Arum actually doesn’t want Pacquiao-Mayweather fight, says Golden Boy executive

Golden Boy Promotions Chief Executive Richard Schaefer believes Top Rank CEO Bob Arum doesn’t actually want a fight between Filipino ring icon Manny Pacquiao and undefeated American Floyd Mayweather Jr., in the wake of Arum’s tirade against Mayweather promotional materials at the MGM Grand Garden Arena prior to Pacquiao’s last fight.

Schaefer told the LA Times’ Lance Pugmire that “he [Arum] sure knows how to get something done: by telling people to boycott Floyd’s fight, calling it a terrible matchup.

“Is that how you negotiate or create goodwill? It doesn’t make me want to say things that would leave hope for that fight, because I don’t believe eh wants the fight. This how you do things when you don’t want to gets things done.”

Last Wednesday (Thursday, PHL time), during the final pre-fight press conference for the Pacquiao vs Timothy Bradley Jr. rematch, Arum said his fighters would have gotten better treatment from the Venetian hotel in Macau, saying, “They [The Venetian] knew what fight was scheduled in three or four days and they wouldn’t have a 12-1 fight all over the building that’s going to take place three weeks from next Saturday.”

Arum however later apologized by saying, “I’m an old guy and I apologize.”

Pacquiao defeated Bradley Jr. via unanimous decision, while Mayweather will take on WBA Welterweight champ Marcos Maidana on May 3 (May 4, PHL time), in a battle that Schaefer said is “not a tuneup fight.”

After dispatching Bradley Jr., Pacquiao told reporters that if Mayweather wants to fight, “the fight will be on.”  - AMD, GMA News