what appeared to virtually everyone in boxing to be one of the most bitter feuds in the annals of the hard old game turned out to be a love in or so floyd mayweather and bob arum told us as they walked onto a famous stage here as collaborators in the big sell of the richest fight of all time money talks louder than the maestro of the ring who calls himself by that bizarre nickname floyd mayweather speaks as manny pacquiao's promoter bob arum looks on in los angeles on wednesday  mayweather and arum insist there is no lasting animosity after they went their separate ways in business  mayweather (left) and pacquiao meet in a long awaited mega fight on may 2 at the mgm grand in las vegas  more noisily than the promoter who has banged the drum for many of the biggest fights ever, from ali frazier 1 all the way to mayweather pacquiao this may 2 in las vegas  ‘animosity?’ said arum of his relationship with mayweather who, in his prime, walked out on him ‘nah’ ‘never a problem between us,’ said mayweather but wasn’t it mayweather who always blamed arum, subsequently pacquiao’s promoter, whenever the moguls failed to make this match for which planet earth has been clamouring for five years ‘no,’ said the no 1 pound for pound boxer in the world ‘the only reason we broke up was because it was time for me to become my own promoter ‘me and my father (also his trainer) and my uncles (also his corner men when called upon) to become the boxing mayweathers ‘i needed to get that experience for when it came to giving back to the sport by helping the youngsters’ mayweather, here with justin bieber, said there was '‘never a problem between us' in relation to arum  'animosity? nah,' said arum of mayweather he (left) is now the promoter for pacquiao  ‘blame me,’ said arum ‘it was a generational thing floyd wanted me to reach out to the african american audience but that was a different cultural group from when we put on ali and frazier and foreman ‘floyd saw the potential in the hip hop community but i could not connect with them so, yes, it was time for him to go off on his own’ money   not the man but the $350 million to half a billion dollars this fight is expected to generate – is a powerful healing agent these old rivals thanked each other – as well as everyone else they could think of – for bringing home this mother lode the last vestiges of a dark age in which boxers were exploited and then left to rot with the after effects of being battered about the head have been condemned to history by this deal one which has coerced rival cable tv giants showtime and hbo into sharing their part of the spoils one which is not so much a commercial world record breaker as out of this world ‘all of boxing will be elevated by this fight,’ says arum all is forgiven arum (left) said his split from mayweather was a 'generational thing' and that there's no hard feelings  remember mayweather demanding olympic standard random drugs testing, a stipulation which cast aspersions as to how pacquiao had managed to keep rising through the weights to win world titles in an unprecedented – and probably unsurpassable – eight divisions? and then pacquiao suggesting a $5 million penalty if either of them failed such a test? that bet was turned down by mayweather but arum explains: ‘it wasn’t because floyd was any more scared about the result than manny it was just that he and his team figured they would get a lot more if manny didn’t pass the test just as we knew we would get a damn sight more than $5million if floyd failed the test’ they still differ on some of the fine points when it comes to claiming credit for making this mega bucks spectacular finally happen mayweather says: ‘the chance meeting between me and manny at the basketball game and then our talk in his hotel room got all this together ‘after that i rang al haymon (the new svengali for top boxers) every week the first time he said 'not yet' the second and third time, 'not yet' then he said 'almost' and we got it done’ mayweather arrives in the arena ahead of the glitzy press conference in los angeles on wednesday night  pacquiao, a resounding underdog for the fight, gets his own rousing reception on entry for the appearance  arum talks of how his meeting with cbs television chief les moonves broke the deadlock: ‘he told me he could bring floyd to the table and i believed him so when he asked if i would meet with al haymon i said of course and we worked out the major issues in a couple of hours ‘then we got together with hbo and showtime and it took only minutes for them to agree to share the broadcast there will still some small details to be resolved but although they maybe took longer than they should have we got it done’ the fans couldn’t care less who got it done the world waits with bated breath for the two best boxers on the planet to move on from this face to face in los angeles to opposite corners of the ring in the mgm grand garden arena ‘the best against the best,’ says mayweather ‘that’s what makes it so exciting’ it has always been thus only sometimes it takes money to make even the best see sense like a minimum $180 million for mayweaher, $120 million for pacquiao a fortune so vast that it is more than ali, frazier and foreman ever dreamed of
arum wednesday floyd mayweather may 2 $350 million mgm grand garden arena mayweather pacquiao bob arum manny pacquiao's
floyd mayweather and bob arum, now manny pacquiao's promoter, both said they have no problem with each other despite famously falling out  both said they split at the right time ahead of mayweather pacquiao fight  the mega fight is due to rake in from $350 million to half a billion dollars  arum said on wednesday: ‘all of boxing will be elevated by this fight’ both dispute who was most influential in bringing the fight to fruition  the world's two best fighters meet on may 2 at mgm grand garden arena 