By Michael Collins: Top Rank promoter Bob Arum has come up with another reason why he’s reluctant to match his fighter Manny Pacquiao, pointing out that Mayweather may not receive his boxing license to fight in Nevada by the Nevada State Athletic Commission before May 5th due to Mayweather’s criminal case.
Mayweather’s 90-day sentence was delayed until June 1st upon arguments from his attorneys that he stands to make a lot of money for his May 5th fight for himself and for Nevada.
Arum told ESPN.com “I don’t even know if Mayweather will be licensed before he serves hit time.”
It appears Arum is using the shotgun approach to excuse making for not putting his cash cow fighter Pacquiao in with Mayweather. Arum’s other excuses have to do with Pacquiao’s cut needing more time to heal. Arum feels seven months is needed for this particular cut, not the normal six months. Having seen Pacquiao’s cut, it didn’t look that bad at all compared to some of the really ones I’ve seen that healed up just fine with the customary six months.
Mayweather will almost surely have to meet with the Nevada Commission due to his conviction and criminal case. However, it’s hard to imagine that the Nevada Commission would say no to licensing a hugely popular fighter like Mayweather when he could potentially bring in millions of badly needed dollars to the Las Vegas, Nevada community for a fight against Pacquiao or anyone else for that matter. The Nevada Commission won’t shoot themselves in the foot by denying Mayweather his license.
It’s surprising that Arum would even bother to use this as an excuse not to match Pacquiao up with Mayweather because it seems so weak. Arum previously worked overtime to get his fighter Antonio Margarito licensed to fight Pacquiao and was willing to take the fight all the way to Texas just to make the fight happen. Margarito was previously denied licensing by the Nevada and California Commission. This shows that when Arum wants to put a fight together, he’s not going to let licensing issues prevent it from happening.