Dallas, TX, United States (AHN) – Floyd Mayweather Jr. has gone radio silent for the weekend.
After posting 8-10 updates a day on his Twitter feed and web site, Pretty Boy Floyd posted a brief message Friday morning, and nothing since.
“Have a good weekend,” he wrote. “Have fun, live life to the fullest, but be safe doing whatever it is you will be doing this weekend. Ill be training and spending time with my family.”
For the rest of the boxing world “whatever it is you will be doing this weekend” will likely involve the Manny Pacquiao-Joshua Clottey welterweight showdown on Saturday night.
While the sport looks toward that fight, Mayweather is looking the other way, pretending not to notice. Despite that, he will cast a heavy shadow on the bout.
Pacquiao-Clottey has been dubbed “The Event,” but make no mistake, Mayweather’s presence would have added the word “Main” in between the two words.
Like a jilted fianc? on what should have been their wedding day, Floyd had big plans for March 13. A few months ago, he was the one scheduled to be facing off with Pacquiao in Dallas.
It was supposedly the fight that Mayweather came out of retirement to make. It was going to be the biggest fight that the sport could put together. Instead, negotiations turned ugly, then fell apart.
Mayweather’s camp insisted on including steroid testing, offending Pacquiao. Tens of millions of dollars weren’t enough to salve the wounded egos.
“In all the fights that I’ve done (for Pacquiao)–the Hatton fight, the De La Hoya fight, the Cotto fight–it was never any kind of serious problems in the negotiations,” said Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum. “The Mayweather negotiations threw me for a loop because they became so acrimonious and so in a lot of ways nonsensical.”
Instead of facing him in the ring, Pacquiao signed on to face him in court, filing a defamation of character lawsuit against Mayweather for making the steroid allegations.
“He was trying to ruin our reputation with those allegations,” said Pacquiao’s trainer Freddie Roach, “but we do want to fight him and we do want to knock him out.”
“You don’t have to be geniuses to know what they were trying to do,” said Arum. “They were trying to get into (Pacquiao’s) head. Get him completely discombobulated so he would be easy pickings for Mayweather.”
Instead, Pacquiao signed to fight Clottey.
“Now the negotiations for the Clottey fight took about 24 hours,” said Arum. Not surprising, since guys that win the lottery usually don’t feel the need to negotiate very hard.
“I wasn’t really thinking about this fight at all,” said Clottey of his unexpected payday. “All the guys were talking about Pacquiao vs. Mayweather and it looks like somebody didn’t want to fight. It was good for me. If they didn’t do it, I get in. I feel like it was a blessing from God.”
One man’s windfall is another man’s torpedo. While Clottey was marveling at his good fortune, promoter Bob Arum had to find a way to market a relative unknown instead of the one of the sport’s biggest personalities.
“To be frank, we had to overcome disappointment,” said Arum. “People were looking forward to a Pacquiao-Mayweather fight. That is clear. Manny has a huge fan base. He has crossed over. Our job is to present Joshua Clottey as he is.”
While Mayweather may be feeling left out this weekend, he landed in a soft place. He’ll face Shane Mosley in May.
The bout matches two of the sport’s biggest names and will draw a huge pay-per-view audience. But still, it’s no Mayweather-Pacquiao.
Assuming both fighters defeat their spring opponents, will they be able to set aside the hard feelings and come to an agreement for a fight?
“I don’t really need Floyd Mayweather,” said Pacquiao, “because what I have achieved in boxing is good enough for me and people know that by comparing my achievements in boxing to his achievements.”
“Some fighters like me we can be the greatest fighters without fast words and trash talk,” he said. “His style is talking a lot of trash and it is not a good example for everybody.”
“Fighting a guy like Manny Pacquiao or Floyd Mayweather is always kind of political, a little bit,” said Clottey. “You’re not going to get it done easily.”
Freddie Roach is more confident that the fight will get done. “I think Manny’s fans will be disappointed if he doesn’t fight Mayweather this year,” he said. “It’s the fight the world wants to see. I can’t see either guy go any other way. Where else are they going to go to get the money they want?”
“I can’t see that fight not happening,” he added.
And when it does, you can bet that Floyd Mayweather Jr. will no longer be radio silent.
