Mayweather-Pacquiao Will Take Time, Says Arum

Las Vegas - Top Rank promoter Bob Arum says it will take some time to negotiate a best-seller fight between reigning world pound-for-pound king Manny Pacquiao and former No.1 Floyd Mayweather Jr.

Arum told BoxingScene.com, insidesports.ph, Standard Today and Viva Sports that Pacquiao wanted one more fight after his “Fire Power” showdown against WBO welterweight champion Miguel Cotto in their showdown at the MGM Grand here in Las Vegas on November 14 before the May 2010 elections where he plans to run for the lone congressional seat in Sarangani.

Arum said “I guess he wants to fight before and after” but that Mayweather will “want a lot of money but I don’t think we can do a Mayweather fight in that short a period of time.” However, Arum indicated it will all boil down to negotiations.

Arum stressed that while Mayweather “could look past the Juan Manuel Marquez fight Manny can’t look past Cotto.” He explained that the Puerto Rican star had lost only once to a guy (Antonio Margarito) who they think had his gloves loaded and he was beating him until towards the end.”

The Top Rank promoter wasn’t too concerned about Pacquiao’s training camp in Baguio City once Roach arrived in the Philippines along with conditioning guru Alex Ariza.

He said “the biggest advantage that Manny has in the fight is Freddie Roach. Miguel has no equivalent although his trainer is a nice guy – Joe Santiago. But he has a great conditioner, a real pro. But Manny has Freddie to work with him on strategy . People don’t give him the credit he should get but he’s a tremendous strategist. He can analyze an opponent and figure things out.”

Prior to leaving for Manila, Roach told us that the catch-weight of 145 was no problem . He said “one pound here two pounds there are not going to win or lose the fight. I’m happy with it (145) and Manny has no problem with it. The thing is by fight time he’ll weigh 160, we’ll be about 149 which is Manny’s best fighting weight and if they think he (Cotto) is the stronger guy he has something coming . They said Oscar (de la Hoya) was stronger, they said Ricky Hatton was stronger and now they Cotto is stronger. I got the better puncher. If he wants to fight, we’ll fight.”

Arum also disclosed that he was very impressed with light welterweight Mark Jason Melligen who had even impressed Floyd Mayweather Jr as well as Z “The Dream” Gorres and would put them on a Top Rank card scheduled for November 13 at Mandalay Bay. Melligen will fight tough Mexican Mike Rosales while matchmaker Bruce Trampler was working on an opponent for Gorres.