy. If negotiations reopen down the road, things will be different. It appears that poor Manny will “have to” give up 10 million dollars, submit blood samples at the weigh-in, before the fight and possibly between every round to prove that Team Pacquiao isn't slipping a little something special into his water. Failure to do so could result in Floyd pouting in the corner and glaring disdainfully at Manny, which would certainly hurt Manny's feelings.
Let's get real. Regardless of what Mayweather says Pacquiao “may have to” do, Pacquiao has already proven that he doesn't “have to” do anything that is not mandated by the boxing commission. It is also noteworthy that Mayweather was actually the one who was given a chance. Pacquiao is the WBO welterweight champion of the world as well as the No. 1 ranked pound for pound fighter. That makes Mayweather the challenger. He seems to be forgetful of that fact.
Contact Lorne: lscoggins@8countnews.com
I answer all emails but please direct all death threats to my publicist.
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
The Pacquiao-Mayweather Debacle, a Timeline
By Ryan Dunn:
www.BoxingNews24.com
There has been more finger-pointing, slandering, name-calling, insulting, whining, crying, and in-fighting surroudning the Mayweather/Pacquiao negotiations than a kindergarten playground. I have engaged in several (hopefully spirited) debates myself, offering my point of view on the matter. Let me summarize what I personally believe to be the situation, and the readers can weigh-in with their thoughts.
A brief timeline… Manny Pacquiao fights Miguel Cotto on November 17, 2009, and wins in an exciting fashion. Having come off two big performances against Oscar De La Hoya and Ricky Hatton, the world hopped onto the Pacman Bandwagon, hailing him as the next best thing since Henry Armstrong.
But something was brewing. Before the Cotto fight, Floyd Mayweather Sr., a hall of fame trainer and father to Floyd Jr., proclaimed his doubts as to Manny’s legitimacy as a viable champion at heavier weights. After Floyd Sr. trained Ricky Hatton for one match and lost to Manny Pacquiao, he claimed that Manny Pacquiao — while still fighting like an amateur — is too strong for his frame. He noticed that, by the way Manny flexes his muscles at weigh-ins, you know something’s going on there. This accusation went mostly unheeded, however, because Floyd Sr. is nothing if not a good trash talker (where do you think his son gets it from?).
So the Cotto fight happened, and Manny won in such an impressive manner, that there were really only two immediate places for Manny to go; he would either have to face Shane Mosley or Floyd Mayweather next. Of course, there are a growing group of top welterweights who would all give Pacquiao a good challenge, some of them being better match-ups on paper than others, but everyone wanted to see Mosley or Mayweather take on the Filipino phenom.
Mayweather was obviously the top choice, since Floyd left the sport with a perfect record, and is hailed by many (myself included) to be one of the most technically sound and naturally gifted boxers in the sport. Unlike Manny, Floyd Jr. did not need a decade of fights to improve his ringcraft. He always had the gift, and it always came easy to him. We all can play the “Who Did He Duck?” game (I’ll get to that in a minute), but the truth is he took on some great challengers, and worked with his promoters to pick some very “smart” fights — competitive match-ups that never posed a mortal threat to him or his legacy (for the record, Manny has done the same).
Shortly after the Cotto fight, the world was buzzing with the prospect of the Superfight to end all Superfights. The fans wanted to see Mayweather and Pacquiao enter the squared circle, and prove to the masses who was best. Many skeptics had their doubts as to whether Mayweather would entertain the fight, or if he would avoid it, or put out lofty demands that could never realistically be met. But he surprised many when he opened the door to negotiations with Top Rank in no time at all.
There were some complications early on. The first was settling the purse split (Floyd came to Bob Arum with a 60/40 proposal, favoring Mayweather). Another surprise came when Golden Boy Promotions (the promoters who handle Floyd’s fights of late) stated that Floyd would agree to a 50/50 split. Everything seemed downhill from there. After that, Manny threw a curve ball, requesting an earlier fight date (in March instead of May) so that he could campaign for a senate seat in his homeland through April and May. Again, Team Mayweather agreed to the date.
The fans became cautiously optimistic. Could it be? The Superfight to end all Superfights might actually happen? And in MARCH no less? It all seemed so fast, so easy… almost TOO easy. Along with those bigger issues (the purse, the date), there were more minor issues, such as ring size, glove size, fight location… as well as two other items not mentioned up until this point.
The first came in the form of a weight limit penalty clause. Team Pacquiao realized they were coming into the fight as the smaller opponent. Floyd has fought as heavy as 150 against De La Hoya, while Manny has said he can’t fight at his level much higher than 145. So after Mayweather came in overweight against a much smaller Juan Manuel Marquez, paying a $300,000 fine with a smile on his face, Pacquiao and his handlers demanded a much higher penalty if Mayweather were to come overweight in their fight. They demanded a $10 million per pound penalty for every pound Floyd Jr. came in over. This was not meant to line Pacquiao’s pockets, but to ensure that both fighters met at the same weight by the end of their training regimes.
And in another surprise, Floyd agreed.
But you see, while all of these demands were acquiesced to (from Mayweather keeping the fight in Vegas, to Manny getting the standard ring size), Team Mayweather had their own clause, a drug testing addendum, which required both fighters to undergo Olympic style drug testing, blood and urine, to ensure the cleanliness and level the playing field. On the surface, this seems no more absurd than Manny’s $10 million per pound penalty. Right?
Well… you remember when I mentioned something was brewing back when Floyd Sr. made his baseless accusation of Manny Pacquiao? Well it was about to boil over, in ways I don’t think either side could have predicted. Some sources have stated that Freddie Roach himself had agreed to any kind of blood or urine testing the promoters saw fit, no problem. And while Manny Pacquiao never came out and acknowledged this to be true (he was in the Philippines at the time, remember), those who knew of the situation trusted that Freddie’s word was good.
However, Floyd Mayweather, before the contracts were ever signed (before the Pacquiao/Cotto match), in early October of last year, called in to Shade45, a satellite radio channel, and did an interview with RA the Rugged Man. RA drilled Floyd for ducking great fighters, and for picking on smaller men (at the time, those smaller men could only have been Marquez and Hatton, since De La Hoya was a bigger man than Floyd, and those were the only fights anyone cared about at the time). Floyd got upset in that interview, and was pressed by RA to challenge Pacquiao and enter the ring with a true cmapion. That was when Mayweather, in his flustered state, made an off-handed remark which bared a scary resmblance to his father’s accusations from several months earlier.
Floyd implied that Manny may be on something, and that the Philippines were the makers of some of the best performance enhancing drugs (PEDs) on the market. Whether this was true or not, the statement seemed to come out of nowhere.
This interview didn’t break big to the boxing public right away. Once the Mayweather/Pacquiao negotiations got serious, however, word got out. Eventually it reached the ears of Top Rank and Team Pacquiao. But it was too late for Team Mayweather to save face. It spread like a brush fire. And before long, other boxers like Paulie Malignaggi, and even Miguel Cotto, began to share their suspicions about Pacquiao being a clean fighter. You would have thought these guys were running for president the way the smear campaign took hold. Once De La Hoya (Floyd’s own promoter!) threw his hat into the ring and changed his own story about Pacquiao’s uncanny punching power, you knew things were getting bad.
