An article by Dan Rafael, courtesy of ESPN.com:
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I’m not entirely sure what to make of the whole Manny Pacquiao-Floyd Mayweather Jr. negotiations/non-negotiations thing. All I do know is that I have lost sleep over it, which is what a 3 a.m. Saturday conference call with Top Rank promoter Bob Arum will do.
Arum has insisted over and over that he was negotiating a deal with Mayweather adviser Al Haymon, with whom he has a horrific relationship, using HBO Sports president Ross Greenburg as an intermediary. Arum swears by it. He said it to me before the conference call. He said it on the conference call to the world media. He said it to me and others in separate interviews after the call.
Arum has a long history of playing fast and loose with the truth, which is nothing new to anyone who follows or covers boxing. But this would be an all-time whopper. If he is lying, it means he not only threw Greenburg under the bus, it means Arum was the bus driver.
Leonard Ellerbe, Mayweather’s other adviser and the one who speaks for him publicly — Haymon fears the media more than Mayweather apparently fears Pacquiao — said no negotiations ever took place. Ellerbe put out a statement, the only official word we’ve heard from Team Mayweather during this whole childish saga. The statement read, “Here are the facts. Al Haymon, Richard Schaefer and myself speak to each other on a regular basis, and the truth is no negotiations have ever taken place nor was there ever a deal agreed upon by Team Mayweather or Floyd Mayweather to fight Manny Pacquiao on November 13. Either Ross Greenburg or Bob Arum is not telling the truth, but history tells us who is lying.”
I’ve known Ellerbe for a long time. As far as I can tell, he’s not the lying type, although he still owes me dinner.
But I don’t know who to believe in this case.
