Bob Arum: I think Cotto is an honest guy, totally honest – Boxing News
Top Rank’s Bob Arum spoke to ESPN.com’s Dan Rafael regarding Miguel Cotto’s denial to face Filipino former WBO welterweight titlist Manny Pacquiao. Earlier this month, Cotto revealed that Bob Arum disrespected him by offering him a flat fee of $6.5 million
plus pay per view proceedings. However, Arum once again asserted that he offered $13 million to the Puerto Rican star, not directly but through his attorney.
Arum has asserted that Cotto is indeed saying the truth, but his attorney has been playing games with him.
“No. 1, I never once talked to Cotto about the fight with Pacquiao,” said Arum. “I talked to [Cotto attorney and adviser] Gaby [Penagaricano] and he was supposed to relay everything to Miguel. So now the first thing I establish was is Miguel amenable to
150 pounds? And the word came back that if we could agree on the [financial] numbers, he would agree to 150.”
“Then we started talking about a proposal and, in essence, I offered him a deal based on the last fight that he had done with Pacquiao, where he wound up making like $12 million after all of the pay-per-view money.”
Arum further said that Cotto could have garnered around $15 million from the fight. He even went onto say that he is not blaming Cotto for the fight falling off, instead it is ‘Gaby’ who is responsible. According to Arum, Cotto’s attorney has agendas of
his own.
Arum revealed that a rematch with Miguel Cotto was Manny Pacquiao’s first choice for December but the deal worked out. Cotto has already asserted that he would never fight Pacquiao at catchweight again, as it gives the Filipino advantage over him.
Cotto went head to head with Pacquiao back in 2009. The Pac-man defeated the Puerto Rican star via technical knockout in the twelfth round. The defeat was quite a damaging one for Cotto, as it took his welterweight title along with bringing a knockout defeat
to his portfolio.
Now, Cotto claims he will only fight at his own terms, regardless of what the fight has to offer in terms of money.
Tags: