Pacquiao vs mayhem

22 April 2015 - 02:03 By © The Daily Telegraph

It is a sign of the mayhem threatening to engulf the "Fight of the Century" that a scheduled conference call with Manny Pacquiao was abandoned on Monday night even before the first question was asked. As the hype around the Filipino's bout with Floyd Mayweather escalated to unmanageable levels, promoter Bob Arum, having clearly acquiesced to this latest circus under sufferance, described the debacle as "ridiculous".Pacquiao, trying to field questions from hundreds of journalists over a single line from his gym in Hollywood, had uttered only three words: "Good. Very good," when asked how he felt about the fight finally taking place before Arum, 83, jumped in and shouted: "Oh, f...! Let's reorganise."With the £170-million showpiece still 10 days away, the preamble is already on the verge of pandemonium. Not a single paper ticket for the fight has yet been issued, with US aggregator TiqIQ listing prices of up to £45352 for a ringside seat.There remains a possibility that there will be no public sale at all, such is the clamour among celebrities, sports stars and promoters' associates to see and be seen at the Las Vegas spectacular on Saturday next week.The number of press requests for accreditation is understood to exceed 16000, more people than the entire MGM Grand Garden Arena can hold.Already, organisers have taken the unprecedented step of charging fans £6.70 a head for the privilege of watching the weigh-in.Even Arum was characteristically crabby.His company, Top Rank Boxing, was embarrassed by the farce -- and apologised."I asked Fred [Sternburg, Pacquiao's publicist] not to do a conference call, because I don't believe in them and think they're terrible. I knew they'd screw it up. I said: 'We either do it the right way, or we don't do it.' I didn't want Manny having to listen to all of this nonsense," Arum said.Considering the Mayweather-Pacquiao duel has been almost a decade in the making - and has arguably come five years too late - it is being staged with a heavy dose of brinkmanship.Promoters have said fewer than 1000 tickets would be sold at face value but a succession of deadlines has passed and there is a growing chance that there will be none...

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