But where did this all come from? Nobody had ever publicly accused Manny of being on PEDs before he fought Cotto besides Floyd Sr. Nobody even seemed to have their theories in place after he destroyed Cotto. The naysayers simply said that Cotto might have been too damaged from the Margarito fight, which is a fine debate. Now, all of the sudden, Manny is guilty in the court of public opinion? My, my, what a couple of weeks made!
Well needless to say, Manny was none to pleased to find out that not only he but his own country had been accused of illicit behavior. This was right around the same time that Team Pacquiao started their litany of excuses. Whether intentional or not, Team Mayweather could not have asked for a better result. What started as a brushfire had now grown into one of the most public defamation stories in all of sports.
Instead of denying the accusations outright and threatening to sue (both of which Pacquiao did), Top Rank and Pacquiao floundered around. One minute their story was that Manny didn’t feel that taking blood from the body was natural. Then the word got out that Manny was afraid of needles (in fairness, this was never mentioned during the Mayweather negotiations, but something Manny had stated in the past), regardless of all of his tattoes. Then Moralesgate™ hit the airwaves, and people learned that in the fight Manny lost to Morales, he had blood taken from his body two days prior, in a NSAC mix-up in which they had misplaced Manny’s original sample from his physical.
It all began to look like the behavior of a guilty man. And though I hate to admit it, I questioned the boxer’s honesty myself. Could Mayweather and his cohorts actually have found some nugget of truth amidst their wild and unfounded accusations? I began to wonder.
But then I thought about it more. Was this really a story about Mayweather trying to “clean up the sport of boxing,” as is his current hue and cry (it’s worth noting that in his last fight out of retirement vs. Marquez, there was no blood testing clause)? Or was this about a fight that was never really going to happen regardless of how swimmingly the negotiations had gone up until that point?
Let’s examine some of the motives at play here…
If you subscribe to the “Manny is Guilty,” camp, you claim that Manny’s refusal to take the tests as an admission of guilt. That is a fair position, but you have to take this stance knowing that there is absolutely no proof in existence to support the claim — no dirty needle in the duffle bag, no vile of The Clear in his locker, no frozen bag of his blood in his freezer at home — only the suspicion of some less-than-credible sources. But still, I will agree, when OJ fled from the authorities in his white Bronco, most of us knew what was up. The question here though is this: Why not just take the test and prove your innocence? What’s the big deal?
But if you take the “Manny is the Victim,” approach, AKA innocent until proven guilty, then you have to look at facts objectively. Not only facts but motive. Why would Manny refuse testing for drugs he hasn’t even taken yet? Should we believe that Manny is so dependent on PEDs that he won’t agree to NOT take them even though he stands to make more than $30 million for a few hours in the ring?
It just didn’t add up for me. Yes, I agree, Manny and his team handled the defamation very poorly. They should have just said something like, “We don’t have anything to hide, and we don’t have anything to prove,” and left it in Mayweather’s court to try and get the NSAC to change the rules. At least then it would be a firm stance upon which you could judge Team Pacquiao upon.
But I honestly don’t think Pacquiao has any fear about facing Mayweather. The motive just isn’t there, and here’s why:
Is Manny afraid of losing? No. He’s already lost in the past. Is Manny afraid of Floyd’s punching power? No. Floyd is not a knockout artist. Is Manny worried he won’t get any big fights after this one? No. He can retire the wealthiest man in the Philippines if he loses.
By this logic, there is no reason Manny, if he so chose, couldn’t have just said “Fine,” to the testing, and trained for Mayweather totally clean. Even if he was the biggest steroid user in all of his 55 fights leading up to this fight, he STILL could have gone clean on this one, and lost the fight badly.
So the “Manny is Guilty,” line of thought doesn’t hold water for me. But does Floyd have any motivation NOT to make this fight happen? I think you will find this hard to refute. Let’s take a look…
Is Floyd concerned about keeping his undefeated record? Of course he is, he brags about it every interview he has (and rightfully so!). Is Floyd afraid of Manny’s power? He might not tell you he is, but he’s mentioned many times how proud he is of the fact he never took any punishment in the ring. Does Floyd need the money? He won’t admit it, but the IRS has exposed that Floyd went a long time without paying his taxes, and had millions of back-moneys to pay to the government.
He has also said that skills pay the bills, and that legacy doesn’t feed your family. So you have to think that part of his reason for coming out of retirement has something more to do with money than a strict love for the sport, correct? By this logic, a risky fight, including a loss to Pacquiao, would not only ruin his perfect record, it could seriously jeopardize his value as a boxer after that. Remember, he was never the biggest draw in boxing until AFTER his fight with De La Hoya (if you don’t believe me, understand that De La Hoya made $52 million in their fight, while Mayweather made less than half that, at $25 million).
So the question of who is ducking who seems to me to point more to Mayweather than it does to Pacquiao. But I’m also not 100% clear that anyone is ducking anyone. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if this whole thing spiralled out of control, and it came down to the egos of two fighters getting in the way of the deal. Or it could be a publicity stunt conducted by the promoters involved to drum up even more interest in the match up for an even larger purse and PPV record late this summer or early this fall.
All I know is that Mayweather and Mosley are going to fight. And if you’re going to duck Pacquiao, then you damn well better duck Mosley, because both of those guys (if anybody) stand a very good chance of beating you.
The debate will continue, of course, maybe forever, but I think down deep we STILL all want to see this fight happen. Both of these guys, both Mayweather and Pacquiao, have Spring fights to get past first, and both of them have their hands full with strong fighters who can hurt them.
www.BoxingNews24.com
There has been more finger-pointing, slandering, name-calling, insulting, whining, crying, and in-fighting surroudning the Mayweather/Pacquiao negotiations than a kindergarten playground. I have engaged in several (hopefully spirited) debates myself, offering my point of view on the matter. Let me summarize what I personally believe to be the situation, and the readers can weigh-in with their thoughts.
A brief timeline… Manny Pacquiao fights Miguel Cotto on November 17, 2009, and wins in an exciting fashion. Having come off two big performances against Oscar De La Hoya and Ricky Hatton, the world hopped onto the Pacman Bandwagon, hailing him as the next best thing since Henry Armstrong.
But something was brewing. Before the Cotto fight, Floyd Mayweather Sr., a hall of fame trainer and father to Floyd Jr., proclaimed his doubts as to Manny’s legitimacy as a viable champion at heavier weights. After Floyd Sr. trained Ricky Hatton for one match and lost to Manny Pacquiao, he claimed that Manny Pacquiao — while still fighting like an amateur — is too strong for his frame. He noticed that, by the way Manny flexes his muscles at weigh-ins, you know something’s going on there. This accusation went mostly unheeded, however, because Floyd Sr. is nothing if not a good trash talker (where do you think his son gets it from?).
So the Cotto fight happened, and Manny won in such an impressive manner, that there were really only two immediate places for Manny to go; he would either have to face Shane Mosley or Floyd Mayweather next. Of course, there are a growing group of top welterweights who would all give Pacquiao a good challenge, some of them being better match-ups on paper than others, but everyone wanted to see Mosley or Mayweather take on the Filipino phenom.
Mayweather was obviously the top choice, since Floyd left the sport with a perfect record, and is hailed by many (myself included) to be one of the most technically sound and naturally gifted boxers in the sport. Unlike Manny, Floyd Jr. did not need a decade of fights to improve his ringcraft. He always had the gift, and it always came easy to him. We all can play the “Who Did He Duck?” game (I’ll get to that in a minute), but the truth is he took on some great challengers, and worked with his promoters to pick some very “smart” fights — competitive match-ups that never posed a mortal threat to him or his legacy (for the record, Manny has done the same).
Shortly after the Cotto fight, the world was buzzing with the prospect of the Superfight to end all Superfights. The fans wanted to see Mayweather and Pacquiao enter the squared circle, and prove to the masses who was best. Many skeptics had their doubts as to whether Mayweather would entertain the fight, or if he would avoid it, or put out lofty demands that could never realistically be met. But he surprised many when he opened the door to negotiations with Top Rank in no time at all.
There were some complications early on. The first was settling the purse split (Floyd came to Bob Arum with a 60/40 proposal, favoring Mayweather). Another surprise came when Golden Boy Promotions (the promoters who handle Floyd’s fights of late) stated that Floyd would agree to a 50/50 split. Everything seemed downhill from there. After that, Manny threw a curve ball, requesting an earlier fight date (in March instead of May) so that he could campaign for a senate seat in his homeland through April and May. Again, Team Mayweather agreed to the date.
The fans became cautiously optimistic. Could it be? The Superfight to end all Superfights might actually happen? And in MARCH no less? It all seemed so fast, so easy… almost TOO easy. Along with those bigger issues (the purse, the date), there were more minor issues, such as ring size, glove size, fight location… as well as two other items not mentioned up until this point.
The first came in the form of a weight limit penalty clause. Team Pacquiao realized they were coming into the fight as the smaller opponent. Floyd has fought as heavy as 150 against De La Hoya, while Manny has said he can’t fight at his level much higher than 145. So after Mayweather came in overweight against a much smaller Juan Manuel Marquez, paying a $300,000 fine with a smile on his face, Pacquiao and his handlers demanded a much higher penalty if Mayweather were to come overweight in their fight. They demanded a $10 million per pound penalty for every pound Floyd Jr. came in over. This was not meant to line Pacquiao’s pockets, but to ensure that both fighters met at the same weight by the end of their training regimes.
And in another surprise, Floyd agreed.
But you see, while all of these demands were acquiesced to (from Mayweather keeping the fight in Vegas, to Manny getting the standard ring size), Team Mayweather had their own clause, a drug testing addendum, which required both fighters to undergo Olympic style drug testing, blood and urine, to ensure the cleanliness and level the playing field. On the surface, this seems no more absurd than Manny’s $10 million per pound penalty. Right?
Well… you remember when I mentioned something was brewing back when Floyd Sr. made his baseless accusation of Manny Pacquiao? Well it was about to boil over, in ways I don’t think either side could have predicted. Some sources have stated that Freddie Roach himself had agreed to any kind of blood or urine testing the promoters saw fit, no problem. And while Manny Pacquiao never came out and acknowledged this to be true (he was in the Philippines at the time, remember), those who knew of the situation trusted that Freddie’s word was good.
However, Floyd Mayweather, before the contracts were ever signed (before the Pacquiao/Cotto match), in early October of last year, called in to Shade45, a satellite radio channel, and did an interview with RA the Rugged Man. RA drilled Floyd for ducking great fighters, and for picking on smaller men (at the time, those smaller men could only have been Marquez and Hatton, since De La Hoya was a bigger man than Floyd, and those were the only fights anyone cared about at the time). Floyd got upset in that interview, and was pressed by RA to challenge Pacquiao and enter the ring with a true cmapion. That was when Mayweather, in his flustered state, made an off-handed remark which bared a scary resmblance to his father’s accusations from several months earlier.
Floyd implied that Manny may be on something, and that the Philippines were the makers of some of the best performance enhancing drugs (PEDs) on the market. Whether this was true or not, the statement seemed to come out of nowhere.
This interview didn’t break big to the boxing public right away. Once the Mayweather/Pacquiao negotiations got serious, however, word got out. Eventually it reached the ears of Top Rank and Team Pacquiao. But it was too late for Team Mayweather to save face. It spread like a brush fire. And before long, other boxers like Paulie Malignaggi, and even Miguel Cotto, began to share their suspicions about Pacquiao being a clean fighter. You would have thought these guys were running for president the way the smear campaign took hold. Once De La Hoya (Floyd’s own promoter!) threw his hat into the ring and changed his own story about Pacquiao’s uncanny punching power, you knew things were getting bad.
But where did this all come from? Nobody had ever publicly accused Manny of being on PEDs before he fought Cotto besides Floyd Sr. Nobody even seemed to have their theories in place after he destroyed Cotto. The naysayers simply said that Cotto might have been too damaged from the Margarito fight, which is a fine debate. Now, all of the sudden, Manny is guilty in the court of public opinion? My, my, what a couple of weeks made!
Well needless to say, Manny was none to pleased to find out that not only he but his own country had been accused of illicit behavior. This was right around the same time that Team Pacquiao started their litany of excuses. Whether intentional or not, Team Mayweather could not have asked for a better result. What started as a brushfire had now grown into one of the most public defamation stories in all of sports.
Instead of denying the accusations outright and threatening to sue (both of which Pacquiao did), Top Rank and Pacquiao floundered around. One minute their story was that Manny didn’t feel that taking blood from the body was natural. Then the word got out that Manny was afraid of needles (in fairness, this was never mentioned during the Mayweather negotiations, but something Manny had stated in the past), regardless of all of his tattoes. Then Moralesgate™ hit the airwaves, and people learned that in the fight Manny lost to Morales, he had blood taken from his body two days prior, in a NSAC mix-up in which they had misplaced Manny’s original sample from his physical.
It all began to look like the behavior of a guilty man. And though I hate to admit it, I questioned the boxer’s honesty myself. Could Mayweather and his cohorts actually have found some nugget of truth amidst their wild and unfounded accusations? I began to wonder.
But then I thought about it more. Was this really a story about Mayweather trying to “clean up the sport of boxing,” as is his current hue and cry (it’s worth noting that in his last fight out of retirement vs. Marquez, there was no blood testing clause)? Or was this about a fight that was never really going to happen regardless of how swimmingly the negotiations had gone up until that point?
Let’s examine some of the motives at play here…
If you subscribe to the “Manny is Guilty,” camp, you claim that Manny’s refusal to take the tests as an admission of guilt. That is a fair position, but you have to take this stance knowing that there is absolutely no proof in existence to support the claim — no dirty needle in the duffle bag, no vile of The Clear in his locker, no frozen bag of his blood in his freezer at home — only the suspicion of some less-than-credible sources. But still, I will agree, when OJ fled from the authorities in his white Bronco, most of us knew what was up. The question here though is this: Why not just take the test and prove your innocence? What’s the big deal?
But if you take the “Manny is the Victim,” approach, AKA innocent until proven guilty, then you have to look at facts objectively. Not only facts but motive. Why would Manny refuse testing for drugs he hasn’t even taken yet? Should we believe that Manny is so dependent on PEDs that he won’t agree to NOT take them even though he stands to make more than $30 million for a few hours in the ring?
