By James Slater: It remains the most important fight that can be made in boxing today: Manny Pacquiao-Floyd Mayweather Junior. Almost immediately after the disappointing but lopsided points win he’d scored over a reluctant “Sugar” Shane Mosley last night, Pound-for-Pound king Pac-Man was asked if he will fight “Money” next. As usual, the 32-year-old megastar uttered his “I’ll fight whoever Bob Arum puts in front of me,” line; neither ruling out nor confirming a fight with the legally-troubled Mayweather.
It looks like Pacquiao will next face Juan Manuel Marquez in a third fight, with November the target date for the thrilogy. Boxrec.com has “Dinamita” down as fighting in the U.S on July 2nd, and the word is the 37-year-old great will face David Diaz in a “tune-up” ahead of his third go at Pac-Man. If this turns out to be the case, we can forget about a Pacquiao-Mayweather showdown this year.
However, Boxrec also has a September 17th date listed on its upcoming schedule page: this one involving Mayweather. There has been talk the unbeaten 34-year-old star will perhaps fight again in the fall, at Cowboys Stadium in Texas. Though we’ve yet to hear it from Floyd himself, various sources have said “Money” has a deal with Jerry Jones to fight at his stadium and that this is where his return fight will take place. The listing by Boxrec only serves to excite those fans who hope to see Mayweather back in action this year.
The invaluable website has Mayweather down as facing new WBC welterweight champ “Vicious” Victor Ortiz on the September date, and this fight, too, has been rumoured on various places on the world wide web. Have Boxrec simply jumped the gun, or do they know something we don’t?
It will be extremely interesting to hear what Mayweather Junior has to say about a good many things in the coming days. What did Floyd think of last night’s performance by Pac-Man? Is he still asking for $100 million to fight the southpaw dynamo? Is Victor Ortiz on his radar at all?
“All roads lead to Mayweather,” Floyd has said many, many times. It might be that the fight we all want to see happen is in the hands of Mayweather. In the meantime, who wouldn’t want to see the 41-0 master come back to fight the hard-hitting, exciting Ortiz? That sure would be some “tune-up” for Mayweather, as great as he is!