Arum always preferred Pacquiao-Clottey over Pacquiao-Floyd - but I can live with it

3 things first: 1) I'm not saying Pac turned down the Floyd fight, reports say he knew little of actual negotiations - like the 14 day window - Pac probably wanted the fight. No, I personally blame Bob Arum, his negotiating tactics and demands for the fight falling apart. 2) I'm not furious at all, everyone will calm down and the fight will happen IMO on September 18, a more logical PPV date. 3) I'm actually happy for Pacquiao-Clottey since I felt Josh beat Cotto last year but was left out in the cold, here's his deserving chance.

But if you know Arum, you could see it coming. Bob was overly emotional and badly angered during the whole Floyd negotiations (actually ever since Floyd left him), and Arum could be a little b*tch coming down to negotiations, AND IMO he already had the alternative in Dallas ready when he started to play the take-it-or-leave-it card. You could see that while Top Rank always made DEMANDS and pull-out THREATS, Floyd representative Richard Schaefer always made COMPROMISES so the fight could move on: 1) weight 2) date 3) site 4) glove size 5) overweight clause 6) drug-testing compromises (no USADA, no testing days before the fight etc), Schaefer was NEGOTIATING every point, with Arum simply threatening to pull out. In fact, Arum WANTED to come up with so irrational demands (like the $10.000.000 per pound clause) that Floyd would pull out and the Clottey/Dallas fight could get made with the blame still on Mayweather, but for Arum's shock, Floyd accepted everything, weight, date, gloves, and the overweight clause. So in the end, Arum had to play the drug testing card to get out, and he turned down the completely reasonable, in between 30 and 0, 14-day drug testing window. Why? Because he ALREADY had the alternative ready just like he had Pavlik-Espino ready a few weeks ago when we all thought we'd get Pavlik-Williams. Nothing new here, and Pac and drugs had little to do with it. It was just the excuse.

Why is Clottey better for Arum? 1) vs. Floyd, Pac was favored to lose, a loss would've been a big prestige loss for Top Rank. 2) Arum already had HUGE success with his Top Rank Only card last year (Pac-Cotto), so why not do another? 3) Dallas guaranteed millions last year to host Pac-Floyd but it was turned down. But it's a go for Pac-Clottey: $$$$$ for Arum. 4) Clottey in much safer on paper, Pac would be favored to win AND there are the Top Rank Judges if necessary - no way Clottey gets a close decision. 5) Bob could keep ALL the promotional $$$ (gate, site fee, HBO fee, sponsor money, PPV share etc.) instead of splitting it with Floyd and Schaefer, and 6) Arum could get through with all his negotiation points and demands since Clottey is with Top Rank as well and too small to come up with his own demands. In the end, Josh is simply a safer path and Arum would rather make less but keep all than make more but share it with Floyd, it's the simple cold truth.

But IMO he made a huge mistake. It's not only a much smaller fight in terms of money and significance: Clottey could very well 1) upset Pacquiao, 2) at least make him look bad, or 3) inflict a lot of punishment and possible injuries KOing another big fight for Pac for the 2nd half of 2010. So in the end, denying the logical and reasonable 14-day window and the Las Vegas superfight, choosing Clottey/Dallas could end up being a horrible decision. You could understand Arum's thinking though: last time he took a big risk it turned wrong (Mosley-Margarito, Hopkins-Pavlik), also, Arum learned from Sturm-DLH that it's safer to avoid certain fighters (Abraham for Pavlik, Caballero for Lopez, now even Gamboa-JuanMa is being pushed back after Lopez looked ****), so no wonder after 5 threats of pulling out the Mayweather fight, Bob Arum ultimately did. He had Clottey/Dallas already in the bag and why am I not even surprised?

 

Pavlik-Espino instead of Williams, Lopez-Luevano instead of Caballero, Cotto-Clottey instead of Mosley rematch, all smaller $ fights, and Arum didn't even have the personal hate against them like he has it against Floyd.