Bob Arum Downplays Pacquiao-Mayweather Match Next Year

Because of Floyd Mayweather, Jr.'s continued insistence of a bigger share of the fight purse as a pre-condition to face Manny Pacquaio in a possible mega fight next year, 'money Mayweather' may risk a once in a lifetime opportunity of fighting the world's most popular boxer. Mayweather has been saying all along that he will not settle for anything less that a 60-40 share of the fight purse in his favor.. Mayweather's demand for a bigger fight purse seems to have irritated the otherwise calm Bob Arum, Pacquiao's promoter, who recently visited the popular Fili[pino boxer in Baguio City while he is sparring with some of the world's finest boxing champions in preparation for his fight with Miguel Cotto of Puerto Rico. Pacquiao and Cotto will collide on November 14, 2009 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. Philstar.com reports:

The ageless promoter said he’s having doubts that Pacquiao will take on Mayweather next if gets past Miguel Cotto on Nov. 14 (Nov. 15 in Manila), citing problems that may possibly arise during negotiations. “I don’t think (Pacquiao-Mayweather) will happen within the next year because of all of Mayweather’s posturing, the trash talk. That impedes any realistic negotiations. It would just be too difficult,” Arum told Michael Rosenthal of The Ring.

Boxing fans maintain that Pacquiao deserves a bigger share of the fight purse because of his current title as the Ring Magazine's pound-for-pound king. On top of this, Pacquaio has defeated consecutively three of the best boxers in the world in less than two years, including Oscar de la Hoya, Ricky Hatton and David Diaz, not to mention his past victories against Juan Manuel Marquez, Erik Morales and Marco Antonio Barrera, all world-class boxing champions in their own rights. Freddie Roach echoed Arum's statements, saying :“It seems like there’s a lot of things working against this fight ever happening,” Roach earlier told The Los Angeles Times. “It makes sense. It’d be a great fight, but it seems there’s a lot of distractions around it. I don’t think it’s going to happen.” After the Pacquio-Cotto match, boxing fans from around the world will be looking looking forward to a Pacquiao-Matyweather match early next year. If Pacquiao wins over Cotto in their November 14 match, Mayweather may be left with few options but settle for a 50:50 or split sharing of the fight purse as Pacquiao will have another wiorld title added to his name. The Pacquiao-Mayweather fight is expected to generate record breaking income from all revenue sources of the match up and surely Mayweather will realize that a split sharing of the purse will bring in substantial amount to replenish his bank account.