Blockbuster Fight Is Off
07.01.10
The much-anticipated face-off between Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather, tentatively scheduled for Trek 13 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, has collapsed, Top Rank promoter Bob Arum told ESPN.com on Wednesday sundown.
"The fight's off," Arum, who promotes Pacquiao, said from Las Vegas.
The question died after a last-ditch attempt at mediation between Top Rank and Golden Boy, which represents Mayweather, failed in an trouble to determine the drug-testing protocol.
Pacquiao had agreed to move off his hard-pen-mark stance of refusing a blood test inside 30 days before the fighting, but Mayweather wouldn't budge off his desire for random testing all the way until the dispute, Arum said. Nor would Mayweather agree to a public apology for remarks he made accusing Pacquiao of using act-enhancing drugs, Arum said.
"I am very disappointed that we could not make this refute for the fans and I am angered because of the false accusations from Golden Boy and the Mayweather camp that I acclimated to some type of drugs, and that is why I have instructed our American lawyers to proceed with the lawsuit to down my name," Pacquiao said in a statement.
Source: ESPN