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With just a week to go before the most anticipated fight in recent boxing history, Top Rank’s Bob Arum revealed that the final contract for the Floyd Mayweather Jr.- Manny Pacquiao mega-bout has yet to be signed.
Arum said Mayweather Promotions and the management of MGM — where the fight will take place — made revisions to the final fight contract, different from the term sheet he signed a couple of months ago.
“We agreed that we would all be signatories on the final contract and then they sent us a draft of the agreement and it excluded us,” Arum, who promotes Pacquiao, told ESPN.com.
Arum claimed that under the new deal, Top Rank would have no control of decisions during the fight, including in-arena production, video content, and music.
“They don’t want us to have any say,” Arum said. “So whether they came up with the deal between Mayweather and MGM before or after our agreement, they’ve committed fraud either way. That’s what we’re enmeshed in.”
But Mayweather Promotion’s Leonard Ellerbe denied the supposed maneuverings as claimed by Arum.
“The bottom line is that Bob isn’t willing to live with the agreement signed a couple months ago, which doesn’t allow him to be in control,” Ellerbe said.
“The only conspiracy, in my opinion, exists with him trying to conspire with his lawyers to change the terms of the agreement. I assure you that nothing underhanded is going on and the reference to this back alley stuff is ridiculous.”
The delay in the signing of the final contract has also frozen ticket sales for the fight such that not a single ticket has been printed pending the standoff.
But Arum said he is not signing the contract unless Top Rank is named a signatory on the agreement. “They can’t act like our original agreement doesn’t exist,” he said.
The Pacquiao-Mayweather fight is supposed to take place on May 2 at the MGM Grand Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. — With a report from ANC
This story was republished from ABS-CBNnews.com.
