We are officially 11 days away from Mayweather-Pacquiao and not one single ticket has been printed for the fight, closed circuit or weigh-in. Who is to blame? It depends on who you believe.
Let’s hear from Top Rank and Bob Arum first.
“We agreed that we would all be signatories on the final contract and then they sent us a draft of the agreement and it excluded us,” said Arum, who promotes Pacquiao.
“They don’t want us to have any say,” Arum said. “So whether they came up with the deal between Mayweather and MGM before or after our agreement, they’ve committed fraud either way. That’s what we’re enmeshed in.”
Arum says he’s not signing the deal until Top Rank gets named as a signatory on the agreement.
“They can’t act like our original agreement doesn’t exist,” Arum said.
In layman terms if Arum and Top Rank aren’t signatories they don’t have any say over anything. Mayweather Promotions is the lead promoter and has final say any way, so that might just be semantics on Bob’s part. Here is what the Mayweather side is saying.
“The bottom line is that Bob isn’t willing to live with the agreement signed a couple months ago, which doesn’t allow him to be in control,” Ellerbe said. “The only conspiracy, in my opinion, exists with him trying to conspire with his lawyers to change the terms of the agreement. I assure you that nothing underhanded is going on and the reference to this back alley stuff is ridiculous.”
Ellerbe called Arum holding up the signing “typical Bob.”
“This kind of behavior is one of the main reasons why Mr. Mayweather decided to move on with his own career and become vastly successful and make hundreds of millions of dollars on his own,” Ellerbe said, alluding to Mayweather leaving Top Rank in 2006 to become his own promoter. “Bob wants to be the focal point of everything and create controversy that doesn’t exist.”
Final verdict, there is something fishy going on with the tickets, we know that for sure. Arum doesn’t know how to stay low and build so he runs to the press. He did that before the fight was even signed and almost derailed it.
The fight is going to happen, but if you are looking for tickets, you are going to have to take a leap of faith and hope they are available in your price range once you actually get to Vegas.
*UPDATE*
It looks like Bob has come to his senses, but still no official word on when tickets will be available.
Pacquiao promoter Bob Arum tells me he is mostly satisfied w/ticket allotment & could sign contract for fight either tonight or tomorrow
— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) April 22, 2015
H/T ESPN