Could Mayweather-Pacquiao happen at House That Ruth Built?

NEW YORK--Manny Paquiao and Miguel Cotto will visit the new Yankee Stadium Thursday for the first of their multi city dog and pony shows.

Given their usual deportment, it's unlikely that even verbal jabs will be exchanged. Their Nov. 14 Las Vegas bout is a hot ticket at the gate and looms as a PPV TV jackpot and it doesn't need artificial injections of hype or contrived controversy.

But, given the backdrop here being the latest version of The House That (Babe) Ruth Built and home of baseball's most dominant franchise, the Yankees, the question naturally arises as to whether the seemingly inevitable Floyd Mayweather-Pacquiao fight could ever take place there.

Given New York's oppressive tax regulations, the quick answer is a phrase Brooklyn boy Bob Arum knows too well from his childhood...yeah, forget about it!

But, since he remains a New Yorker in spirit and still cheers for the Yankees and the football Giants, I decided to ask the Top Rank honcho if the big ballpark in the South Bronx could be the site of such a gigantic bout.

Arum was the co-promoter, along with Madison Square Garden of the third Muhammad Ali-Ken Norton match which took place at a wild and woolly (the cops were on a sort of strike that night) Yankee Stadium on Sept. 28, 1976.

"Fighting in New York doesn't have the same importance that it once did," Arum said. "But it would be great to have Manny fight here and the only opponent who might make sense in the ballpark would be Mayweather.

"I think Manny against Floyd would break the boxing box office records in the stadium."

Out of habit, I mentioned losing out on a vital Las Vegas hotel-casino site fee. Arum said those days are gone.

"With the Cotto fight, we're not getting any site fee from the MGM. They pay for things (hotel rooms and food) and they buy up a lot of tickets but the only one on the financial hook is me, not them," Arum said. "The days of the site fee are gone."

Arum explained that New York State and City officials made some tax concessions to land Ali-Norton III.

"Norton lived in California, where the taxes were similar to New York, so he didn't care too much. With Ali, they let him deduct his manager fee, his trainer fee and then he paid tax on the lesser amount. His manager, Herbert (later Jabir) Muhammad, paid no tax to New York. In this day and age, in this kind of economy, no politician is going to waive off taxes."

Arum then related an anecdote from the George Foreman-Evander Holyfield fight in Atlantic City where Donald Trump--yes, the You're Fired Donald Trump--agreed to fork over a staggering $11 million site fee.

Trump reneged, according to Arum, three weeks before the fight date.

"It was the time of the Gulf War so Trump claimed he was off the hook because of an Act of War clause in the contracts. Really what happened is that Trump realized he was a fool to pay so much money.

"I said, unless Saddam Hussein invades the beach at Atlantic City, Trump had to pay the full amount," Arum said.

"But Trump wound up paying us $1 million in a settlement. We (Top Rank and Dan Duva's Main Events) got the entire live gate and Trump paid for all the rooms and meals."

Pacman-Pretty Boy in storied Yankee Stadium?

It won't happen but it makes for a fleeting fistic fantasy.

Source: http://www.examiner.com/x-5699-NY-Boxing-Examiner~y2009m9d9-Could-MayweatherPacquiao-happen-at-House-That-Ruth-Built