Sports Thread #1 For 1/6/09: Arum Says The Fight Is Off Again

Photo from AP's Joe C.Hong

One sided is this perspective of the fight breaking down when the news breaks, but I guess Arum is the only one who will give up quotes:

Two days of mediation and negotiation hoping to save the proposed March 13 megafight between Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr ended Wednesday with no deal, and Pacquiao's promoter, Bob Arum, said "The fight is off."

"Floyd Mayweather walked away," Arum said by phone late Wednesday night. "The fight's off. Our guy was agreeable, Mayweather wasn't. The fight's off."

He further added

"It's not surprising. I always felt that he wasn't going to do the fight. He knows Manny will beat him. Mayweather's never stepped into the ring with a guy he had any question but that he was going to beat.

"That's why there's never been a (Shane) Mosley, there's never been a (Antonio) Margarito, there never was a (Miguel) Cotto, and there's no Pacquiao.

"Floyd Mayweather is a coward. He will never fight anyone that will remotely give him a tough fight."

Will the fight ever happen?

"No," said Arum. "Here's a guy who, the rematch with (Oscar) De La Hoya was a huge fight, it would've made millions and millions, and he walked away from it.. .. I'm not disappointed in the sense that I always knew it was going to be this way."

I still believe one day this fight will happen. Pacquiao suing Mayweather and Golen Boy for defamation of character is just too strong for me to still believe this fight won't happen still.

But I am going with my heart on that one. Because my head really doubts it right now.