Pound for pound king Floyd Mayweather Jr. recently met with Bob Arum, the promoter of Manny Pacquiao, to discuss the possibility of the two finally ending a three-year dance with a fight in the ring.
In comments made to On the Ropes Boxing Radio, Floyd's uncle and trainer Roger Mayweather stated that the two of them sat down with Arum about a month ago.
The relationship between Arum and Floyd, which has been openly hostile, was described as "all good" by the elder Mayweather.
He described the meeting as positive, and felt that Arum wants to make the fight between Mayweather and Pacquiao as well as a match of Mayweather and Timothy Bradley.
This is certainly interesting news, and the first positive story about this fight to come from the Mayweather camp in quite some time. It was also the first definitive comments from a member of Floyd's inner circle guaranteeing that the fight would come to pass.
In typical Roger fashion, they were quite colorful:
Floyd’s gonna fight them, why wouldn’t he fight them? Anytime you are getting that type of money, how the hell are you not going to fight them. He has to fight Pacquiao cause that’s the fight people want to see and people talk about. If he wouldn’t fight Pacquiao he would go down in history as a scared motherf****** champion, wouldn’t he? If he didn’t fight Pacquiao, ok then. My nephew ain’t scared of no Pacquiao.
When you take the comments at face value you find a lot of truth in them, and you find arguments that boxing followers have been making for years.
The potential of a Mayweather-Pacquiao fight, even with the loss of some luster, is still financially the biggest in the sport. And it's not close.
The idea that either guy, staring down that type of money, would not do everything possible to make it happen is unrealistic to many. But thus far it has played out that way, with recriminations and unreasonable positions being taken by both fighters and both camps.
The main sticking point depends on which side you come down on. Floyd Mayweather's backers point to Bob Arum as the primary stumbling block. Manny Pacquiao's fans reject that notion and instead blame Mayweather, whom they accuse of being scared.
Roger Mayweather has gone to great lengths here to point out that his nephew and Arum could work together for something this lucrative.
And he's correct that if Mayweather refuses to fight Pacquiao, he might not be scared, but people will remember. Fair or not both fighters will see their legacy, if not take a hit, certainly have a footnote that reminds people they did not face each other.
Hopefully this recent development will take a step towards finally erasing that footnote and getting these two guys in the ring.
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