De La Hoya: “The public will hopefully make him [Pacquiao] change his mind”

By Eric Thomas: Oscar De La Hoya still very much is hopeful that a fight between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao can be made in the future. Despite the bitter negotiations falling apart last time, De La Hoya is still looking forward to a fight between Mayweather and Pacquiao in the future. In an article at ABC-CBN News, De La Hoya says “The public will hopefully make him [Pacquiao] change his mind. Why would you not want to earn 40 million dollars? Why would you not want to show the public that all this speculation is nonsense? Be the one to stand up and say it.”

I think Pacquiao does want to fight Mayweather. He’s been saying he wants to fight him in the future. The only thing that would seem to be separating the two fighters from taking part in a huge mega fight is coming to an agreement about the drug testing. They were close to coming to an agreement during their last negotiations.

All that would need to happen now is for Mayweather or Pacquiao to agree on a middle ground to take for the blood testing. Pacquiao wants the random blood testing to stop at 24 days, whereas Mayweather wants the tests to continue until 14 days before the fight. Surely, they should be able to agree with something in between those two numbers.

De La Hoya says “That fight [Pacquiao-Mayweather] has to happen. It’s too big not to happen. We just have to cross one hurdle.” I agree. They need to settle this once and for all. It would be a huge disappointment if they are unable to agree to fight because of the drug testing.