By Chris Williams: WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao may have undermined his own cause for a potential career high payday fight against WBA/WBC welterweight champion Floyd Mayweather Jr when Pacquiao signed an extension with Top Rank earlier this year rather than letting his existing contract with the company expire at the end of the year.
New Mayweather employee Alex Ariza, one of the finest strength and conditioning coaches in boxing, says that he doesn’t see a fight between Mayweather and Pacquiao happening as long as Bob Arum is still involved.
“As long as Bob Arum (Top Rank Promoter) is involved, the [Mayweather-Pacquiao] fight won’t happen,” said Ariza to the Manilastandardtoday.com. Ariza added that if they [Top Rank] “leave Manny alone” then a fight between him and Mayweather can take place.
The problem that Pacquiao has is that his extension wasn’t just for one year, it was for 2 years, and it doesn’t expire until January 31st, 2016. Mayweather will likely be retired from the sport by the time that Pacquiao’s contract is up with Top Rank. Even when it does expire, Pacquiao will very likely sign another contract with them.
From what Ariza is saying, Mayweather isn’t going to bother fighting Pacquiao for the remainder of his career because he’s not going to sit and wait on Pacquiao’s existing contract to run out because he doesn’t have enough time left in the sport to wait him out, and like I said, even if Mayweather could wait that long, Pacquiao would likely re-up for another 2 years or more.
In the past, Mayweather made it clear that he wasn’t going to fight Pacquiao as long as Arum was involved in the picture. Pacquiao apparently didn’t buy what Mayweather was saying, so he went and signed up again with Arum, and now he’s out of luck for his big money fight for a Mayweather fight.
The smart thing would have been for Pacquiao to have attempted to negotiate with Mayweather once his contract with Top Rank was up. Pacquiao could have then re-upped with Top Rank for the remainder of his career following the Mayweather fight.
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