It just didn’t add up for me. Yes, I agree, Manny and his team handled the defamation very poorly. They should have just said something like, “We don’t have anything to hide, and we don’t have anything to prove,” and left it in Mayweather’s court to try and get the NSAC to change the rules. At least then it would be a firm stance upon which you could judge Team Pacquiao upon.
But I honestly don’t think Pacquiao has any fear about facing Mayweather. The motive just isn’t there, and here’s why:
Is Manny afraid of losing? No. He’s already lost in the past. Is Manny afraid of Floyd’s punching power? No. Floyd is not a knockout artist. Is Manny worried he won’t get any big fights after this one? No. He can retire the wealthiest man in the Philippines if he loses.
By this logic, there is no reason Manny, if he so chose, couldn’t have just said “Fine,” to the testing, and trained for Mayweather totally clean. Even if he was the biggest steroid user in all of his 55 fights leading up to this fight, he STILL could have gone clean on this one, and lost the fight badly.
So the “Manny is Guilty,” line of thought doesn’t hold water for me. But does Floyd have any motivation NOT to make this fight happen? I think you will find this hard to refute. Let’s take a look…
Is Floyd concerned about keeping his undefeated record? Of course he is, he brags about it every interview he has (and rightfully so!). Is Floyd afraid of Manny’s power? He might not tell you he is, but he’s mentioned many times how proud he is of the fact he never took any punishment in the ring. Does Floyd need the money? He won’t admit it, but the IRS has exposed that Floyd went a long time without paying his taxes, and had millions of back-moneys to pay to the government.
He has also said that skills pay the bills, and that legacy doesn’t feed your family. So you have to think that part of his reason for coming out of retirement has something more to do with money than a strict love for the sport, correct? By this logic, a risky fight, including a loss to Pacquiao, would not only ruin his perfect record, it could seriously jeopardize his value as a boxer after that. Remember, he was never the biggest draw in boxing until AFTER his fight with De La Hoya (if you don’t believe me, understand that De La Hoya made $52 million in their fight, while Mayweather made less than half that, at $25 million).
So the question of who is ducking who seems to me to point more to Mayweather than it does to Pacquiao. But I’m also not 100% clear that anyone is ducking anyone. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if this whole thing spiralled out of control, and it came down to the egos of two fighters getting in the way of the deal. Or it could be a publicity stunt conducted by the promoters involved to drum up even more interest in the match up for an even larger purse and PPV record late this summer or early this fall.
All I know is that Mayweather and Mosley are going to fight. And if you’re going to duck Pacquiao, then you damn well better duck Mosley, because both of those guys (if anybody) stand a very good chance of beating you.
The debate will continue, of course, maybe forever, but I think down deep we STILL all want to see this fight happen. Both of these guys, both Mayweather and Pacquiao, have Spring fights to get past first, and both of them have their hands full with strong fighters who can hurt them.
Friday, February 5, 2010
Floyd Jr fight will happen - Roach
By Joaquin Henson
(The Philippine Star)
www.philstar.com
MANILA, Philippines - Freddie Roach isn’t closing the door on WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao
staking his crown against Floyd Mayweather Jr., this year but the much-anticipated fight is dependent on what happens in the Filipino icon’s appointment with Ghanaian challenger Joshua Clottey in Dallas on March 13.
Roach said Pacquiao isn’t taking Clottey lightly and called it a “difficult, action-packed fight.”
Writing a guest column in the weekly Boxing News of London, Roach said he’s carefully studying how Clottey beat Zab Judah, a southpaw like Pacquiao, in their bout for the vacant IBF welterweight crown in Las Vegas in 2008. Clottey was ahead on the three judges scorecards, 87-84, 86-85, 86-85, when the bout was stopped at 1:12 of the ninth round because of a huge cut over Judah’s eye. Referee Robert Byrd ruled that the cut was inflicted by an accidental headbutt and declared Clottey the winner by technical decision.
Some ringside reporters disagreed with Byrd and insisted the damage was caused by a left uppercut-right cross combination. Clottey, however, has a reputation of using his head in cutting up opponents like Carlos Baldomir and Miguel Cotto.
“We’ve got a gameplan in place having watched the tapes and right now, I’m noting little adjustments Clottey makes fighting southpaws as I just got the Judah tape and he does act a bit differently with the southpaw stance,” said Roach.
“I’m waiting on one more tape of another southpaw he faced to see if it was from what Judah was doing or a tendency he might have against southpaws.”
Roach is known to meticulously break down film of Pacquiao’s opponents in devising strategies and tactics to anticipate any eventuality in the ring. Assistant trainer and Pacquiao’s boyhood friend Buboy Fernandez usually takes the lead role in scouting opponents.
Roach said he’s not sure if Pacquiao can knock out Clottey who’s bigger and stronger.
“Can we knock him out? I don’t know about that so I’m planning to go 12 hard rounds,” continued Roach. “If the knockout comes, it’ll be a bonus.”
As for Mayweather, Roach said he suspects Pretty Boy is just out to hype up the inevitable showdown with Pacquiao.
“I honestly think Floyd does all this stuff just to make the fight bigger,” said Roach. “He’s a great salesman and I think it’s probably going to work. I think it will definitely happen because Manny’s going to retire this year, he told me.”
Although Mayweather recently announced he’s taking on Sugar Shane Mosley on May 1, Roach said he’s not convinced it will push through because of the risk involved. A Mayweather loss will seriously jeopardize a huge payday expected in fighting Pacquiao.
“I’ve heard about Floyd fighting Mosley,” said Roach. “I love that match but don’t believe it will happen because I feel that when Floyd finds out that with Mosley, he’ll only make possibly $6 to 8 million – because it’s not that big a draw – or he can make $40 million fighting Manny, I think he’ll wait for the big one.”
Mayweather Thursday signed the contract to fight Mosley.
Golden Boy Promotions chief executive officer Richard Schaefer refuted Roach’s contention, saying unless Pacquiao agrees to Olympic-style drug testing which means random blood examinations, Mayweather won’t come to terms.
“I am not as optimistic as Bob Arum stated his position very clearly that Pacquiao would not agree to random Olympic-style blood testing,” said Schaefer. “Unless Pacquiao changes his position, there is really no sense to discuss a potential fight any longer.”
Mayweather has waged a media campaign to discredit Pacquiao and goad him into agreeing to random blood-testing, even hours before a fight. Pacquiao has filed a damage suit against Mayweather for claiming the Filipino takes illegal performance-enhancement drugs to retain his speed and power while moving in and out of higher weight divisions.
Pacquiao has never tested positive for illegal drug use but will only agree to a blood examination 14 days before a fight and any time after. He is open to random urinalysis tests which will confirm usage of illegal performance-enhancement drugs.
US state athletic commissions supervising boxing matches do not require Olympic-style blood tests, raising speculation as to why Mayweather is insisting on a condition he is not qualified to impose.
In an on-line survey conducted by Boxing News, 65 percent of respondents blamed Mayweather for scuttling the Pacquiao bout. Others blamed for the fall-out were Pacquiao, Golden Boy, Arum and Mayweather’s father Floyd Sr.
(The Philippine Star)
www.philstar.com
MANILA, Philippines - Freddie Roach isn’t closing the door on WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao
staking his crown against Floyd Mayweather Jr., this year but the much-anticipated fight is dependent on what happens in the Filipino icon’s appointment with Ghanaian challenger Joshua Clottey in Dallas on March 13.
Roach said Pacquiao isn’t taking Clottey lightly and called it a “difficult, action-packed fight.”
Writing a guest column in the weekly Boxing News of London, Roach said he’s carefully studying how Clottey beat Zab Judah, a southpaw like Pacquiao, in their bout for the vacant IBF welterweight crown in Las Vegas in 2008. Clottey was ahead on the three judges scorecards, 87-84, 86-85, 86-85, when the bout was stopped at 1:12 of the ninth round because of a huge cut over Judah’s eye. Referee Robert Byrd ruled that the cut was inflicted by an accidental headbutt and declared Clottey the winner by technical decision.
Some ringside reporters disagreed with Byrd and insisted the damage was caused by a left uppercut-right cross combination. Clottey, however, has a reputation of using his head in cutting up opponents like Carlos Baldomir and Miguel Cotto.
“We’ve got a gameplan in place having watched the tapes and right now, I’m noting little adjustments Clottey makes fighting southpaws as I just got the Judah tape and he does act a bit differently with the southpaw stance,” said Roach.
“I’m waiting on one more tape of another southpaw he faced to see if it was from what Judah was doing or a tendency he might have against southpaws.”
Roach is known to meticulously break down film of Pacquiao’s opponents in devising strategies and tactics to anticipate any eventuality in the ring. Assistant trainer and Pacquiao’s boyhood friend Buboy Fernandez usually takes the lead role in scouting opponents.
Roach said he’s not sure if Pacquiao can knock out Clottey who’s bigger and stronger.
“Can we knock him out? I don’t know about that so I’m planning to go 12 hard rounds,” continued Roach. “If the knockout comes, it’ll be a bonus.”
As for Mayweather, Roach said he suspects Pretty Boy is just out to hype up the inevitable showdown with Pacquiao.
“I honestly think Floyd does all this stuff just to make the fight bigger,” said Roach. “He’s a great salesman and I think it’s probably going to work. I think it will definitely happen because Manny’s going to retire this year, he told me.”
Although Mayweather recently announced he’s taking on Sugar Shane Mosley on May 1, Roach said he’s not convinced it will push through because of the risk involved. A Mayweather loss will seriously jeopardize a huge payday expected in fighting Pacquiao.
“I’ve heard about Floyd fighting Mosley,” said Roach. “I love that match but don’t believe it will happen because I feel that when Floyd finds out that with Mosley, he’ll only make possibly $6 to 8 million – because it’s not that big a draw – or he can make $40 million fighting Manny, I think he’ll wait for the big one.”
Mayweather Thursday signed the contract to fight Mosley.
Golden Boy Promotions chief executive officer Richard Schaefer refuted Roach’s contention, saying unless Pacquiao agrees to Olympic-style drug testing which means random blood examinations, Mayweather won’t come to terms.
“I am not as optimistic as Bob Arum stated his position very clearly that Pacquiao would not agree to random Olympic-style blood testing,” said Schaefer. “Unless Pacquiao changes his position, there is really no sense to discuss a potential fight any longer.”
Mayweather has waged a media campaign to discredit Pacquiao and goad him into agreeing to random blood-testing, even hours before a fight. Pacquiao has filed a damage suit against Mayweather for claiming the Filipino takes illegal performance-enhancement drugs to retain his speed and power while moving in and out of higher weight divisions.
Pacquiao has never tested positive for illegal drug use but will only agree to a blood examination 14 days before a fight and any time after. He is open to random urinalysis tests which will confirm usage of illegal performance-enhancement drugs.
US state athletic commissions supervising boxing matches do not require Olympic-style blood tests, raising speculation as to why Mayweather is insisting on a condition he is not qualified to impose.
In an on-line survey conducted by Boxing News, 65 percent of respondents blamed Mayweather for scuttling the Pacquiao bout. Others blamed for the fall-out were Pacquiao, Golden Boy, Arum and Mayweather’s father Floyd Sr.
Thursday, February 4, 2010
“Pacquiao will discover it’s difficult to find a rhythm when nothing’s landing”- Jim Watt on predicting Mayweather-Pacquiao
By Peter Wells:
www.BoxingNews24.com
I have just read the poll vote in Boxing Monthly’s latest magazine on who’ll win out of Pacquiao-Mayweather. In the end it was very surprising to see the final score but all 38 of the voters gave good reasons.
Carl Froch said that, “Floyd Mayweather beats him 10 times out of 10. He’s too technically proficient and his defensive skills and reflexes are too good”. He also added, “Mayweather’s the main man and, if I can get decent odds, I’ll bet my house on it”. That isn’t a great thing to say in a fight like this maybe in a fight where you know who’ll win, but he does sound very confident. Bert Sugar said Pacquiao on points because of the better opponents that Pacquiao has fought. Jim McDonnell, Buddy McGirt and Johnny Nelson all went with Mayweather. Nelson believes Floyd could stop Manny by keep on hitting and holding ruining Pacquiao’s game plan. Frank Maloney, Ken Buchanan, Don Majeski all go for Pacquiao the first two going for a stoppage.
Also current fighters Antonio Tarver and Tim Bradley go with Mayweather, but Tarver says that Floyd can’t make any mistakes, while Bradley says it’ll be an easy fight. Jim Watt said, “I think Pacquiao will discover it’s difficult to find a rhythm when nothing’s landing.” Which is very true, if you’re not landing it’s almost impossible to get a rhythm going. Also former Hatton trainer Billy Graham goes for Floyd. The super six tourney leader Arthur Abraham also goes with Mayweather.
Angelo Dundee believes that Mayweather back off to the ropes won’t work against Pacquiao and Dominic Ingle, Dean Powell, Marco Huck, Alan Minter, former Pacquiao opponent David Diaz and Paul Hodkinson all go with Pacquiao.
While Frank Warren, Nick Charles, Barry Hearn, Richie Woodhall, Duke McKenzie, Brendan Ingle, Ronnie Shields, Jimmy Tibbs, Colin McMillan and Alex Arthur all go for Floyd. The main vote came from Ricky Hatton who predicts that Floyd will take it on points as Floyd beat a better Ricky Hatton than Manny, also that Mayweather can pace a fight to how he likes it.
The final result was 25-13 Mayweather, but most predicted the fight to go the distance. It was very good to read so if you get a chance then it’s a good read and gives you plenty of reasons to decide what you think will happen.
Freddie Roach: Manny Pacquiao 'Really Wants to Knock Floyd Out'
By Lem Satterfield
www.FanHouse.com
Freddie Roach was recently named Trainer Of The Year by The Boxing Writers' Association of America, and his prized pupil, Manny Pacquiao, was named Fighter of The Year -- both for 2009.
The honors were bestowed for the third, and, fourth times in a row, respectively, upon Pacquiao and Roach. Pacquiao also was named Fighter Of The Decade by the BWAA.
Reached at his Wild Card Boxing Club in Hollywood, Calif., Roach, in this Q&A, discussed the most recent events involving the failed negotiations for a fight with Floyd Mayweather, the Mayweather camp's accusations of steroid use by Pacquiao, and the seven-division titlist's March 13 defense of his WBO welterweight (147 pounds) crown against Joshua Clottey.
