By James Slater: The latest word on the ongoing (and wholly annoying) Floyd Mayweather-Manny Pacquiao situation is that promoter Bob Arum has told Sports Illustrated that “if we can’t do a fight with Mayweather at the end of May, yes we will do a fight with someone else on June 9th.”
Arum added that he is “still optimistic” that a fight between Pac-Man and Mayweather can happen at the end of May, yet in reality he and everyone else knows that that is not going to happen. Mayweather, as he has made clear time and again, must fight on May 5th (“the date can’t change,” Floyd said). It’s simple really: The fight happens May 5th or it doesn’t happen (at least not until November at the earliest, or maybe next year; or maybe never!)
So, with a date with “Punk” Pacquiao unlikely for May 5th, “Money,” who will begin a 90-day jail term on June 1st, is looking at a new opponent for Cinco de Mayo weekend. And, according to an interview the 34-year-old superstar gave with Kevin Iole recently, a 150-pound catch-weight fight with world middleweight king Sergio Gabriel Martinez is something that appeals to Mayweather.
“If Sergio Martinez can make 150, let’s make the fight happen,” Mayweather said. “ Like I said, there are no excuses. I’m a little different than other guys. He’s got a very, very impressive style. But like I said before, my main focus is a Manny Pacquiao fight.”
A Mayweather-Martinez fight could be a huge fight; one that if he won it would further cement Mayweather’s legacy/greatness. In the past, the Argentine southpaw has said he CAN make 150, and that he would do so for a mega-fight with a Pacquiao or a Mayweather. Scheduled to face Matthew Macklin on March 17th (very possibly a tough, gruelling fight), would “Maravilla” be able to fight again as soon as May 5th, a mere six weeks later?
Fans, many of them anyway, have long since grown tired of the Mayweather-Pacquiao shenanigans (from both sides, but with Team-Pacquiao now looking, it must be said, as the guilty party preventing the fight being made), and it just might be that a Mayweather-Martinez fight would intrigue them more than a Pacquiao fight. As legendary trainer Angelo Dundee said recently, a fight can only capture the public’s imagination for so long.
Mayweather WILL fight on May 5th, but he won’t be fighting Pacquiao, nor will he be going up against Miguel Cotto, Robert Guerrero or Saul Alvarez (Floyd has reportedly “dismissed” all three fighters as potential May 5th rivals). It just might be that Mayweather will get it on with the best middleweight on the planet that night!