By Chris Williams: Bob Arum of Top Rank lashed out at unbeaten Floyd Mayweather Jr. yesterday in an interview, saying that it’s Mayweather who doesn’t want to make the fight happen with Arum’s fighter WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao.

Arum said to ESPNLosAngeles “What Mayweather hates is Manny’s right hand. Mayweather has no chin and Manny will knock him out. Pacquiao and Mayweather is a three or four round fight, period.”

Here’s my take on this: Mayweather isn’t the least afraid of Pacquiao’s right hand because he doesn’t hit as hard as the last guy that Mayweather beat WBC welterweight champion Victor Ortiz. Why would Mayweather be afraid to fight someone smaller, weaker and older than Ortiz?

No, Mayweather isn’t afraid of fighting Pacquiao. But what he does want is for Pacquiao to agree to staying in the U.S to be available for Mayweather’s Olympic style random drug tests for the entire training camp and not having Pacquiao be unavailable for the testing by spending half the training camp time in the Philippines. This is something that could be easily taken care of Pacquiao would simply say yes to staying in the U.S, but thus far it doesn’t look like it’s going to happen.

Arum has a negative view on the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight ever happening, saying “That fight will never, ever happen.”
I think it’s up to Arum. If he wanted to make the Mayweather vs. Pacquiao fight happen he could very, very quickly. Arum has got the ability to convince Pacquiao of practically I believe. If Arum pushed Pacquiao to stay in the U.S so that he could be tested for performance enhancing drugs, I think Pacquiao would agree in a second. But it’s up to Arum. I personally think he doesn’t want Pacquiao to fight Mayweather because the Pacquiao gravy train could come to a screeching halt after Mayweather humiliates Pacquiao in an embarrassingly one-sided loss.

A lopsided loss to Mayweather would likely badly hurt Pacquiao in future PPV bouts, and I think Arum doesn’t want this. It’s easier to match Pacquiao up with old guys like 40-year-old Shane Mosley, 38-year-old Juan Manuel Marquez, as well as his Top Rank stable fighters Antonio Margarito, Miguel Cotto, Joshua Clottey, and Timothy Bradley where there’s not much danger. At the same time, Arum, trainer Freddie Roach and Pacquiao can throw out Mayweather’s name every once in a while and say he doesn’t want to fight. That way boxing fans will put the blame on Mayweather instead of looking at Pacquiao and his management as the reason the fight hasn’t been made.