By the end of this week we shall all know who Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao end up choosing as their next opponent, and if at all there is a glimmer of hope that they may finally end up facing each other. One thing that seems pretty certain is that Manny Pacquiao will not be fighting on May 5, the day that Floyd Mayweather has already reserved at the MGM Grand for his next fight.
According to Las Vegas plastic surgeon Jeffrey Roth, Manny Pacquiao will not be able to spar until April 1. ?I?m not on an expert on that and neither are you. Jeffrey Roth is saying he should be good to go on April 1. If he?s fighting on May 5, that?s a problem, because he wouldn?t have the time to spar,? said Arum to Kevin Iole of Yahoo! Sports.
I?m not claiming to be an expert either, but I can?t help being a little skeptical. Last year on Sept. 23 Andre Ward suffered a cut in sparring that forced him to postpone his fight with Carl Froch to Dec.17, which was originally scheduled for Oct. 29. After the injury Ward went back to sparring a little over six weeks later. If it only took him six weeks to recover from the cut that he suffered, why would it take Manny Pacquiao over five months to recover from his? You could make the argument that Pacquiao?s cut may have been worse, but how much worse? Five months for a cut to heal seems like an awful long time. If the cut was really that bad, than why are we just finding out now that he can?t spar until April 1? Why wasn?t something said about it earlier?
Arum has changed his tune a lot in regards to the date that Manny will be available to fight. He has said that May 5 is too soon, but he did mention the end of May as a possibility. So why not just make the fight for May 26. This would add three more weeks to Pacquiao?s training camp, which should allow him to get the adequate amount of sparring that he needs.
Even though Mayweather has the May 5 date booked, I?m sure the MGM Grand wouldn?t mind pushing the date up three weeks. If Las Vegas can delay a jail sentence for the sake of giving the city a much needed economic boost, then why wouldn?t the MGM Grand delay a fight for that same reason? In my opinion, I believe this would be a win-win situation for everyone involved. We?ll just have to wait and see if Bob Arum agrees with me.
