For two years, the biggest impediment to a Floyd Mayweather-Manny Pacquiao fight was Bob Arum’s reluctance to make it.
Today, it is Pacquiao’s failure to take control of his own career, and to tell Arum, his promoter, what’s in his heart — if, in fact, the desire for a Mayweather fight burns there.
Arum planned to fly to The Philippines today to present four potential opponents to Pacquiao, none of them Mayweather.
The first word out of Pacquiao’s mouth should be, “Why?”
The machinations of power, money and influence converged upon a Las Vegas courtroom Friday. Mayweather was supposed to go to jail for 87 days, more or less, in a domestic incident. But his attorneys filed a last-ditch motion to delay it, based on pre-existing contractual obligations for a May 5 fight in that same city.
Maybe that shouldn’t matter. But it does. Casinos are to Las Vegas what cars are to Detroit. A big fight draws big action. And no fight is bigger than one with Mayweather on the marquee.
The judge said she didn’t know about such plans when she pronounced sentence. Seems she’s not much of a boxing fan, which is forgiven, but that May 5 date had been public knowledge for a couple of months by the time of last month’s sentencing. Mayweather’s attorneys argued that the unique design of the boxing business, and the many commitments of resources by some power-hitters in the casino industry that dominates that desert landscape, should allow the Grand Rapids boxing star to delay his jail sentence until June 1, so he could ply his trade.
