Promoter: Mayweather-Pacquiao contract still not signed
There are less than two weeks before the scheduled welterweight world unification bout between Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao, but Top Rank and Pacquiao promoter Bob Arum says that the official contract for the fight still has not been signed.
WBC and WBA welterweight champion Mayweather (47-0, 26 KOs), an 11-time world champion, and Pacquiao (57-5-2, 38 KOs) are scheduled to meet May 2 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.
Arum told ESPN.com the reason for the delay is because when he received a contract on April 15 it wasn’t what he agreed to when the fight was announced in February.
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"We agreed that we would all be signatories on the final contract and then they sent us a draft of the agreement and it excluded us," Arum said.
“They don't want us to have any say," Arum added. "So whether they came up with the deal between Mayweather and MGM before or after our agreement, they've committed fraud either way. That's what we're enmeshed in."
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The CEO of Mayweather Promotions, Leonard Ellerbe, says that Arum doesn’t want to live up to their agreement.
"The only conspiracy, in my opinion, exists with him trying to conspire with his lawyers to change the terms of the agreement. I assure you that nothing underhanded is going on and the reference to this back alley stuff is ridiculous,” Ellerbe said.
No tickets have been printed, even though promoters have said that most of the 16,800 seats in the MGM Grand Garden Arena will cost spectators between $1,500 and $7,500.
"Despite all of this, I'm confident the world will get to see the fight they've been waiting for," Ellerbe said.
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