Bob Arum: Floyd Mayweather Was Shamed Into Doing This Fight
BOSTON (CBS) - Mike Felger and Tony Massarotti have been talking about this Mayweather-Pacquiao fight for awhile, and one of the concerns they have is the boxing style of Floyd Mayweather.
You know what you're going to get from Manny Pacquiao in the ring. He's an aggressive fighter that likes to go at his opponent in flurries.
Mayweather, on the other hand, fights in a defensive style and counter punches. Most all his fights go to 12 rounds and a decision, so there's a large group of casual boxing fans -- already weary of the $99 Pay Per View price tag -- who fear this could be a boring fight.
Boxing promoter Bob Arum, who visited the Felger & Mazz booth at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, quelled those fears Friday afternoon.
"Mayweather is not going to turn this into a chess game. He's going to stand and fight. Manny will be attacking Mayweather from the get-go and I think Mayweather is prepared for that," Arum said.
"[Floyd] has done more strength conditioning than any fight that I remember because he knows he has to fight. It's going to be a very interesting fight."
There's been a lot of he-said, she-said as to why this fight took so long. Sports Illustrated's Chris Mannix told Felger & Mazz initially it was Pacquiao's fault, but for the last five years the delay has come as a result of Mayweather's stubbornness, and Bob Arum agrees.
"As the years went on Manny desperately wanted the fight and Floyd was always finding excuses," Arum said.
In fact, if not for the boxing fans' insistence that this mega match take place, we likely wouldn't even have gotten this fight. Bob Arum told Felger & Mazz that Mayweather was shamed into accepting the challenge after his years of ducking.
"Who made the fight? The public made the fight. When [Floyd] would go to Clippers games for example, he'd sit in his seat, they'd show him on the screen and 18,000 people would shout at him, 'Fight Pacquiao!'"
Felger later brought up the hot take of a caller, who said he wouldn't order the fight because they are just going to keep it close so there's a rematch.
Arum says if you're expecting a rematch you're going to be disappointed.
"It would be a total miracle if there was a rematch because of the animosity with the camps. This has been the worst promotion, for me, in the last 50 years I've been promoting boxing. Don King was a picnic [compared to Mayweather's camp]!" Arum said.
Arum also gave his prediction and talked about the sport's up-and-comers as well.
Listen below for the full interview:
