By Chris Williams: Bob Arum has given up on trying to put together the Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Manny Pacquiao fight for May or June.

Instead Arum is now looking to get a contract signed between the two of them right now for November so that Arum can start early in promoting the fight and getting a suitable venue to put it in.

Arum told the Manila Standard “What we are trying to accomplish assuming he [Mayweather] is going to fight in May and Manny is going to fight in June, is that we are pressing to see if we can get a contract signed between the two fighters for November.”

Good luck in having that happen. Arum is going to have to get with Pacquiao and have him agree to the purse split that Mayweather wants or else Arum is just going to be wasting his time with trying to put the fight together.

I don’t think Arum would let Pacquiao take this fight even if Mayweather agreed to a 50-50 deal. We’d get Arum then likely pulling the old arena excuse or something else that can screw up the negotiations so that Pacquiao doesn’t have to get beat. Arum does well with Pacquiao and putting him in with someone like Mayweather would wreck things.

BJ Flores vs. Hugo Pineda on Saturday night

Cruiserweight contender BJ Flores (26-1-1, 16 KO’s) will continue his glacial pace to a title fight when he takes on little known second tier 40-year-old Hugo Pineda (39-5-1, 28 KO’s) on Saturday night in a scheduled 10 round bout at the Shrine Mosque in Springfield, Missouri.

Pineda has lost four out of his last seven bouts and hasn’t fought in four years. Why Flores is fighting a guy like that is a huge mystery but it might also explain why Flores, #4 WBO, #7 WBA, #8 WBC, #15 IBF, still has never fought for a world title after nine years as a pro. He’s just not taking the fights he’s need to get pushed up high enough to get a title fight. He did face IBO crusierweight champion Danny Green in November 2010, but fought too passively and ended up losing by a wide 12 round decision.