Pacquiao-Mayweather Cinco de Mayo Fight A Nonstarter:
Manny Pacquiao’s next fight will be taking place in June of this year, either on the 9th or 16th of the month. This effectively eliminates the possibility of a May 5th clash against Floyd Mayweather.
The timeline then for Pacquiao’s next fight has been very conveniently set by Bob Arum and Top Rank to avoid any possibility of having to put together a Mayweather fight in the immediate future.
Pacquiao’s promoter was all set to do a fight in May against one of their four chosen opponents – until Mayweather was available. Now it’s June or bust, and Arum has expressly stated that he has not even been considering putting together a Mayweather fight for the first half of the year.
Mayweather has had his 90-day jail sentence postponed, allowing him to put together a fight on that date. He will then have to report to jail on June 1st.
With Pacquiao out of the picture for Mayweather’s May 5th fight date, it narrows his list of potential opponents, and limits the possibility of a true “mega-fight”. It seems like it will come down to either Saul Canelo Alvarez, or Robert Guerrero, for May 5th. Considering that Alvarez is the bigger name, while Guerrero isn’t proven above 135 lbs, he should be the more likely of the two.
Arum has offered all sorts of excuses for why Mayweather vs. Pacquiao won’t be happening in May. Pacquiao needs to heal from a cut. He already presented him with four different opponents. The fight wouldn’t get enough time to adequately promote. The venue at the MGM Grand is too small for a fight of that magnitude. It’s all window dressing, and it’s all about avoiding Mayweather on May 5th.
The earliest a battle between the two best pound for pound fighters in the world could take place then will be in November of this year. That would require each man winning his next bout, and Mayweather being released from jail at the start of September and being immediately ready to train and prepare for the biggest fight of his life, maybe 10 weeks away.
Seems unlikely, and Pacquiao vs. Mayweather in 2012 may be a fading dream before the year has even hardly begun.
