Misc: One News Page Alert: Kevin Mitchell: Mayweather and Pacquiao is very ..

Dear Haytham,

We have been monitoring the world's news headlines on your behalf,
and found the following news report which matches your search term
*Make Money Earne*:

-----------------------------------------------------
Kevin Mitchell: Mayweather and Pacquiao is very close
-----------------------------------------------------
It would not surprise me in the slightest if the Pacquiao-Mayweather
camps announce the war is over this weekAny bookmaker framing odds on
the chances of Manny Pacquiao fighting Floyd Mayweather Jr at the MGM
Grand, Las Vegas, this spring or summer might have it at close to even
money this morning.The reasons are these: Floyd, one of life's great
gamblers, has already pushed Manny too far in their drawn-out blood
feud, and he needs the money more than the little guy. I think the
Mayweathers are cracking.Six weeks ago, when negotiations for the 13
March fight started, Leonard Ellerbe, Mayweather's closest business
adviser, said: If the fight happens, Floyd deserves the lion's share
of the purse.This is a standard negotiating posture, one that led Bob
Arum, representing Pacquiao, to point out to him that only the egos of
the negotiators could scupper the promotion.To everyone's amazement,
within days Mayweather agreed to split the $50m purse down the middle
and cut a deal on the pay-per-view take. That was when I figured he
was more desperate for the fight than Pacquiao was Ã¢Â€Â" and when they
decided on the next stage of their negotiating strategy.Just before
Christmas they tried to rattle Pacquiao by demanding he take random
blood tests for performance-enhancing drugs, knowing he didn't like
giving blood, especially in the last month of training. He did it
before, against Erik Morales (promoted at the time by Oscar De La
Hoya), and lost. They were also putting in place what they thought was
the perfect excuse: if Pacquiao refused the blood tests and won the
fight, Mayweather could claim again he was on the juice.But Pacquiao
fashioned an even better counter. When he announced last week he was
suing Mayweather, his father and uncle, as well as their business
associates Richard Schaefer and De La Hoya, for defamation, claiming
they portrayed him as a drug cheat, he challenged them to back
down.They have not yet done that, but they are nervous.Ellerbe, who
doesn't give many interviews, told Fanhouse.com yesterday, From day
one, I've never accused Manny Pacquaio of anything. All that I've said
is that we want to ensure that there is a level playing field.This,
clearly, is unsustainable nonsense. If he is not accusing Pacquiao of
anything, why ask him to take tests they have never demanded of any of
Mayweather's previous 40 opponents? There is no logic in the
Mayweathers' position Ã¢Â€Â" unless they believe Pacquiao is taking
performance-enhancing drugs.If they have proof of that beyond gym
scuttlebutt, you would imagine they'd produce it. Or would they?
Because, to do so would not only wreck Pacquiao's career but a pay-day
north of $40m for Mayweather, as well as big bunce for his
partners.Pacquiao, if he is innocent, will know they have no evidence
and so will have to compromise. If he is guilty, he will be reasonably
certain they won't wreck the promotion by providing the proof. He also
knows Mayweather, who called him out in the first place, really wants
the fight. He has some serious tax bills to pay, and loves a bet. The
signs are encouraging.Ellerbe said yesterday, We're still ready,
willing and able to make a deal. We feel that this is the biggest
fight in the history of boxing. We want to give this fight to the
fans.Of course they do.And, not only do they want to make a
pay-per-view killing, the biggest in the history of the sport by a
factor of possibly two, they want to avoid punitive damages of tens of
millions above the headline $75,000 Pacquiao is suing them for. Those
big zeroes are the estimate of Pacquiao's celebrity attorney, Daniel
Petrocelli, and any gambler would do well not to ignore him. He has
form.If Pacquiao extracts an apology from Mayweather and agrees to a
suitable form of drug testing, all will be well. Otherwise, he will
take the legal action the whole way. I have no idea if he will win in
court Ã¢Â€Â" but neither does Mayweather, and I reckon his legal advisers
will be telling him to think hard about bailing out of this one.Given
this is boxing, there has to be another twist Ã¢Â€Â" and the most
mysterious of all is that Golden Boy owns a slice of Pacquiao, who
signed with it in 2006. This inspired Top Rank to sue GBP, which
counter-sued. They now each have a bit of Manny, a curiosity that has
yet to be resolved.It is not just a boxing match between Pacquiao and
Mayweather, the two best practitioners in the world; it is a
willy-waving contest between a whole cast of players: Arum and De La
Hoya, for a start. The Golden Boy boxed for Arum Ã¢Â€Â" until they fell
out, naturally. Nor does Pacquiao's trainer, Freddie Roach, get on
with Mayweather Sr. In fact Mayweather Jr is not crazy about De La
Hoya, who lost to him in 2007 but out-earned him by $58m to $25m.
Oscar then sacked his trainer Ã¢Â€Â" Freddie Roach. The Borgias have got
nothing on this lot.Ellerbe told Fanhouse.com, We checked our egos at
the door when they started talks. I don't think so. The fight game is
all about egos. It's why they are in this mess in the first
place.There is an outside chance, of course, that this absurd row is a
publicity scam of towering genius, one that ensures maximum interest
from outside the hardcore boxing community, punters who will push the
pay-per-view numbers past three million and make everyone concerned
considerably richer.It might not have begun like that. But, as in
life, what started as a cock-up born of animus has become a war, and
it plainly suits both sides to milk it until they settle. It is
getting a lot of ink.So if the fighters, alongside Arum, Ellerbe,
Schaefer and De La Hoya, gather this week Ã¢Â€Â" let's say Wednesday Ã¢Â€Â"
to announce the war is over, it would not surprise me in the least.
I'd put the odds at about 4Ã¢Â€Â'6.