The initial reaction when Manny Pacquiao announced that he will quit the ring in 2016 was to despair that the fight against Floyd Mayweather which the world has been waiting an eternity to see had been scuppered once and for all.
The reverse may be the case. Not least because the Pac-Man was actually deferring his retirement date.
The last time I discussed the matter with Pacquiao he talked of going into full-time Philippines politics next year.
Now speculation is on the rise in the US that Floyd Mayweather may be preparing the ground for a spectacular climax to both his and the Pac-Man?s career.
First, as he agreed to his September 13 rematch with Marcos Maidana, Mayweather went public with a teaser for us to expect a surprise announcement for his ensuing fight, scheduled for next May.
Since Amir Khan is hoping that will be when he gets his overdue shot at the Money man, nobody got over-excited.
But an alternative scenario has arisen from the fall-out following a huge promotional upheaval in American boxing.
Golden Boy Oscar De La Hoya, after splitting with long-time partner Richard Schaefer, has brokered a peace with Bob Arum?s Top Rank outfit which should lead to big fights between boxers in each of those stables.
Mayweather?s long-running feud with Arum, the Pac-Man?s promoter, and insistence he would never work with him again, has been considered the major obstacle to potentially the mother and father of fights in recent times.
Mayweather, although a close ally of Schaefer, is having to honour a contract for Golden Boy to promote his second battle with Maidana. But he has applied successfully for promoter?s licenses for his own company in Nevada as well as New York.
That has widened his options and reports are circulating in Las Vegas of Mayweather?s battle-bus ? a luxury coach emblazoned with his image ? being parked for several hours last week outside Arum?s Top Rank offices there.
Furthermore, Mayweather?s $200 million-plus, six-fight contract with the Showtime cable TV network is due to come to an end in September 2015, by which time Pacquiao had originally planned to hang up the gloves.
