POSTED: July 8, 2008 - 5:01 pm
CATEGORIES: Boxing
Top Rank Inc. chief executive Bob Arum told The Fight Network that his attorneys are examining their agreement with Golden Boy Promotions to see if it has been violated.
"What we had was a settlement agreement, and we believe that agreement was violated when Richard Schaefer convinced the MGM to not allow for us to have a date in November for Manny Pacquiao," Arum said when reached by cell phone.
Last year Golden Boy Promotions (GBP) of Los Angeles, California, and Top Rank, of Las Vegas, ended a long running feud when a judge awarded GBP a percentage of red-hot Pacquiao, promoted by Arum's Top Rank.
Subsequently the two promotional giants co-promoted Miguel Cotto-Shane Mosley, Manny Pacquiao-Marco Antonio Barrera, and Pacquiao-Juan Manuel Marquez, all fights won by Top Rank fighters.
Arum contends that the agreement had nothing to do with co-promoting and only revolved around Pacquaio, whom GBP has previously reach an agreement with, before Pacquiao walked away from the deal, returning his signing bonus, and signing a lucrative deal with Top Rank.
"The only agreement they have is for a percentage of our profits with Pacquiao which amounts to about 25 percent," Arum explained to The Fight Network.
Arum said that he has not decided at the moment that he will revisit the agreement with the judge stating, "what they did was wrong, but there may not have been any damages."
Arum said that Pacquiao will fight on November 15 in Las Vegas at the MGM or Mandalay Bay against either 26 year-old unbeaten Venezuela southpaw KO artist Edwin Valero, or Mexican standout Humberto Soto who lost on a disputed disqualification on the Pacquiao-David Diaz undercard.
Finally, Arum added, "The judge could levy a penalty against them (GBP) if my lawyers decided to go that way, but nothing has been decided yet."

