Reports have surfaced that Floyd Mayweather Jr. would fight Miguel Cotto this year instead of Manny Pacquiao. But Top Rank Promotions CEO Bob Arum has dismissed the rumors and called it "nonsense."
Pacquiao's date to fight Mayweather is nearing and yet no deal has been finalized by their camps yet. Because of this, Pacquiao's promoter, Arum, is said to be cooking up back-up fights in case the much-awaited "boxing match of the century" won't push through, said CBS Sports.
While Arum has not made any mention of the possible matches to watch out for, the 83-year old promoter made it clear that a rematch between Miguel Cotto and Mayweather is not happening.
A report by Boxing Scene said the Top Rank CEO was a guest at SiriusXM's "Going The Distance" and explained why a Cotto - Mayweather rematch is not plausible.
According to him, "Showtime is now losing about $10 - 12 million on a Mayweather fight. If he fights Cotto, Cotto will want at least $13 million to fight Mayweather, which is about $10 million more than a normal Mayweather opponent."
He added, "In addition, since Floyd can get $32 million to fight a bus boy, he's going to want at least another $10 million to fight Cotto. So that means laying out another $20 million."
Arum noted that if one did the math and considered all factors involved, the match would not be financially beneficial to Showtime.
"Since the first fight did about a million, three [1.3 million buys], this fight will probably do a little less, probably a million, a million, one [1.1. million buys]. Which means, it if happens Showtime / CBS would take a bath for $20 million. And they're not prepared to do that. So all talk about a Cotto - Mayweather fight is absolute nonsense," he said.
The match between Cotto and Mayweather earned $94 million locally and got 1.5 million pay-per-view buys. However, Arum is not convinced that a rematch would top those numbers.
Meanwhile, a close adviser of Cotto has denied any knowledge of an upcoming rematch with Mayweather, which further confirms speculations that it won't be happening.
Speaking to WBN, Gabriel Penagaricano said that the camps of the two boxers have not agreed on any deal to face each other.
Penagaricano said that there has been no talk of a rematch from his knowledge.
Cotto lost to Mayweather in their match held in 2012.
