Latest On Mayweather/Pacquiao

Posted by Ashish on 12.27.2009

Two sides continue to blame each other....

ESPN reports that despite some movement by both sides, the Mayweather and Pacquiao camps still have not come to an agreement regarding drug testing for their potential megafight on March 13th. Bob Arum is now stating that Pacquiao won't submit to even the three blood tests he had previously agreed to, unless the Nevada Athletic Commission tells them to. They are now stating that Mayweather can petition Nevada to do whatever it is he wants them to do, but that Pacquiao will only agree if Nevada agrees. Arum, of course, knows that it is very unlikely that Nevada would force blood testing on anyone since they never have before.

"Our position is that since the fight would be in Nevada, let [the Mayweather side] make any petition it wants to the commission," Arum said. "We wash our hands of it. If the commission wants to take blood, fine. We don't care. But we're not going to pander to this petty bull---- about how many days before the fight they can test and so forth. Who are they [Golden Boy] to tell Manny what he's supposed to do? How many times did [Golden Boy boss] Oscar De La Hoya ever give blood before a fight? I will not let this kid get pushed around.

"If they go to the commission and they ask for blood tests and the commission says yes, we will do whatever the commission says. The commission says blood testing, we'll do blood testing. We're not going to help it or oppose it. We're not going to give any credence to this nonsense. They want to sign a contract under the rules of the commission, fine. We don't want the fight if it means Manny is going to be pushed around. Let the commission tell us how many days in front they want blood. Let the commission pick a date to stop taking blood. We trust the commission. Blood testing we think is unnecessary, but fine, we'll do it. But let the commission set the parameters. Let Golden Boy approach the commission and say we want to take blood when he's walking into the ring. Whatever the commission wants to do we will support, but we won't take part in this exercise in nonsense, a procedure which is contrary to how boxing has been conducted in Nevada for 40 years. The burden is not on us to tell the commission what to do."

Keithe Kizer, director of the Nevada commission, says it is very unlikely that they would put anything in place for blood testing prior to a March 13th fight.

"We're very confident that urine tests by themselves cover everything that needs to be covered, but if the camps want to do additional testing through a third party they are welcome to, as long as they also adhere to commission rules," Kizer told ESPN.com. "Urine testing we could run with today. We could test their urine every day from now until March 13. But blood testing is trickier because we don't require it. If the commission wanted to change the rule it would have to be at a public meeting and, at the earliest, that would be early to mid-January. We have done some urine testing during training camps. We have those protocols in place. Blood testing is a different story.

"We'd have to put it on a commission agenda. Golden Boy or Top Rank or both could ask for blood testing and we'd look into it. Whether it would go anywhere, that's up to the commission to decide. As of now, there are no plans for a special commission meeting, nor has one been requested from either side."

The Mayweather camp is accusing the Pacquiao camp of moving the goalposts, as they had agreed to blood testing but now have moved off that position and are only agreeing to do what the Nevada commission tells them to do. They added that when Pacquiao wanted a $10 million weight penalty, expecting a no, they said yes to try and move things forward, but now Pacquiao is obsessing over another issue, drug testing.

Meanwhile, Arum is already making plans for Pacquiao to fight Paulie Malignaggi, who has also accused Pacquiao of using performance-enhancing drugs.