Arum says Pacquiao's offer to fight Mayweather for charity 'an incredible statement for boxing'
While Floyd Mayweather stews on how best to answer Manny Pacquiao’s challenge to the pound-for-pound king to be a man and fight him with all income going to worldwide charities, Top Rank promoter Bob Arum has praised Pacquiao for his offer.
Arum told Yahoo Philippines that Pacquiao’s offer was “an incredible statement for the sport of boxing” and indicated he was fully supportive of his prized fighter.
While the astute Top Rank promoter conceded “I think money is important” he believes Pacquiao’s offer was unprecedented and a major boost for the sport of boxing.
In fact, Arum told us that should Mayweather accept the offer all revenues generated from the mega-buck fight that boxing fans and the media from around the world have longed to see for the past three years, “could be distributed by representatives nominated by US President Barack Obama and Philippine President Benigno Aquino III.”
Pacquiao came up with what has been widely described as a “master stroke” when he offered to fight Mayweather for free with all revenues going to charity after Mayweather belittled the eight-division world champion by claiming he was begging for the fight so he could settle his supposed tax obligations to the US Internal Revenue Service and the Philippine Bureau of Internal Revenue.
The Pacquiao offer totally undercut Mayweather’s allegations even as Pacquiao’s top class tax lawyers and accountants have made it clear they have been in talks with the IRS and are looking forward to what is likely to amount to a reasonable settlement.
Pacquiao’s adviser Michael Koncz earlier told us the discussions with the IRS have been going well and he was confident that while Pacquiao would have to pay the IRS some amount of money for some of the disallowed deductions, it would be nowhere near the published figure of $18.3 million.
Manny's next opponent
Meantime, Koncz informed us that he is scheduled to return to Manila on Sunday and emphasized “Manny and I have not finished our negotiations yet” on the scheduled return to the ring by Pacquiao on April 12 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.
Koncz made the statement in response to reports quoting sources that the choice is WBO welterweight champion Timothy “Desert Storm” Bradley who won a widely criticized split decision win over Pacquiao in June 2012 in Las Vegas.
Arum himself told Yahoo Philippines that while Bradley appears to be the front-runner he strongly downplayed reports that a deal had been made.
Arum clarified that they were “working on the details” with Bradley’s handlers but that until we “get everything finalized, nothing is sure.”
He explained that negotiating a world title fight takes time and you can’t just make these fights happen. However, he conceded that while they are working on some questions” he was optimistic that the fight would eventually take place but added that there are no guarantees.
Bradley has won his last two fights to keep his unbeaten record of 31-0 with 12 knockouts.
Despite being knocked down by rugged Russian Ruslan Provodnikov in the twelfth round of their title fight, Bradley outboxed Provodnikov overall to win a unanimous decision after earlier winning a split decision victory over Juan Manuel Marquez.
Should the negotiations with Bradley break down, Provodnikov remains an option. The Russian dropped Mike “Mile High” Alvarado twice before he won by a tenth-round TKO to capture the WBO light welterweight title.
