By Sean Crose
“We have a deadline. . .this month.”
Those words went from the mouth of Manny Pacquiao to the Los Angeles Times on Monday. The subject, of course, was a possible bout with pound for pound king Floyd Mayweather.
“My promoter and I, we’ve already agreed to the terms and conditions of whatever he (Mayweather) wants,” Pacquiao argued. “We’re just waiting on the signed contract from him.”
Team Pacquiao is clearly growing impatient. The bout, which looked more and more likely to becoming a sure thing, now appears to be on the verge of vaporizing, much like the proposed Saul Canelo Alvarez – Miguel Cotto fight vaporized this past weekend.
“That’s the hard part,” Pacquiao explained, “whether they will fight or not. We have to know soon, because if they will not fight, we can move on and choose another opponent.”
This is clearly not something most fight fans want to see happen. Yet there are indications that Pac Man may indeed end up taking his business elsewhere.
“Extremely strong chatter than Mayweather-Cotto 2 is imminent,” ESPN.com’s Dan Rafael tweeted on Monday. While chatter is just that – chatter – Rafael is one of the most prominent journalists in the fight game, and therefore some credence must be given to his musings.
What’s more, Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum is apparently growing frustrated with the Floyd and Manny negotiations, as well.
“We finished talking,” Arum is quoted as saying. “Nobody has come to us and said, ‘OK.’ I mean, we’ve finished, they’ve asked us to agree to this, agree to that. We agreed to everything.”
Team Mayweather undoubtedly has its own version of events.
“Pacquiao said that he agreed to everything,” Mayweather has stated. “What did you agree to? You have no say so. You have a boss. You don’t have no say so. You have a boss. . .that’s called Top Rank Promotions. It’s not called Pacquiao Promotions. With my company, it’s called Mayweather Promotions.”
Once again, the entire, tired affair appears on the verge of deteriorating into a blame game of “he said, she said,” with fans and analysts aligning with their favorite sides.
Meanwhile, the fight everyone – including the aging fighters themselves – wants, continues to go unmade. Still, it’s worth noting that the matter isn’t finished and done just yet. As long as the two sides are in communication the fight people want is still a possibility.
Yet the question remains – will a Pacquiao-Mayweather bout actually and finally happen?
“I don’t know,” Pacquiao told The Times frankly.
Yet that didn’t stop Manny from taking to Twitter again on Tuesday.
If you really care about the fans, you will fight. If you care about yourself… you won't fight. #MannySmile
— Manny Pacquiao (@MannyPacquiao) January 20, 2015