Fighting Capsules: Promoter Bob Arum wants Pacquiao-Mayweather fight

NEW YORK — Floyd Mayweather Jr. against Manny Pacquiao.

A fight too big not to happen.

Bob Arum of Pacquiao promoter Top Rank said Thursday he’s ready to negotiate a showdown between the top pound-for-pound fighters in the world, even suggesting potential locations and acknowledging that his Filipino star is willing to fight at 147 pounds.

Arum is waiting to hear from Golden Boy Promotions chief Richard Schaefer, who is acting as an intermediary between Top Rank and Mayweather Promotions, two companies with an acrimonious relationship. Schaefer has assisted Mayweather’s team on his most recent fights.

"I have to have discussions with our side, and when the time is right, I will be talking to Bob," Schaefer told The Associated Press. "That will probably take place face to face, and I intend that to happen very shortly."

Mayweather’s adviser, Leonard Ellerbe, left no doubt that Mayweather is ready to get in the ring with the man who many believe replaced him atop the pound-for-pound list.

"Floyd has made it perfectly clear to Team Mayweather and the rest of the world that he wants to give the fans what they want, and that’s Mayweather versus Pacquiao," Ellerbe said.

It would be the biggest event in the sport since the days of Sugar Ray Leonard and Tommy Hearns, when marquee fights were held under the stars in the outdoor arena at Caesar’s Palace.

Perhaps it’s fitting that Las Vegas officials and casino magnate Steve Wynn have already contacted Arum about staging Pacquiao-Mayweather on the Strip. One possibility would be to build a temporary, 30,000-seat outdoor arena on a vacant lot at the old Frontier, where there would be room for corporate hospitality tents and a Super Bowl-like atmosphere.

Another possibility is the Dallas Cowboys’ new stadium. Team owner Jerry Jones has expressed interest in holding major events at his $1.2 billion palace.

Yankees chief operating officer Lonn Trost has said he’d like to see a fight at the new Yankee Stadium, across the street from the building where many of the sports’ greatest battles were waged. The problem is that New York would tax a significant percentage of the revenue, especially for a fight that could generate up to $80 million in purses.

The notion that so many venues are vying for a fight that has yet to be made demonstrates how much attention the sport is receiving. Mayweather is coming off a victory over Juan Manuel Marquez that sold more than 1 million pay-per-views, and Pacquiao’s stoppage of welterweight champion Miguel Cotto on Saturday night is expected to surpass 1.2 million.

"It’s not so much that I give a damn whether this fight happens — I don’t — and for me it’s not the greatest experience doing a promotion with Floyd Mayweather," Arum said. "But not to do this fight would slow down the momentum of boxing."

Mainstream sponsors like Pepsi and Subway have shown interest in Pacquiao-Mayweather, one more sign the sport is returning to the popularity level it enjoyed in the early 1980s.

Pacquiao recently made the cover of Time magazine in Asia and is easily the most widely recognized figure in the Philippines, while Mayweather has a magnetic personality that has been showcased everywhere from the WWE to commercials with Bill Kurtis for AT&T.

One of the two has won Ring Magazine’s Fighter of the Year the past three years.

"It has to happen. The stars are aligned and both fighters want it," said HBO Sports president Ross Greenburg. "If it doesn’t, it would be devastating to the sport."

Mayweather issued a statement Monday in which he said, "If Manny Pacquiao wants to fight me, all he has to do is step up to the plate and say it himself."

"The world is much more intrigued by the thought of someone fighting me who can beat me," Mayweather added. "Manny Pacquiao’s people have done a good job of creating an image of him to be this unbelievable fighter and now the so-called guy to beat me."

Already, the bluster has begun.

Arum promised that "my guy will make (Mayweather) fight, and once he fights, my guy will knock him out," while Ellerbe made it perfectly clear how he sees the fight shaking out.

"At the end of the day, we already know that Floyd is the best fighter in all of boxing, and if we’re able to make a deal, he’ll just be proving it to the world," Ellerbe said. "Nothing has changed. Pacquiao will be no different."

Judging shift saves Ward-Kessler title fight

The California State Athletic Commission has assigned a Swedish judge to Andre Ward’s fight against Mikkel Kessler, clearing up a dispute over the neutrality of the officiating crew at Saturday’s WBA super middleweight title bout.

Kessler’s camp was unhappy this week about the assignment of two judges and a referee from California to the Super Six tournament bout in Oakland, Ward’s hometown. The WBA might not have sanctioned the bout for Kessler’s 168-pound title if the California commission hadn’t addressed the fight’s contract stipulations regarding the nationalities of its officials.

The commission replaced one of the California-based judges with Sweden’s Mikael Hook. South Africa’s Stanley Christodoulou and California’s Steve Morrow will remain the other judges, and California-based Jack Reiss is still the referee.

Commission spokesman Russ Heimerich described the change as "a compromise" to address Kessler’s concerns, and Kessler promoter Wilfried Sauerland was satisfied.

"The situation is now OK with us," Sauerland told The Associated Press in an e-mail. "We checked the background of the ref, and he seems to be a fair and competitive ref. The fight will now go ahead as planned."

