By Chris Williams: Bob Arum of Top Rank told the Manilastandardtoday.com that he sees a possible mega fight between his fighter Manny Pacquiao and unbeaten Floyd Mayweather Jr. as being possible for April next year if everything goes right with the negotiations.

While this may sound like great news you have to remain skeptical because we’ve heard all this before only to end up badly disappointed when Arum couldn’t put the fight together. We’ve heard the excuses about Pacquiao having too of a cut or an outdoor arena needing to be built in order to make the fight. I just don’t see it happening, and by the time they do make this fight both guys will likely be too old for it to be interesting.

The Pacquiao-Mayweather fight is probably two years too late anyway if it gets made next April. Pacquiao hasn’t looked the same since his fight with Shane Mosley, and hasn’t really looked good since his fight against Miguel Cotto in 2009. That was the last fight in which Pacquiao was able to move around the ring with a lot of speed. He’s been a plodder for the most part ever since. He can sometimes move around for a little while like he once could, but mostly Pacquiao just shuffles around the ring and fights in brief spurts. I guess it’s age or the affects of him fighting at welterweight for too long when he’d have been better off staying at lightweight.

It would be great if Arum tried to make the Pacquiao-Mayweather fight in December instead of making it wait until April 2013. I know Arum would like to slip in one more fight before the Mayweather fight, but I think he could end up being sorry doing that because Pacquiao might not have it in him to win against the guys that Arum is looking to put him in with – Juan Manuel Marquez, Miguel Cotto and Tim Bradley. Marquez will give Pacquiao tons of problems and unless Marquez has slipped since their fight last November, I see Marquez beating the Filipino and actually getting credit for it this time. Cotto is too strong for Pacquiao now and I see him beating him as well.

If Cotto agrees to fight Pacquiao at 147, then under those circumstances I can see Pacquiao winning because Cotto will be too drained to fight. But I doubt Cotto will agree to coming all the way down to 147. If Pacquiao wants that fight he’s going to have to meet him at a catchweight of 150 lbs. I seriously doubt Pacquiao will agree to that.