Floyd Mayweather Jr. somehow managed to talk the judge into postponing his jail sentence so that he could fight on his scheduled May 5th date. Despite the injustice, that seemed like good news for fight fans — Floyd and Manny Pacquiao could finally face each other after all. Or not.
Several people, including most notably Oscar De La Hoya, have been saying that Bob Arum is not interested in having Pacquiao face Floyd. The promoter’s latest excuse is that Pacquiao won’t be able to start sparring until April 1st when a cut on his face heals, leaving him with too little time to prepare for a May 5th fight.
Pacquiao, meanwhile, is pushing for a fight with Mayweather to please boxing fans. He told PhilBoxing.com that he is meeting with Bob Arum, and that he’s prepared to tell his promoter that he wants to face Floyd over anyone else.
But Arum has too many excuses.
In addition to complaining about the lack of time to spar, Arum also is complaining that a Las Vegas venue large enough to host the fight won’t be ready by May. He says the MGM Grand, which Floyd has booked, is too small.
Meanwhile, Kevin Iole reports that Floyd is likely to face either Robert Guerrero or Canelo Alvarez in his next fight. The Sweet Science reports that a deal for Floyd to face Guerrero is imminent.
Guerrero is 29-1-1 and has beaten Michael Katsidis and Joel Casamayor in recent fights. Alvarez is 39-0-1 and beat a declining Kermit Cintron in November. Neither fight would bring any fan excitement. But what’s the common thread for Guerrero and Canelo? They’re both promoted by Golden Boy, which also promotes Floyd’s fights. So the same thing Golden Boy complains about Arum — that he has Pacquiao face fighters he represents in order to clean up both sides of the gate — is exactly what they’re doing.
