No Holds Barred: Michael Marley on Manny Pacquiao Conference Call, Mayweather-Pacquiao, and the Media

On this edition of No Holds Barred, host Eddie Goldman spoke with veteran boxing journalist Michael Marley.

Marley, who currently writes for the Examiner.com, also tried to speak by asking a question on Monday's media conference call featuring Manny Pacquiao, trainer Freddie Roach, and promoter Bob Arum, to publicize the May 2 Mayweather-Pacquiao mega-fight. But just minutes into the call, and after apparent confusion and general disorganization on it, Arum abruptly ended the call, and only right after the call's operator announced that the first question would be from Michael Marley. Arum interrupted the operator with an expletive, and said they should "reorganize" and that the call should be rescheduled. So the call was stopped prematurely.

We spoke with Michael Marley by phone Monday shortly after this abbreviated conference call, which we also play on this show.

"I wasn't looking to make a scene or anything. I just had a question I have in mind which I think is a valid question," he said.

"I wanted to ask Manny Pacquiao how he could believe or think or say that he can knock out or stop Mayweather, because the fact is that, all due respect to Pacquiao, a great champion, he'll be fighting one of the greatest defensive fighters ever. And that's coupled with the fact that Manny hasn't knocked anybody out since November 14th of 2009, when he stopped Miguel Cotto in the 12th round."

We went on to discuss what might happen in the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight and why he expects that this will be the first of what will become a trilogy of fights.

We also discussed the reduction of free access for the media to cover and interview fighters compared with the past, how this has only hurt boxing, his many years of experience in working with promoter Don King and in the media, and much more.

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That conference call incident is a normal, expected occurrence at every UFC press conference.

Bizarre as that was, maybe Arum's shortness of patience and lack of desire to deal with the media had something to do with all the nonsense swirling around this fight right now.

There's actually no signed contract currently, and no tickets have been officially sold. It's even still possible at this moment that there might not be a fight, it seems. On top of that, Marley being first up might have contributed, as he's a pretty controversial character. But I have to think it was probably the combination of all these things (as well as the technical problems, etc.).

Looks like Arum is the reason no tix are on sale yet for MayPac. Per Darren Rovell, ESPN.com Sports Business reporter:

"The bottom line is that Bob isn't willing to live with the agreement signed a couple months ago, which doesn't allow him to be in control," Ellerbe said.

While the page of the term sheet does say that Mayweather and Top Rank will "jointly own and promote the event," it also names Mayweather as lead promoter and "sole negotiator" of the deal with MGM.

http://espn.go.com/boxing/story/_/id/12736671/floyd-mayweather-manny-pacquiao-contract-not-signed

nhbnews wrote:Looks like Arum is the reason no tix are on sale yet for MayPac. Per Darren Rovell, ESPN.com Sports Business reporter:

"The bottom line is that Bob isn't willing to live with the agreement signed a couple months ago, which doesn't allow him to be in control," Ellerbe said.

While the page of the term sheet does say that Mayweather and Top Rank will "jointly own and promote the event," it also names Mayweather as lead promoter and "sole negotiator" of the deal with MGM.

http://espn.go.com/boxing/story/_/id/12736671/floyd-mayweather-manny-pacquiao-contract-not-signed

I read that. It seems like he-said-she-said. I don't trust anything Ellerbe says any more than I trust anything Arum says.

The last paragraph is the only part worth any thing in the excerpt (it's hard to tell exactly what it means. But your interpretation could be correct.)

I also do wonder what the meaning is to the rumors about Al Haymon.

But for the most part this seems like more shenanigans. I'm not defending Arum, and wouldn't doubt that he could be responsible. But the other side isn't the most credible either.