By Chris Williams: There’s still no word from Top Rank promoter Bob Arum about the status of the Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Manny Pacquiao talks for a November mega fight. Michael Marley from Examiner.com, spoke to Arum, asking him about how the talks are going and Arum said “Listen, there is nothing to say. This falls under the heading of no news is good news.” You can read that anyway you’d like, but it doesn’t sound very promising. There are back and forth rumors going around that the purse split has been agreed on already but what’s holding it up is the blood testing that Mayweather wants.
That sounds pretty feasible, because Mayweather wants random blood testing for performance enhancing drugs, and Pacquiao has been resistant to taking the full random blood tests. However, Pacquiao did agree to take the blood tests up to 14 days before the fight, so that is a good starting point. Hopefully, the fight can be made but I’m not holding my breath in that happening.
Either way, Pacquiao will be fighting in November against somebody. Who that fighter will be is unknown but Arum has mentioned already two fighters from his Top Rank stable, Antonio Margarito and Miguel Cotto as potential opponents. It would be really surprising if Pacquiao ultimately gets matched up against another fighter not in Arum’s stable because that would go against the grain for what Arum has been doing lately in matching his fighters up.
Mayweather is the fight that Arum wants, though, and the fight that will make the huge money. But it’s not an easy to put together because Pacquiao and Mayweather are two fighters used to getting their own way in negotiations. If Pacquiao ends up fighting Cotto again or takes on Margarito, it would be a huge letdown, as boxing fans have little interest in watching Pacquiao face either of those guys. They already saw Pacquiao destroy Cotto once and it’s not appealing to watch him fight Cotto again a year later for no apparent reason other than Cotto having a title that Pacquiao wants.
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