To say putting together Mayweather-Pacquiao was challenging would be the underestimate of the century. It had been six years and no one has been able to do it. That is why so many people were hesitant to believe it would ever get done.
The driving force behind getting a deal done was CBS Corp. president and CEO Leslie Moonves. Everyone from HBO, Showtime, promoters, media and the boxers themselves agree that without Moonves the fight never happens.
What is interesting is that Moonves probably doesn’t get the ball rolling if not for an LA waiter. Moonves tells the story via ESPN.
Moonves is a frequent diner at Craig’s, a Los Angeles restaurant, where he has gotten to know the waiter who serves him regularly.
“He’s always there. Nice guy, Gabriel Rueda,” Moonves said. “One day he says, respectfully, ‘I know you’re a big boxing fan and I know you’re involved with Showtime. My son trains with Freddie Roach. We’ve got to get this fight together. Freddie would love to get together with you.’ I said, ‘All right, let’s set it up.'”
Roach, of course, is Pacquiao’s Hall of Fame trainer and owner of the Wild Card Boxing Club in Hollywood, where Rueda’s college-age son trained as an amateur boxer. Rueda told Roach that Moonves was interested in meeting with him. They met for a drink in late May, a few days after Memorial Day, at Scarpetta, an Italian restaurant in Beverly Hills.
“Freddie said, ‘I want the fight to happen, Manny wants the fight to happen,'” Moonves said. “We had a good talk and I realized it wouldn’t get done without Bob.”
Arum and Moonves weren’t on good terms, because Moonves believed Arum pulled a fast on him (shocking I know) a few years back when Pacquiao fought on Showtime. Moonves thought he was getting a three fight deal with Pacquiao, but Arum immediately took Pacquiao back to HBO. Moonves felt that Arum just used him for leverage to get better deal from HBO. Freddie Roach goes in detail about the bad blood between the two men and how it was resolved.
“Les wanted to meet with Manny because he thought his contract with Bob was over, and so he reached out to me through [Rueda]. The waiter told me Les wanted to get a hold of me,” Roach said. “We had our first meeting at a fancy Italian restaurant in Beverly Hills. He said, ‘Let’s go sit at the bar.’ He ordered a drink and I ordered a bottle of water and we talked about Manny’s future and he wanted to know if I could get Manny in front of him.
“I told him you can’t do that because Manny is with Top Rank. He thought the contract was over. He said Bob promised him two more fights [after the Mosley fight] and ‘I’m not going to meet with that mother f—–.’ He was mad at Bob for not giving him the fights he thought he owed him. I told Les, ‘It would be really good to talk to Bob. You need to let everything go and talk to him.’ He said, ‘I’m not kissing his ass.’ It wasn’t going very well. I told Les, ‘Let’s make this happen. You can make this happen.'”
After the meeting, Roach said, he called Arum to fill him in.
“I called Bob up and said, ‘I met with Les and he wanted to meet with Manny but I told him Manny re-signed with you,” Roach said. “Bob said, ‘F— him.’ Bob was mad at Les too. But I said to myself if I can just get these two together that’s the best way for the fight to happen.”
Arum lives in Las Vegas but also has a second home in Los Angeles, not far from Moonves’ Beverly Hills home and, ultimately, Roach helped set up a pivotal 45-minute meeting that took place at Arum’s home in June.
“When we got there they shook hands,” Roach said. “They were going over ideas and they agreed that they could work it out between HBO and Showtime and that Les could deliver Mayweather and, of course, Bob could deliver Manny. The only thing I said to them is that they should get somebody neutral to negotiate the fight, like Jimmy Carter or Bill Clinton. They told me to go f— myself, but when we walked out they had their arms around each other and I said to myself, ‘This fight’s gonna get made.’ They just needed to talk.”
Every great story has one of these weird beginnings and that is what makes them great. So when we are all old and gray and telling our grandkids the story of Mayweather-Pacquiao, don’t forget if not for a waiter named Gabriel Rueda the fight never happens.
Funny how life works.