Crisis averted.
Top Rank promoter Bob Arum tells the Guardian the contract for the 2 May fight between Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao will be signed imminently and tickets for the fight will go on sale on Thursday.
Arum, who has promoted Pacquiao since 2005, said the outstanding disputes between the parties were resolved in a conference call on Wednesday morning that included Mayweather adviser Al Haymon and Top Rank president Todd duBoef.
And hardly a moment too soon: the fight is 10 days away.
“We had a call at approximately 11 o’clock this morning (Pacific time) where we agreed on all the open issues,” Arum said. “We’re awaiting the contract from the MGM which hopefully will accurately reflect what we’ve agreed to.”
The call was ordered by Les Moonves, president and CEO of CBS Corporation, who had been contracted by the parties weeks ago to mediate any issues that came up.
As they do.
The status of the long-awaited showdown between Mayweather and Pacquiao, widely expected to be the richest prizefight in history, had been hurled into jeopardy in recent days after it was revealed no contract for the bout to take place at the MGM Grand Garden Arena had been signed.
And that was just the latest snafu in a promotion five years in the making that’s proven no less troublesome down the homestretch.
Previously, it was reported that no tickets for the fight had gone on public sale due to an impasse between the two camps and the MGM Grand over allotments. Nor had a single ticket been made available for the closed-circuit viewing of the fight at MGM properties, another considerable revenue stream.
“As soon as the contract is signed, the tickets will go on sale within an hour,” Arum told the Guardian.
Mayweather deflected questions about the row during a conference call with the media later Wednesday.
“The business side, that’s for [Mayweather Promotions CEO] Leonard Ellerbe. I don’t try to worry about tickets, I try to worry about the guy that’s in front of me, which is Manny Pacquiao. That’s my whole focus. Tickets is something I don’t really deal with.”
The 83-year-old promoter said he expected the contract at Top Rank’s Las Vegas offices around 12pm PT, roughly one hour after the call was concluded, but as of 2pm the paperwork had yet to arrive.
“I don’t know why it’s taking this long, but again I don’t think there’s anything untoward,” he said. “I just think it’s people working slowly.”
When asked if he’d ever been part of an event that required so late a salvage job, Arum was succinct.
“Never.”
Ellerbe didn’t return requests for comment on Wednesday, nor did he address the matter while sitting in on Mayweather’s conference call.