FanHouse: So how does it feel to receive Trainer Of The Year for the fourth straight time?
Freddie Roach: It's my favorite award, because it's named after my trainer, [the late] Eddie Futch, my mentor. And, I like to give Eddie all of the credit for where I am today. I just love winning the award. I was the first one to win it three times, and now, I've won it four. I'm going to keep working my a** off to win it again, and again, if I can.
FH: Maybe they should name it the Eddie Futch-Freddie Roach Award?
Roach: [Chuckles] Maybe someday.
FH: Seriously, Freddie, you've overcome a lot, personally, with the Parkinson's, and I wonder if you ever think about who might be watching you and being inspired by you?
Roach: It's just that we work hard at the gym. Everyone works together, and we have a good team. Some days, when I'm really busy with some fighters, I have a lot of guys that pick up the slack. It's a good situation. My gym's just really active, and the other thing is that I'm so thankful to a guy like Eddie Futch, who taught me the ropes inside the ring and outside of the ring.
He taught me first, as a fighter, and then, I worked as an assistant to him for five years. And he taught me how to train fighters and how to get to them, and it's worked out really well for me.
FH: Can you talk about what it means to you to have Manny win the Fighter Of The Year honors for the third time?
Roach: Manny, he deserves it. Getting Fighter of The Decade also, that's a great honor for him. It's funny, his work ethic from Day One until today has not changed. It amazes me that he can still come through the gym doors and all of the distractions go away, and he's 100 percent focused on the next fight.
FH: Manny arrived in Los Angeles recently this time from the Philippines on Jan. 17 -- which was Muhammad Ali's 68th birthday and the day prior to the observation of Martin Luther King's birthday. Do you see any symbolism there at all, considering what Manny means in stature to his Filipino people?
Roach: It's can be a coincidence, but the thing is, Manny just means so much to his people. The thing is, he fights for them because he doesn't want to disappoint them. I think that's where he gets his fire from. It comes from his people. He wants to win for them, and to do the best that he can. Obviously, he wants to improve his country also, and that's why he's running for congress and getting into politics.
I think that he can do more for his country as a boxer rather than a politician, but he just wants to do the best that he can for his people. He's an amazing person.
FH: Has it been difficult to transition from preparing for a slick, boxer-type of fighter like Floyd Mayweather to preparing for a rugged fighter like Joshua Clottey?
Roach: The thing is, we work hard for everybody we get a chance to face. That hasn't really changed. What changed is the sparring parteners and the style that we're fighting and the gameplan, of course. The thing is, focusing on Clottey is completely opposite from what we were going to do. The thing is, you just have to get a mindset in there that we're not fighting Floyd Mayweather now.
We have to get ready for a guy that is going to come to us and fight us, possibly. It's a little disappointing that we didn't get Mayweather, but we're not going to sit around and dwell on it. We're going to go with the biggest challenges that we can find out there, and Manny doesn't want to fight just any fight, but he wants to fight the best out there.
I'd love it if Floyd and Manny could come to an agreement someday soon, and hopefully that can happen. But if not, Manny could retire and go right into politics.
FH: What do you see as strengths and weakness of Joshua Clottey? (pictured at far right, with Pacquiao)
Roach: Well, he's got a good chin, and he takes a good shot, and he can be a little heavy-handed. But he can be passive at times, and he lays on the ropes and kind of rests there a little bit. I've been studying him really well, and he makes too many mistakes. Pacquiao, I truly feel will be the first person to knock Clottey out.
FH: Has Manny faced anyone with his combination of endurance, accuracy and speed on his punches?
Roach: Clottey's accurate if you stand in front of him, but the thing is, we're going to be in and out and side to side and use our angles on him. He's not going to be able to catch us. It's going to be very similar to the Oscar De La Hoya fight [Eighth-round knockout for Pacquiao] I feel. He's a very tall, comes to you type of guy, who is supposed to be stronger.
But I don't think that that will be the case. I think when the fight time comes off, Manny will be the bigger, stronger guy because he has the bigger heart.
FH: How significant is it that there is no catchweight for this fight, as there was a requirement for Miguel Cotto to come in at no greater than 145 pounds, and that you are going with the welterweight limite of 147 pounds?
Roach: Well, we got a little flack for going with a catchweight last time, so Manny wants to be a true welterweight, so Manny is going to fight at 147. We're not going back to 140, we're going to stay where we're at. And if anyone wants to challenge us, it'll be at welterweight.
FH: How much does Manny consider going for an eighth title in a different weight class -- the rise to 154 pounds beyond the Joshua Clottey fight?
Roach: Well, the fight against [WBA junior middleweight (154 pounds) champ] Yuri Foreman was offered, and so forth, and Manny was just interested in more challenges.
Yuri was more of a boxer, and Manny doesn't want to be in a boring fight. So, 154 might be stretching it a little bit. I think that 147 is as high as we're really going to go. But you know, we'll see what presents itself after this fight. If Mayweather doesn't come around, Manny might retire.
FH: What did you think of the Dallas Cowboys Stadium, where the fight will be held?
Roach: It was amazing. It was just unbelievable. The big screen over the field, the people, it was a great place. It's a really, really nice stadium. It's going to be huge with the fight being there, and there's a lot of stuff going on in Dallas right now.
[Cowboys' owner] Jerry Jones wants to bring the best athletes into the stadium, and you know, Manny Pacquiao's one of the best athletes in the world right now, and that's why Jerry Jones picked this fight.
FH: How will it be different for you being in Dallas Cowboys' Stadium, considering most of Manny's biggest victories have been in Las Vegas.
Roach: We have a lot of good memories of Vegas, but we have one good memory of Texas also. That's where we got our one big break and we knocked out Marco Antonio Barrera in Texas [in the 11th round in November, 2003, at The Alamodome.]
Texas has always been good to us. Regardless of where the ring is, it's still the same size, so we have no problem traveling.
Manny just likes to fight. If we fight in Manila, his home town, it doesn't really matter. He's going to go out and fight his fight. We've got a good gameplan down already for this one, and, he's pulling it off in sparring already, and he's looking really good. He's way ahead of schedule. His weight's already getting down there low right now.
He's already at 146, so we'll get some protein shakes out there and start feeding him.
FH: On the matter of steroids, why do you believe those suspicions were leveled at Manny by some members of the Mayweather camp?
Roach: Well, they have no foundation or no history. It's just they say, 'How can a guy go from 106 all the way to 147 without being on steroids?' But if you take that thinking into consideration, now, at age 16, Floyd Mayweather fought in the amateurs at 106, and then he went to 154 [to fight Oscar De La Hoya,] so he must be on steroids too, I guess?
But I'm not going to say that, because he's just a good fighter, and I respect that. The thing is, it's not unusual for the best fighters of their era to dominate many different weight divisions because that's where all of the challenge are.
FH: Do you buy the notion that Floyd was afraid of losing for the first time in his career?
Roach: No. I think that he was just trying to make the fight bigger. I think that he's trying to make the Pacquiao fight bigger down the line. I think that he's just doing his thing.
FH: What do you believe that all of the Manny Pacquiao fans in the Philippines thought of the entire steroid drama related to the Mayweather-Pacquiao negotiations?
Roach: You've got people out there who want to go along with the notion of, 'Well, he's so good, that he must be on steroids,' because it was said once. And the thing is, just by that, people can think that you're guilty. Of course, we have no history. I have trouble giving Manny Pacquiao vitamins.
The Mayweathers are just trying to tarnish his reputation, so Manny's not very happy with them right now, and he really wants to knock Floyd out. That's what he told me. That's the first time that I've really seen him angry with a fighter. He says, 'If we fight, I will knock Floyd out.
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Mayweather signs contract for Mosley Bout – Breaking News
By Eric Thomas
www.BoxingNews24.com
Undefeated Floyd Mayweather Jr. has reportedly signed the contract to fight World Boxing Association welterweight champion Shane Mosley, according to AOL Boxing Fanhouse. The fight will take place at the MGM Grand, in Las Vegas, Nevada, on May 1st. Mosley, 38, already signed the contract to fight Mayweather a week ago. Mosley, his attorney and Golden Boy Promotions were worried after Mayweather failed to sign his part of the contract, and there was doubts in the minds of some people that Mayweather might be having second thoughts about the Mosley fight.
Judd Burstein, the attorney for Mosley, said “Richard Schaefer [the CEO of Golden Boy Promotions] just called me and told me that Al Haymon [Mayweather’s advisor] called him, and it’s [the signed contract] is being faxed.” This is really great news. It means now that Golden Boy Promotions can start marketing the Mayweather-Mosley fight, and boxing fans can start getting excited about this fight. This is the best fight that can be made at this time, aside from a future Mayweather-Pacquiao bout.
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Roach: Manny Pacquiao will fight Mosley if he defeats Mayweather
By Gareth A Davies
Telegraph.co.uk
Pacquiao – Clottey… news update from the Wild Card Gym in Hollywood
Freddie Roach has insisted to Telegraph Sport that Manny Pacquiao will fight Shane Mosley if he defeats Floyd Mayweather (although Money is yet to sign the contract) but the four-time trainer of the year believes it is Mayweather’s fight to lose.
I caught up with Freddie Roach yesterday. How is Manny Pacquiao shaping up for his contest with Joshua Clottey ? “He has sparred twice, he looks really good, he knocked out one sparring partner and we have four other sparring partners in here at the moment.” Pacquiao weighed in yesterday at 147 lbs.
Roach is studying Clottey intently. “Clottey is very basic, he does the same things, but he is very good at what he does, but Manny is going to knock him out. He has a great chin, a big right hand, but Manny knows how to nullify his strengths.”
The big question, of course, is whether Pacquiao v Mayweather will ever happen…?
“I think it will happen, and it will be Manny’s next fight. What has happened may make the fight bigger. I think Mayweather will fight Shane Mosley, but if he doesn’t, it will make the fight with Manny happen sooner. If Floyd does fight Shane, that’s a good fight, and one I’d like to see. But Mosley will be beaten by Floyd. Mosley does well with guys who will come at him. He has had trouble with guys who move. Mayweather wins that fight. But Mosley is a brave guy. If for any reason Mosley wins, Manny would definitely fight him. We’ll take that fight
Telegraph.co.uk
Pacquiao – Clottey… news update from the Wild Card Gym in Hollywood
Freddie Roach has insisted to Telegraph Sport that Manny Pacquiao will fight Shane Mosley if he defeats Floyd Mayweather (although Money is yet to sign the contract) but the four-time trainer of the year believes it is Mayweather’s fight to lose.
I caught up with Freddie Roach yesterday. How is Manny Pacquiao shaping up for his contest with Joshua Clottey ? “He has sparred twice, he looks really good, he knocked out one sparring partner and we have four other sparring partners in here at the moment.” Pacquiao weighed in yesterday at 147 lbs.
Roach is studying Clottey intently. “Clottey is very basic, he does the same things, but he is very good at what he does, but Manny is going to knock him out. He has a great chin, a big right hand, but Manny knows how to nullify his strengths.”
The big question, of course, is whether Pacquiao v Mayweather will ever happen…?
“I think it will happen, and it will be Manny’s next fight. What has happened may make the fight bigger. I think Mayweather will fight Shane Mosley, but if he doesn’t, it will make the fight with Manny happen sooner. If Floyd does fight Shane, that’s a good fight, and one I’d like to see. But Mosley will be beaten by Floyd. Mosley does well with guys who will come at him. He has had trouble with guys who move. Mayweather wins that fight. But Mosley is a brave guy. If for any reason Mosley wins, Manny would definitely fight him. We’ll take that fight
Where, oh where, is Floyd's signature?
By Dan Rafael
ESPN.com
Richard Schaefer, the CEO of Golden Boy Promotions, is usually a calm, cool and collected sort. The former Swiss banker doesn't get rattled easily.
Tuesday morning, however, he sounded rattled, expressing concern about why Floyd Mayweather Jr. has not signed his contract to face welterweight champ Shane Mosley on May 1 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, in as big of a fight as there is in the sport.
It has been five days since both sides acknowledged an agreement on terms.
Mosley, of course, put pen to paper on Friday in Las Vegas, where his attorney, Judd Burstein, went through the paperwork with him point by point.
"He is excited to move forward with the bout," Burstein told me at the time.
Burstein also added that he had been assured by Leonard Ellerbe, one of Mayweather's advisers, that there were no problems on their side.
"I confirmed with Leonard that there are no issues," Burstein said.
Ellerbe's quote to me for the story I wrote Friday was, "All of the deal points have been agreed to. We still have to put pen to paper, but everything is agreed to."
Yet five days later, Schaefer still does not have a signed agreement from Mayweather. He was clearly at wit's end when he called me about it Tuesday morning.
"He still hasn't signed. I am so frustrated," Schaefer said. "I wanted both guys to go down to the Super Bowl in Miami to do some promotional stuff. I don't know what Floyd is waiting for. I have no clue. I have a signed contract from Shane on my desk. I have nothing from Floyd."
Schaefer said he is in constant touch with Ellerbe and Al Haymon, Mayweather's other adviser, and when he asks them where the paperwork is, the response is always the same: "Every day, it's the next day. They say, 'Don't worry, it's going to come.' Well, where is it? I'm waiting for the signature before we can move on."
Burstein said he and Mosley were also quite aggravated by the delay.
"I am outraged," Burstein said when I reached him Tuesday afternoon. "I have a client who acts in a professional manner. He allows me to negotiate a deal for him in constant consultation with him. When it all gets put on paper, we go over it and, as promised, he signs if it's OK. That's what happened on Friday. It was signed with the assurance from Al Haymon and Leonard Ellerbe that everything was agreed to and there was no problem."
So what does Burstein believe is the issue?
"It's either one of two things that has happened," he said. "Either he's rethought the wisdom of risking his undefeated record against Shane or he chooses to act like a 7-year-old. Hopefully, it's the latter and he will mature very quickly. But either of these possibilities is completely unacceptable to us. He's going to end up in a fight with Mosley. The only question is whether it will be in the ring or in court."
Now, May 1 is still a ways off, but for a megafight the magnitude of Mosley-Mayweather, kicking it off with promotional appearances at the Super Bowl is significant. When Mayweather and Oscar De La Hoya met in May 2007, their media rounds at the Super Bowl generated enormous interest in the fight, which went on to set the all-time pay-per-view record.
