?I?m not interested in rushing to do anything,? Mayweather told Tim Reynolds of The Associated Press during a charity basketball game.
Floyd Mayweather is not interested.
Not interested in the fight that would put the seal of approval on his legacy.
When the answer finally came out it followed a nearly month long silence from Mayweather who was presented with the most important contract in his 13-year professional boxing career.
The most important contract in at least the last ten years of boxing.
The answer sounded too convenient, too casual, almost an afterthought.
It could be, as suggested from some fronts, that Mayweather just wants the fight on his terms, but the terms of purse splits and drug testing,which riled the camp of Manny Pacquiao, were settled.
There seemed to be something more.
If a 38-year old Shane Mosley could buckle Mayweather, perhaps the thought passed ?Money?s? mind that a sustained attack from a fighter like Pacquiao could do some real damage.
And there is no fighter like Pacquiao.
Maybe Mayweather saw the way Pacquiao changed his opponents over the course of a fight.
?The Golden Boy? Oscar De La Hoya, stuck on his stool, disfigured, defeated and retired.
Ricky Hatton, hit with a brutal left hook that pasted the British fighter to canvas, lying like a dead fish in the center of the ring, knocked out of boxing.
Miguel Cotto, a visage of macabre, beaten so badly by the end of the eleventh that he thought the fight was over.
Joshua Clottey, attacked so furiously he couldn?t get out of his defensive shell.
Perhaps he saw the way Pacquiao composed himself on fight night, the wide grin on his face during his ring walk, the evident thrill of the Filipino watching himself on the big screen.
This could be a man not affected by the mind gymnastics of Mayweather.
This could, for the first time, be a man who has inspired fear in Mayweather.
Say what you will about Pacquiao. Say that Pacquiao fought a weight-drained De La Hoya, a shot Hatton and a punch-drunk Cotto.
All indications are that Pacquiao was ready to make concessions to fight an undefeated Floyd Mayweather in his prime.
Presented with the same option for a career-defining fight, presented with all the pressure, all the hype and all the money, Mayweather looked at his hand and folded.
If Mayweather had not come out of a 21-month retirement in 2009 to fight Juan Manuel Marquez his legacy would still be intact.
A fight between Pacquiao and Mayweather would be talked about but not as a necessary fight for either fighter?s career.
Now, anything but a win over Pacquiao puts a shadow over Mayweather?s legacy and record, and at this point it might be something Mayweather has to chase.
So is it Roger Mayweather?s impending court case, Floyd Mayweather?s family time or charity work or spine that is causing this most recent turn in the fight that is dangled in front of us like a carrot to a donkey to move interest forward?
In the end, nobody knows but Mayweather and irregardless, the damage has been done.
Irregardless, the fight that the boxing world and beyond was waiting for has been put on hold because Mayweather ?is not interested.?
Mayweather likes to refer to himself as the best boxer ever, his critics like to say that he has had the tendency to avoid certain fights against top-tier opponents.
If Mayweather does not fight Pacquiao he will not even be considered the best boxer of this generation.
Maybe it is not that Mayweather is not interested, perhaps he is very interested; interested in keeping his undefeated record and his health intact.
