Manny Pacquiao is not in town but he has lit a bonfire of urgency under Floyd Mayweather?s comeback by setting a deadline for the mega-fight the whole world wants to see.
The PacMan has warned the Money Man that it is next year or never for the pound-for-pound showdown which can earn each of them at least $50 million.
Mayweather has until the end of 2012 to stop moving the goal-posts with regard to drug testing and gird himself for the richest boxing match of all time. After that, fight or no fight, Pacquiao will hang up the gloves and go into politics full-time.
Already a congressman in the Phillipines, Pacquiao is seen as a future president of his country and he sent this message to Las Vegas on the eve of Mayweather?s return to the ring after a 16 month absence: ?I will run for executive office in 2013 and I do not believe it is possible to do that and box.?
The post Pacquiao will be seeking is that of governor of his home state, which would provide him with a launch pad for a presidential election bid four years later.
With the PacMan ahead in most opinion polls as to to which of them is the greatest fighter on the planet, the pressure is on Floyd Jnr. Not just to beat WBC world welterweight champion Victor Ortiz in the MGM Grand Garden on Saturday evening but to reach a practical agreement on the drugs issue.
Pacquiao has dropped his opposition to random blood testing but Mayweather?s insistence that it be supervised only by the United States Olympic authorities makes an unreasonable demand on his rival to train in America rather than the Phillipines.
