By Dan Ambrose: WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao (56-5-2, 38 KOs) is counting on getting a big money fight against WBA/WBC welterweight champion Floyd Mayweather Jr (47-0, 26 KOs) in 2015 if the fight can get negotiated.
Right now, it’s not looking too good considering that Mayweather says that he’s not thinking about fighting the 35-year-old Pacquiao. Mayweather said recently that there has been no discussions between him and Pacquiao’s management about a fight.
Pacquiao has a fight coming up next month against Chris Algieri, and he needs to be focused on that fight because there’s a real risk involved that he could lose if he’s not able to cut off the ring against the taller fighter.
“I’m crossing my fingers – hopefully that fight will happen by next year,” Pacquiao said via AFP about a fight against Mayweather. “Right now my mind is already set to focus on my next fight with Chris Algieri. I think the time to talk about that issue is after the fight.”
Hopefully, Pacquiao has a backup plan in case Mayweather opts not to fight him, because it’s not a fight that is promising. Mayweather has other options to make big money, and he really doesn’t need to fight Pacquiao in order to get a good payday.
Mayweather has talked in the past about not wanting to fight Pacquiao until he’s no longer with Bob Arum. Pacquiao recently signed an extension with Arum that will keep him under contract until the end of 2016.
If Mayweather is serious about not wanting to fight Pacquiao while he’s with Arum, which may be the case, then Pacquiao may have lost his only remaining chance to fight Mayweather when he signed a 2-year extension with Arum.
Pacquiao says he has a “couple of years” remaining in his career. Arum will likely use those last years by matching him against his other Top Rank fighters like Jessie Vargas, Terence Crawford, Mikey Garcia, Tim Bradley, as well as other fighters like Ruslan Provodnikov.
Arum would likely to match Pacquiao against Danny Garcia and Saul “Canelo” Alvarez. But those fights might prove to be difficult to make. Danny Garcia is with adviser/manager Al Haymon, and that might make negotiations with Arum a problem.
Canelo reportedly doesn’t want to fight at a catch-weight against Pacquiao, so that will make a fight between them all but impossible. Pacquiao likely won’t agree to fight Canelo at the full weight for the junior middleweight division at 154. Besides that, Pacquiao is heading in the opposite direction in moving down to 140.
Canelo is on his way to middleweight, where he wants to or not. He’s getting bigger, and it’s only a matter of time before he can no longer melt down from the 170s to fight in the junior middleweight division against 147 and 154 pound fighters.
“I’m not thinking yet about retirement. I will continue my boxing career, the journey will continue in my boxing career and we’ll see what happens,” Pacquiao said.
If Pacquiao loses to Algieri on November 22nd, and if he continues to struggle in his subsequent bouts, it’s hard to see Pacquiao making it another two more years.
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