Let the record be clear:
Manny Pacquiao and his promoter Bob Arum are threatening to
walk away from the largest fight in history.
The fact is that random blood
and urine testing was one of the many deal points and was
listed along with the others, such as the financial split,
the weight, financial penalty for being overweight, the
appointment of the foreign sales agent, the production of
the marketing assets, the gloves and many more. Team
Mayweather made major concessions in many of these areas and
we were optimistic that Team Pacquiao would do the same as
it related to the request for random blood and urine
testing, which Floyd Mayweather agreed to immediately.
It is disappointing for us to
see that the benefits of blood testing and the fact that
many different substances and procedures can only be
detected by blood testing, are still not fully understood by
all.
Their "take it or leave it"
approach where blood testing would stop 30 days prior to the
fight unless the Nevada State Athletic Commission (NSAC)
approved differently is another indication that they may not
want this fight. Pacquiao's position (and as stated on his
website) is. "The truth is taking blood
out of my body does not seem natural to me and mentally I
feel it will weaken me if blood is taken from me just days
before the fight" or he is "afraid of needles" and
does not feel comfortable with blood being taken closer than
30 days before the fight is another interesting point. The
fact is that he did have blood taken just 14 days prior to
his fight with Ricky Hatton, an event which was documented
on HBO's 24/7 reality show.
Also when told that Pacquiao
feels that the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) is
an agent of Golden Boy Promotions-which is in and of itself
a ridiculous accusation-we moved swiftly and made yet
another concession by stating that we would be perfectly
fine to retain another agency which would do the random
urine and blood tests and jointly agree on a reasonable
cutoff prior to the fight but which would still maintain the
integrity of the results. Let it be clear that this
procedure was declined by Pacquiao as was the proposal to
bring in an independent mediator such as Sen. John McCain, a
suggestion that was in fact embraced by Bob Arum, but also
declined by Manny Pacquiao.
Let it be very clear that
nobody from Team Mayweather or Golden Boy Promotions is
accusing Pacquiao of anything. But the reality seems to be
that for whatever reason Pacquiao does not want to
participate in random blood testing, which has already been
deemed a harmless procedure that many current athletes are
subjected to prior to and during competition.
Team Mayweather and Golden
Boy Promotions is still open to the earlier discussions of
having both parties work out a mutually agreeable
understanding of the testing, which would be conducted by a
mutually agreed upon agency.
In closing Floyd Mayweather is one of the most decorated
athletes boxing has ever seen and he is anxious to make this
fight happen for all of the fans and sports enthusiasts that
are asking for this fight to happen too. As you might have
noticed Floyd has been silently watching and patiently
waiting for the final details of the fight to get worked
out. As Floyd has already stated he does not have a problem
with the random procedure and will be under the same
requirements as Pacquiao, it is simply hard for him to
understand why there is reluctance on Pacquiao's part to
agree to do the same.