The contracts for the Super Six bouts require no more than one judge from each fighter’s "home territory," along with a judge and a referee from a "neutral territory."

The tournament’s first two fights last month met those requirements. On Oct. 17, Arthur Abraham stopped Jermain Taylor in Germany, Abraham’s adopted homeland; later that night, two non-British judges awarded a split decision to Carl Froch over Andre Dirrell in Froch’s native Nottingham, England.

Ward promoter Dan Goossen was pleased to iron out the final wrinkle in the biggest fight of his Olympic gold medalist’s career. Ward will get his first major title shot in front of his home fans after a deliberate five-year climb from the amateur ranks.

Kessler has been the WBA 168-pound champion for most of the past five years. He lost the belt to Wales’ Joe Calzaghe in March 2007, but reclaimed it last year and made two title defenses before agreeing to meet Ward at Oracle Arena in both fighters’ first bout of the Super Six tournament.

Goossen still wasn’t entirely thrilled with the commission’s choice, noting Hook was a judge in Kessler’s last fight in his native Denmark.

Goossen claimed the commission attempted to speak with the WBA for several months about the requirements for the fight’s officials, but got no response. Goossen also said the officials were assigned nearly two weeks ago, but the commission heard no complaints until the last two days from Sauerland.

-- Greg Beacham

MMA

Ortiz ready for comeback fight at UFC 106

Tito Ortiz and his former manager made all kinds of threats against each other over the past few years. They even considered a boxing match to settle their differences when their simmering feud boiled over last year.

Trouble is, when you’re an elite mixed martial artist and your former manager is Dana White, that’s probably not a fight you can win.

Ortiz’s dispute with the Ultimate Fighting Championship president, along with several other problems, kept him away from the UFC spotlight for the past 18 months. Yet it also provided plenty of time for the popular former light heavyweight champion to heal from a back injury that crimped his past few fights, along with the hurt feelings on both sides.

"I kind of missed Dana, too," Ortiz said with a laugh. "You know what they say, you only hurt the ones you love."

Now that his feud with White is squashed, Ortiz is headed back to the octagon with good health and a clear focus on reclaiming his title in what would be a remarkable second act to a career that seemed finished. Ortiz will meet Forrest Griffin in his comeback fight Saturday night to close UFC 106 at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas.

"I’m looking forward just to walking out there into the arena and feeling the energy again," Ortiz said. "I haven’t felt that energy in the last 18 months — that, and getting my hand raised."

The rematch of Ortiz’s competitive split-decision victory over Griffin in 2006 was moved to UFC 106’s main event after heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar was forced to drop off the pay-per-view card with an apparent intestinal problem that has threatened his career.

Ortiz hasn’t fought for UFC since May 2008, when he lost a unanimous decision to Lyoto Machida. Two fights earlier, he was stopped by Chuck Liddell in a light heavyweight title shot, and growing injuries were slowing down Ortiz with each passing month.

Ortiz now acknowledges he wasn’t himself during his last few UFC fights. He still has the longest continuous title run in league history after holding the light heavyweight crown for nearly 3½ years from 2000-03, but he fought sparingly after losing that title to Randy Couture.

"When I got injured, everything went downhill after that," said Ortiz, who had spinal fusion surgery. "I was just training to survive for each fight. ... I only took the first fight with (Griffin) because we had sold out the Honda Center (in Ortiz’s native Orange County, Calif.)"

When Ortiz and White were brought together earlier this year by a mutual friend shortly before UFC 100 in July, they finally realized the advantages of not hating each other for countless perceived slights over the years.

"I don’t even think about it at all any more," White said. "We moved forward and went back to work, and that’s what Tito does."

Veteran Mark Coleman originally was scheduled to be Ortiz’s comeback opponent, but Coleman dropped out with an injury. The assignment then went to Griffin, who cut short his honeymoon and went directly into training.

The relatively late notice might have helped Griffin, notorious for overtraining and leaving himself sapped of strength on fight night. Griffin’s hit-and-miss style made him a crowd favorite and even a light heavyweight champion for seven months last year, but he realizes all eyes will be on Ortiz on Saturday.

"I get to be a headline fight coming off two losses, and that’s a big deal for me," said Griffin, who lost to Rashad Evans and Anderson Silva in his last two bouts. "I want to be a headline fighter. I get to be in there and be the last fight of the night, and that’s great for me."

Ortiz has trained to fight a wrestler, but he also worked for six weeks with boxing trainer Freddie Roach, the mastermind behind Manny Pacquiao’s rise.

He woke up Thursday morning weighing 220 pounds, Ortiz said on his Twitter feed, anticipating the familiar weight cutdown to the 205-pound limit. Ortiz was dreading the combination of starvation and exercise — but he also seemed thrilled to be back in his element.

"I don’t think there’s anything for me to prove besides winning another light heavyweight title, and that’s what I want to do," Ortiz said. "I wouldn’t have signed a six-fight contract if I didn’t want it. I’m only 34 years old. Randy Couture started his career at 34. To get back to the elite level and beat a champion, I’ve got to beat these guys."

-- Greg Beacham