Mayweather Denies Pacquiao Superfight Negotiations

8:11 AM // 0 comments // Ian Purugganan // Category: Mayweather , Pacquiao //

Team Mayweather has conjured a convenient, if not an absurd, excuse on why Floyd Mayweather Jr. did not sign a fight contract with Filipino icon Manny Pacquiao.

No negotiations ever took place between the two camps.

Leonard Ellerbe, one of Floyd Mayweather Jr.'s closest advisers, issued a statement Monday denying that talks for a megabuck showdown between Mayweather and Pacquiao had ever occurred.

In effect, Team Mayweather is accusing Top Rank’s Bob Arum, who promotes Pacquiao, of lying when he claimed that virtually all points have been settled and only Floyd’s signature is needed to seal the deal projected to enrich both fighters by at least $40 million each.

Ellerbe claims otherwise: "Here are the facts. Al Haymon, [Golden Boy Promotions CEO] Richard Schaefer and myself speak to each other on a regular basis, and the truth is no negotiations have ever taken place, nor was there ever a deal agreed upon by Team Mayweather or Floyd Mayweather to fight Manny Pacquiao on November 13. Either Ross Greenburg or Bob Arum is not telling the truth, but history tells us who is lying."

Arum is sticking by his story, according to ESPN.com’s Dan Rafael.

"This is like absurd unreality," Arum told Rafael. "I'm not going to be party to this [expletive]. When I heard about [the statement] I thought it was a joke. Ross said he was talking to Haymon. He certainly wasn't making it up. And Haymon was relaying conversations to Ross allegedly that Floyd had with him. At least that is what Ross says."

Arum then cited a point to buttress his argument.

"If there is no negotiation, who imposed the gag order?" Arum told Rafael. "Why they're doing this is absurd. What is motivating them to put something like this out? I'm not going to speculate, but what are they doing? Schaefer said there was a gag order. Who could there be a gag order from if there were no negotiations? From the sky?"

Probing into the events that transpired throughout May and June, Arum often refused to answer queries regarding the status of negotiations, referring to a gag order allegedly imposed on both camps.

It was, however, Golden Boy Promotions president Oscar De La Hoya, who acknowledged that negotiations were happening when he told a Spanish talk tak show that the "deal for the fight was very close."

Parallel to Team Mayweather’s denial of the negotiations and Floyd’s refusal to sign, Arum told Boxing Fanhouse.com Monday that he’s negotiating with the camps of World Boxing Association junior middleweight champion Miguel Cotto of Puerto Rico and former welterweight king Antonio Margarito of Mexico and would have a deal by the end of the week.

That’s likely to happen as both Cotto and Margarito are also under Arum’s stable.

[Boxing News Source: Roy Luarca, Philippine Daily Inquirer]