Schaefer wants to follow the same blueprint. He said Bernard Hopkins and Roy Jones Jr., who will meet April 3 in a pay-per-view rematch that Golden Boy is co-promoting, will be in Miami to help drum up interest in their fight, so he can't understand why Mayweather is MIA.
So I asked Schaefer if he was concerned that the Mosley-Mayweather fight might be in trouble?
His answer was simply, "Yes."
I asked him if he would elaborate.
"At this point, I don't know," he said. "We want to do some big PR, so this is frustrating. I read Leonard's quotes that it was agreed to and that it was just a matter of time to get it signed, but if it's all done, why isn't it signed?"
Schaefer has been down this road with Mayweather before, perhaps one of the reasons for his concern. He negotiated a fall 2008 rematch between Mayweather and De La Hoya, which also had been agreed to and was on the verge of being announced. However, Mayweather never signed the paperwork and instead announced his retirement, which lasted 18 months.
"I am not having flashbacks to anything, but [the Mosley fight] is still not signed," Schaefer said. "I don't know what it means. Obviously, we can't move forward with the promotion, including some important activities that were planned for this coming weekend, unless we have a signed deal."
Before negotiating with Mosley, Mayweather was close to a deal to face Manny Pacquiao on March 13 in what would have been, by far, the sport's biggest fight. But that fight fell apart shortly before what was supposed to have been a kickoff news conference in early January. The reason was because the fighters couldn't reach a compromise on drug-testing protocol. Mayweather insisted on testing that went far beyond the rules of the Nevada State Athletic Commission. While Pacquiao accepted some additional testing, he refused random blood testing.
Both fighters moved on. Pacquiao quickly made a deal to defend his welterweight belt against Joshua Clottey on March 13 at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
Mayweather and Mosley began their talks after Mosley's Jan. 30 unification fight with Andre Berto was canceled.
So while Pacquiao wrapped up his deal with Clottey in about two seconds and Mosley signed on the dotted line in pretty short order, we all continue to wait for Mayweather's John Hancock yet again, including Schaefer.
"I always tell you, a signed deal is a done deal," Schaefer said. "It will only be done when Floyd signs, and that hasn't happened yet. I don't know of any deal terms that are not agreed to. I don't understand it."
ESPN.com
Richard Schaefer, the CEO of Golden Boy Promotions, is usually a calm, cool and collected sort. The former Swiss banker doesn't get rattled easily.
Tuesday morning, however, he sounded rattled, expressing concern about why Floyd Mayweather Jr. has not signed his contract to face welterweight champ Shane Mosley on May 1 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, in as big of a fight as there is in the sport.
It has been five days since both sides acknowledged an agreement on terms.
Mosley, of course, put pen to paper on Friday in Las Vegas, where his attorney, Judd Burstein, went through the paperwork with him point by point.
"He is excited to move forward with the bout," Burstein told me at the time.
Burstein also added that he had been assured by Leonard Ellerbe, one of Mayweather's advisers, that there were no problems on their side.
"I confirmed with Leonard that there are no issues," Burstein said.
Ellerbe's quote to me for the story I wrote Friday was, "All of the deal points have been agreed to. We still have to put pen to paper, but everything is agreed to."
Yet five days later, Schaefer still does not have a signed agreement from Mayweather. He was clearly at wit's end when he called me about it Tuesday morning.
"He still hasn't signed. I am so frustrated," Schaefer said. "I wanted both guys to go down to the Super Bowl in Miami to do some promotional stuff. I don't know what Floyd is waiting for. I have no clue. I have a signed contract from Shane on my desk. I have nothing from Floyd."
Schaefer said he is in constant touch with Ellerbe and Al Haymon, Mayweather's other adviser, and when he asks them where the paperwork is, the response is always the same: "Every day, it's the next day. They say, 'Don't worry, it's going to come.' Well, where is it? I'm waiting for the signature before we can move on."
Burstein said he and Mosley were also quite aggravated by the delay.
"I am outraged," Burstein said when I reached him Tuesday afternoon. "I have a client who acts in a professional manner. He allows me to negotiate a deal for him in constant consultation with him. When it all gets put on paper, we go over it and, as promised, he signs if it's OK. That's what happened on Friday. It was signed with the assurance from Al Haymon and Leonard Ellerbe that everything was agreed to and there was no problem."
So what does Burstein believe is the issue?
"It's either one of two things that has happened," he said. "Either he's rethought the wisdom of risking his undefeated record against Shane or he chooses to act like a 7-year-old. Hopefully, it's the latter and he will mature very quickly. But either of these possibilities is completely unacceptable to us. He's going to end up in a fight with Mosley. The only question is whether it will be in the ring or in court."
Now, May 1 is still a ways off, but for a megafight the magnitude of Mosley-Mayweather, kicking it off with promotional appearances at the Super Bowl is significant. When Mayweather and Oscar De La Hoya met in May 2007, their media rounds at the Super Bowl generated enormous interest in the fight, which went on to set the all-time pay-per-view record.
Schaefer wants to follow the same blueprint. He said Bernard Hopkins and Roy Jones Jr., who will meet April 3 in a pay-per-view rematch that Golden Boy is co-promoting, will be in Miami to help drum up interest in their fight, so he can't understand why Mayweather is MIA.
So I asked Schaefer if he was concerned that the Mosley-Mayweather fight might be in trouble?
His answer was simply, "Yes."
I asked him if he would elaborate.
"At this point, I don't know," he said. "We want to do some big PR, so this is frustrating. I read Leonard's quotes that it was agreed to and that it was just a matter of time to get it signed, but if it's all done, why isn't it signed?"
Schaefer has been down this road with Mayweather before, perhaps one of the reasons for his concern. He negotiated a fall 2008 rematch between Mayweather and De La Hoya, which also had been agreed to and was on the verge of being announced. However, Mayweather never signed the paperwork and instead announced his retirement, which lasted 18 months.
"I am not having flashbacks to anything, but [the Mosley fight] is still not signed," Schaefer said. "I don't know what it means. Obviously, we can't move forward with the promotion, including some important activities that were planned for this coming weekend, unless we have a signed deal."
Before negotiating with Mosley, Mayweather was close to a deal to face Manny Pacquiao on March 13 in what would have been, by far, the sport's biggest fight. But that fight fell apart shortly before what was supposed to have been a kickoff news conference in early January. The reason was because the fighters couldn't reach a compromise on drug-testing protocol. Mayweather insisted on testing that went far beyond the rules of the Nevada State Athletic Commission. While Pacquiao accepted some additional testing, he refused random blood testing.
Both fighters moved on. Pacquiao quickly made a deal to defend his welterweight belt against Joshua Clottey on March 13 at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
Mayweather and Mosley began their talks after Mosley's Jan. 30 unification fight with Andre Berto was canceled.
So while Pacquiao wrapped up his deal with Clottey in about two seconds and Mosley signed on the dotted line in pretty short order, we all continue to wait for Mayweather's John Hancock yet again, including Schaefer.
"I always tell you, a signed deal is a done deal," Schaefer said. "It will only be done when Floyd signs, and that hasn't happened yet. I don't know of any deal terms that are not agreed to. I don't understand it."
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