Bob Arum is a bold face liar, so you have to take some of the things he says with a grain a salt. Hard to imagine any one turning down $100 million even if that meant working with someone they despise.
According to Arum though courtesy of Deadspin that is exactly what happen.
“We had an offer, a legitimate offer on the table for 180 million dollars and people due to fight and had a big upside of 180 for the two fight camps. That’s when he said 55-45 which would’ve given Mayweather 100 million. (Pacquiao) would’ve ended up with 80 million and that’s still a lot of money right? But Mayweather will not fight him.
Now why am I saying that? I’m not saying it to be, I know the guy and I know what his problem is, Mayweather, because we had him for 10 and a half years and his problem was he hated, he never wanted to face a southpaw and a southpaw that can move and punch with his left hand makes Mayweather completely vulnerable. All you have to do was watch him in the (DeMarcus) Corley fight where he didn’t realize Corley was one when he made the fight. Corley shook him up and had him in trouble. Why? Because Mayweather is a sensational defensive fighter but that’s against an orthodox guy.
If he goes against a southpaw he opens himself up. You saw that happen in the Cotto fight because Cotto is a right handed fighter but he’s really a southpaw that’s converted and Cotto hurt him because he doesn’t have a good defense to the left hand.”
A couple of issues with Bob’s theory on left handed fighters. Yes, Chop Chop Corley did have a moment in his fight with Floyd, but Bob left out Floyd won that fight by scores of 119-108, 119-107 and 118-108 which is about as a dominant of a performance you can have. Floyd had some issues with Zab Judah another southpaw, but it didn’t stop him again from a clear victory.
Not saying Pacquiao is Chop Chop Corley or Judah, but the point is the I don’t think Pacquiao being left handed is the reason the fight isn’t happening.
Bob Arum is great at leaving out facts, so don’t assume it was as simple as Mayweather getting $100 million and Pacquiao $80 million. If it was that simple the fight would have happened by now.
With that being said they fight should have happened and there are a lot of people to blame. Mayweather is at the forefront of that list, followed by Arum, Pacquiao, Top Rank and Golden Boy.
Fight will probably never happen, so we can only imagine what could have been.