HBO Sports President Ross Greenburg has dismissed allegations from Team Mayweather and Golden Boy Promotions that no negotiations took place with Manny Pacquiao.
In a statement made today, Greenburg confirmed Arum’s previous statements that he was a middleman in the negotiations between both camps. Green also revealed that he had assumed this role since May, following Mayweather’s decision win over Shane Mosley.
“Fights like Mayweather vs. Pacquiao are significant because these fighters’ ability to connect with sports fans around. It’s unfortunate that it won’t happen in 2010,” Greenburg explained in a statement. “I had been negotiating with a representative from each side since May 2, carefully trying to put the fight together. Hopefully, someday this fight will happen. Sports fans deserve it.”
The controversy began earlier this month when Top Rank CEO Bob Arum gave Mayweather a July 16 deadline to sign a contract to face Manny Pacquiao. Arum claimed even though the contract contained provisions for drug testing, he received no response from Mayweather. In addition, Arum verified that he had not spoken with anyone from Mayweather’s camp directly, but was negotiating with Greenburg as a middleman to relay terms to Mayweather advisor Al Haymon.
Mayweather’s other advisor, Leonard Ellerbe, denied any talks took place and put Arum and Greenburg on the defensive by proclaiming that one of them was lying.
Greenburg’s statement also refutes Golden Boy CEO Richard Schaefer, who recently took Team Mayweather’s side and challenged Arum to take a lie detector test.
Schaefer was not pleased with Greenburg’s comments, and referred to the executive’s alleged middleman role as highly unprofessional.
“[Greenburg] has not negotiated with me, let me put it like that. Leonard, me and Al talk on a regular basis, and I’m not aware of these ‘negotiations’ taking place, and I’m totally surprised Ross Greenburg would claim differently,” Schaefer said to the LA Times. “If these negotiations took place, I’m confident I would have been aware of them. I find it extremely unprofessional the president of HBO Sports would issue this statement before this weekend’s Golden Boy fights, one of our deepest cards ever. My entire focus this week is on the well-being of this pay-per-view card on HBO, and they would be well-served to do the same thing.”
Ironically, Greenburg’s comments support a June media statement by Golden Boy founder Oscar De La Hoya, who said that the Mayweather-Pacquiao talks were going well and an agreement was “close.”
Later, De La Hoya claimed that he was “misquoted” and renounced all of his comments on the fight.
“I was getting the question so often, I was hearing it in my sleep,” De La Hoya explained. “I was like ‘yeah, yeah, it’s close.’ But I really didn’t know.”
Mayweather is still vacationing Puerto Rico. During his trip, he is expected to meet with Miguel Cotto regarding co-promoting options on the island. Last month, Cotto signed a promotional contract with Golden Boy, which is separate from his fight deal with Top Rank.
At press time, Ross Greenburg has not disclosed any specific details about the negotiation offers from either side.
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And just when we think this group can’t embarrass themselves any further, this lovely story breaks. I don’t blame Ross Greenburg for this statement; he had to clear his name and somewhat distance himself from the games Top Rank and Golden Boy have been playing with each other in 2010.
There’s no big diatribe that’s needed on this matter. All that needs to be said is that through these two negotiations, both sides have disgraced themselves and made a mockery of the fans and the sport of boxing.
I’m reading a biography on Sigmund Freud, and it reminded me of Snoop Dogg’s video earlier this month where he urged Pacquiao to take the blood test and make the fight. But in his speech he had a Freudian slip regarding the behavior of both sides.
“Y’all bullshitting!” he said before quickly correctly himself and assigning the blame solely to Pacquiao.
No Snoop, you had it correct the first time.
Beats, Boxing and Mayhem 