By Chris Williams: ESPN2 analyst Teddy Atlas puts the blame for the Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Manny Pacquiao fight not being made squarely on the shoulders of Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum, who Atlas feels doesn’t want to make the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight because it doesn’t benefit him to do so.

Atlas said this about Arum on tonight’s Friday Night Fights, as quoted by fighthype.com: “Arum doesn’t want the fight to happen right now because it’s going to cost him $120 million dollars, especially when you have a fighter like Pacquiao who can go and he can make $25 million dollars fighting other guys and you don’t have to pay that much for the opponent. That allows the promoter, who happens to be, you got it, Bob Arum, to make more money, to have more margin to make money. It’s about making money to Mr. Arum…He can make more money if he doesn’t have to pay $60 million to both fighters.”

Wow! Atlas isn’t the only one saying that Arum doesn’t want the fight. Richard Schaefer, the CEO of Golden Boy Promotions, also is complaining that Arum doesn’t want the fight and is coming up with excuses for why it can’t happen.

Arum says that Pacquiao’s cut won’t be ready by May 5th, and neither will an outside 45,000 seat arena. Both of those excuses are very hard to believe, but especially the makeshift temporary arena. You would think if they were to hire some extra bodies they could easily have the arena built by May 5th, don’t you think? I think it comes down to Arum not ready for the fight to happen.

Eventually, I think he’ll go for it after Pacquiao starts losing to people and fans stop caring about his fights as much. He’ll need Mayweather just to make a buck, but as long as Pacquiao is able to bring in big paydays of $25 million, I can’t see Arum allowing him to fight Mayweather and risk having it all put to a stop. Atlas is looking at it in one area where he sees Arum not wanting to share the money one fight. But I think it’s more than just that. I think Arum doesn’t want the money well to run dry on him if Pacquiao gets humiliated by Mayweather the same way Juan Manuel Marquez was when he fought Mayweather. I think Pacquiao can come back but it might take him a couple of years to get back to where he is now and he might slip a notch or two by that time an start losing even against the Top Rank stable fighters that Arum has been steadily feeding Pacquiao for the past few years.