By Allen Fox: Bob Arum is hopeful that the mega fight between his fighter Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr. can go ahead for November this year, but not now. He sees too many things getting in the way of the fight right now and prefers to wait until the end of the year before he matches his star against Floyd.
Arum told the Manila Bulletin that he expects an announcement to be made from Golden Boy Promotions in one or two days for a fight between Mayweather and WBC junior middleweight champion Saul Alvarez (39-0-1, 29 KO’s) for May 5th.
Arum told the Manila Bulletin “I am not going to lose sleep over this. “ Arum had made a number of statements about when the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight could be made, saying in June initially and then changing it to the end of May. He later said the fight can’t be made until June 9th due to the time needed for the 45,000 outdoor arena to be assembled.
Arum is still considering which of four fighters – Timothy Bradley, Juan Manuel Marquez, Lamont Peterson and Miguel Cotto – to put Pacquiao in with in June. It seems pretty clear that Arum isn’t eager to make the Mayweather fight right now because he’s not willing to put Pacquiao in with Mayweather on May 5th, the date that Mayweather wanted.
Mayweather and Pacquiao will be meeting tomorrow for their final talks to consider the Filipino star’s next opponent. It’s likely that the two will agree on either Cotto or Marquez, as both fighters would potentially bring in a lot more money than Peterson or Bradley.
Pacquiao and Arum want to maximize the money made and the best way to do that is for Pacquiao to fight the biggest names available. Bradley and Peterson are not in the same league as Marquez and Cotto are in terms of bringing in boxing fans for PPV.
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