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Op-Ed: Why Manny Pacquiao skipping arrival ceremonies at MGM Grand

The reason for breaking the usual arrival ceremonies following the culmination of his training at the Wild Card Gym in Hollywood could be attributed to Bob Arum’s feud with some of the top executives of the MGM Grand Garden Arena.

The longtime Pacquiao promoter had a long, cordial business relationship with MGM Grand until they had a falling out last year. It stemmed from advertising materials like posters and billboards seen all over the MGM Grand building and other MGM-related establishments days before Manny Pacquiao’s fight against Timothy Bradley on April 12, 2014.

The advertising materials were all about Floyd Mayweather’s fight, which was then scheduled May 3, 2014.

Arum complained to the MGM top management but his request to remove the advertising materials was not properly addressed by the hotel management.

Arum said: “The chairman, Jim Mirren said, ‘I’m coming over, I’m going to make them change every sign’. But they didn’t. They ought to be ashamed of themselves. They doubled the Mayweather signs. And every Filipino, every person who feels that way ought to boycott the MGM forever.”

“I am very angry,” added Arum. “MGM ought to be ashamed of themselves. They invited us in here, they wanted us to do an event, we’re practically done selling tickets and all over this facility they’re putting up signs for a Mayweather fight.”

Arum said he’s no longer doing business with MGM Grand following last year’s unfortunate event. But now he’s back with MGM Grand because he has no choice as he isn’t the lead promoter of this Saturday’s event.

That could be the real reason why he does not want Pacquiao to do the grand arrival ceremony at the MGM Grand to probably send a message to the MGM management that he hasn’t forgotten the alleged shabby treatment that he got.

“Pacquiao is staying at Mandalay Bay, not the MGM Grand where the fight is being held. And to this point, he’s not planning to make a public appearance at the MGM until the final news conference on Wednesday. He was slated to attend the grand arrival ceremonies on Tuesday at the MGM but his promoter, Bob Arum of Top Rank, is feuding with MGM officials and decided to have Pacquiao skip the arrival,” Kevin Iole of Yahoo Sports writes.

For sure Arum knows that Mandalay Bay is an MGM affiliate but he is putting Pacquiao there just to show his displeasure over the management of MGM Grand. It could just be a symbolic stance by the veteran promoter.

It is unfortunate that fans are caught in between the feuding parties who are supposed to give fans what they came for.

It is possible though that Arum may have a change of mind and allow Pacquiao to mingle with the fans on the previously scheduled grand arrival ceremony at the MGM Grand.

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