By Abac Cordero, The Philippine Star
MANILA, Philippines - Floyd Mayweather Jr. has a couple of weeks to decide whether or not he wants to fight Manny Pacquiao.
Otherwise, Top Rank president Bob Arum said Pacquiao, the best boxer in the planet today, will start looking elsewhere, and move on to his scheduled return to the ring on Nov. 13.
In an article posted by BoxingScene.com yesterday, Arum hinted that everything’s been agreed upon between Top Rank and Golden Boy Promotions, which represents Mayweather in the talks that have gone on and off for a few months now.
“There’s no actual date of a deadline, but it’s sometime in the middle of July,” Arum told Rick Reeno of the boxing website.
“If we haven’t gotten this thing locked up and done then we’re going ahead and taking another opponent. We’re not just going to sit there and blow our chances for a fight in November,” Arum was quoted as saying.
“We’re waiting on Floyd. Floyd has to decide whether or not he’s going to fight this year or next year or not at all. It’s up to him. He isn’t up to any obligation. We want the fight this year, and if he doesn’t take the fight this year, then we’ll fight somebody else.”
Mayweather has yet to clarify statements he made a month ago that he wants out of the sport for “a year or two,” and those who said he wasn’t serious when he said that are those who want the fight to happen.
But it’s Mayweather who has to make the final decision. Only this time, he’s been given a couple of weeks to do it.
Or Pacquiao, now a new congressman, might end up facing either Miguel Cotto or Antonio Margarito in November, in Las Vegas, or take a break from boxing himself, and return to the ring early next year.
Now the burden is not on Pacquiao to make the fight happen. Two days ago, a day after he took his oath as congressman of Sarangani, the Pinoy icon went scuba-diving in a resort near his hometown.
He can fight either Cotto or Margarito and make as much as $15 million, more than enough to cover his personal expenses during the recent campaign.
It appears that both sides have agreed on the conditions regarding the random blood-testing, which could go on 14 days before or even closer to the fight, and the purse split, which may end up at fifty-fifty, and should leave everybody smiling.
There’s only one thing that may cause some concern regarding the talks, and it involves the defamation suit that was filed by Pacquiao against Mayweather, his dad, his uncle, and the Golden Boy top brass, including Oscar dela Hoya.
Pacquiao filed the case after the Mayweathers came out with allegations that Pacquiao is into performance-enhancing drugs, leading to the breakdown of the initial talks that should have made the fight happen last March.
Pacquiao said a few months ago that there’s no way they would drop the case, and that they had no intention of using it as a leverage or a bargaining chip for the fight that sees both fighters earning around $40 million apiece.
Reports said the details that have been given the stamp of approval by the negotiators are now with Mayweather, and now it’s up to the undefeated American and self-proclaimed pound-for-pound champ to decide on.
Source: philstar.com
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