By Chris Williams: A silly rumor spread around the internet last night about Floyd Mayweather Jr. supposedly agreeing to fight Manny Pacquiao on September. The fact that the rumor started at a general world news site (read: non-boxing site) should tell you all you needed to know about the validity of the silly rumor. The rumor has now been denied by both Floyd himself and Pacquiao’s adviser Michael Koncz.
“All the stories you hear about Pacquiao is a lie,” Mayweather said to Fighthype.
People want the Mayweather vs. Pacquiao fight to happen so badly that they’re gullible enough to look at anything as a sign that the fight is going to happen, but the reality is the fight will not happen until Pacquiao leaves Top Rank. That’s Mayweather’s starting condition for the Pacquiao fight to take place. If Pacquiao decides to stay with Top Rank beyond 2014 when his contract with them is up, then that’ll be Pacquiao walking away from his only chancxe of ever getting a fight against Mayweather.
It take a lot of courage to walk away from a payday that could see Pacquiao make $50 million+ to fight Mayweather. But Pacquiao has had opportunities to fight Mayweather for huge money on a couple of occasions but he either couldn’t agree with what Mayweather was asking him to do or didn’t like the offer. But even if Mayweather doesn’t offer Pacquiao a 50-50 deal for a fight in 2015, provided that he leaves Top Rank, it would still likely be $50 million or more for Pacquiao to get for that fight. Compared to the money he’s been making to fight Top Rank fighters like Tim Bradley and Brandon Rios, that’s huge money.
Pacquiao will have to ask himself a question when it comes down to making a decision whether to stay with Bob Arum at the end of his contract this year: Does Pacquiao want to finish his career fighting the likes of Brandon Rios, Mike Alvarado, Terence Crawford, and Ruslan Provodnikov or does he want to finish out the remainder of his career fighting guys like Floyd Mayweather Jr., Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, Adrien Broner, Danny Garcia, Shawn Porter, or Marcos Maidana?
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