Arum ready to put up his dukes
Pacquiao’s promoter frustrated by Mayweather’s adviser, MGM
For Bob Arum, Sunday can’t come soon enough.
The 83-year-old Hall of Fame promoter has been exasperated over the handling of the promotion for Saturday’s megafight at the MGM Grand Garden between Manny Pacquiao, who is represented by Arum’s company, Top Rank, and Floyd Mayweather Jr., who Arum promoted the first 11 years of his career before they split in 2006.
Whether it was ticket allocations or hotel rooms or myriad other smaller details, it has been a frustrating time for Arum, a promoter who has done thousands of fights going back to the 1960s when he started promoting Muhammad Ali’s fights and is used to being in control.
“I’ve never seen anything like this,” Arum said, and he was not alluding to it in complimentary terms. “Who announces a fight when you don’t have a contract with a venue? How do you (expletive) up the tickets? It’s embarrassing what the MGM and (Al) Haymon did.”
Haymon, who is Mayweather’s ad- viser, and the MGM. They are No. 1 and No. 2 on Arum’s hit list. He doesn’t blame Mayweather. He doesn’t blame the cable television networks, HBO and Showtime. He doesn’t even blame Leonard Ellerbe, the CEO of Mayweather promotions.
“Ellerbe has had very, very little to do with this,” Arum said. “The man behind the curtain (Haymon) is pulling the strings.”
Ellerbe has laughed off similar comments, saying it’s Bob being Bob.
Promoter declares fight terms not equitable
But he also points out that Arum knew the terms of the deal before his client signed on for the fight.
“It’s about control,” Ellerbe said. “Bob is used to being in control. He’s used to calling all the shots. This time, he’s not calling the shots and it’s driving him crazy.”
Until the manifest arrived at Top Rank’s office on Tuesday from the MGM with Top Rank’s ticket allotment, Arum was ready to go to the attorney general to get some action. He calmed down once the email arrived from Leslie Moonves, the chairman of CBS who has been a key figure in brokering the deal to make the fight.
And when Moonves got Arum, Haymon and the MGM on the phone the following morning, the hotel contract issue was resolved and that paved the way for the limited public sale of 500 tickets to the fight as well as 50,000 closed-circuit television seats at the MGM’s Strip properties.
“Moonves has been tremendous,” Arum said. “There probably wouldn’t have been a deal without him. He deserves all the credit he’s getting.”
Normally, Arum would tell anyone who tried to dictate to him the terms of a fight to take a hike. But he was put in a tough position because Pacquiao has wanted this fight so badly, he basically ordered Arum to make a deal, regardless of the terms.
“That’s how bad he wants this fight,” Arum said. “Would I normally agree to a deal like this? Not in a million years. But Manny Pacquiao is a dear friend and a great champion and when he was willing to accept less money and be on the short end of everything, I went ahead and got him the fight.
“Are the terms equitable? Absolutely not. But when Manny wins, it’ll all have been worth it.”
And while the deal may not be the greatest for Pacquiao, don’t fret for him or is family. Pacquiao will make in the neighborhood of $120 million, perhaps more, depending on how well the fight sells on pay per view. Mayweather is expected to make anywhere between $180 million and $200 million.
Arum still harbors bitter feelings toward the MGM over Pacquiao’s last visit. On April 12, 2014, Pacquiao faced Timothy Bradley at the Grand Garden in a rematch of their controversial June 8, 2012 meeting that saw Bradley win by split decision. The week of the fight, Arum noticed signage around the MGM for Mayweather’s upcoming fight with Marcos Maidana on May 3.
He went apoplectic. He publicly ripped the MGM, taking dead aim at Richard Sturm, the hotel’s president for entertainment and sports. He not only demanded the signage be taken down, but that the sponsors for the fight be compensated for the competing signage.
That didn’t happen. But the MGM did remove the Mayweather-Maidana fight signage and the day after the Pacquiao-Bradley fight, it went back up again.
One of the stipulations to this fight was Mayweather’s demand it be held at the MGM. Arum was incensed but he had no choice but to agree. However, he has some control over Pacquiao and he intends to limit his fighter’s exposure to the property. Pacquiao’s scheduled “grand arrival” for Tuesday will not happen, according to Arum. It’s the traditional kickoff of fight week festivities and the first opportunity for the fans to see the fighters.
Instead, Arum has arranged for reporters to meet with Pacquiao at Mandalay Bay, which, incidentally, is an MGM property. Of course, things could change between now and Tuesday and Arum may have a change of heart and allow Pacquiao’s many fans a chance to see him.
The contract does not require Pacquiao to be at the arrival Tuesday. He does have to be at the final news conference, set for Wednesday at the MGM, Friday’s weigh-in at the Grand Garden and, of course, Saturday’s fight.
Arum is pleased about one aspect of this promotion — Pacquiao.
“Manny’s preparation for this fight has been unbelievable,” Arum said. “He’s relaxed and he’s focused and he’s going to win.”
Overall, though, Arum admits this has not been a pleasurable experience, even though he is a participant in boxing’s biggest event in decades.
“It’s been very frustrating,” Arum said. “When I did business with Don (King), it was always a battle, step by step. But it was a good battle. He was very tough to negotiate with. But once you got him to sign, everything was fine.
“But this is different. The contract. The tickets. Who does business like this? That’s why I’ll be happy when it’s May 3 and Manny wins and I can raise my man’s hand and we can all go to the Philippines for a victory parade.” Contact reporter Steve Carp at scarp@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2913. Follow him on Twitter: @stevecarprj.