By Chris Williams: Manny Pacquiao and his promoter Bob Arum might be chomping at the bit right now with the news that Floyd Mayweather Jr. is facing WBC welterweight champion Victor Ortiz on September 17th. But this doesn’t mean that Pacquiao will be the next option for Mayweather wants he gets the Ortiz fight out of the way.

Roger Mayweather, who trains Mayweather, says that Floyd will still need additional tune-ups after the Ortiz fight is over before facing Pacquiao. Pacquiao may have to put a sock in it if he’s too over-eager thinking he’ll be getting a fight with Mayweather in 2012, because it doesn’t look like that’s going to be happening from what Roger is saying.

Speaking with eastside boxing On The Ropes Boxing Radio, Roger said “Well I wouldn’t think he would fight Pacquiao right after fighting Victor Ortiz. I mean it would be crazy for Floyd to go in the ring with Pacquiao after fighting Victor Ortiz! Floyd needs fights. He needs to be active. Don’t get me wrong, Floyd is the greatest fighter out there, period. Right now in today’s boxing Floyd is the greatest fighter out there. But at the same time I don’t think that Floyd can do this. Floyd needs tune-ups like anybody else. It ain’t no different than any other fighter if you are going to compete with a guy who has been active all the time.”

I think Roger is right by having Floyd get a few tune-ups before facing Manny. Let Pacquiao wait. He could have fought Mayweather last year if he had just agreed to the blood testing that Mayweather wanted. Now he can wait. I think Floyd should be ready to fight by 2013 if Pacquiao is still around the game. By the way that Pacquiao is slowing down in terms of ring movement and hand speed, Mayweather will probably easily beat a much slower version of Pacquiao by 2013. But it will still be a good fight for the fans and it will be nice to have closure on the Mayweather-Pacquiao business.