(Photo credit: Esther Lin/Showtime) WBA/WBC welterweight champion Floyd Mayweather Jr told the media on Tuesday that there is zero truth to him being in negotiations for a fight against WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao. There are no secret negotiations of any kind. Mayweather feels that Pacquiao and his promoter Bob Arum of Top Rank are mentioning his name in order to try and sell tickets and attract interest for Pacquiao’s November 22nd fight against little known fighter Chris Algieri in Macao, China.
“Not true,” Mayweather said. “I can’t say what the future holds, but Arum and Pacquiao is trying to sell tickets for the (fight with the) guy named (Chris) Algieri. Trying to sell tickets for that fight. I don’t know where they fighting, I don’t know anything about what Top Rank is doing.”
It could be more wishful thinking by Arum and Pacquiao than a situation reality in terms of a Mayweather-Pacquiao fight. A fight between Mayweather and Pacquiao would generate huge cash for Pacquiao and Top Rank, and it would easily be Pacquiao’s biggest payday of his long career, and it would be coming late in his career. At 35, Pacquiao is getting up there in age and he’s not big name since his knockout loss to Juan Manuel Marquez in 2012. A fight against Mayweather would get Pacquiao a tremendous payday.
It’s unclear why Pacquiao and Arum have bene talking about a Mayweather fight. It could be that they’re just responding to the media’s questions, but it obviously doesn’t hurt to mention a name like Mayweather right about now, given that Pacquiao is fighting in Macao against a fighter that not too many casual boxing fans are familiar with in Chris Algieri.
Algieri hasn’t done any trash talking to get boxing fans interested in his clash against Pacquiao, and there’s a possibility that this fight might not too big pay-per-view numbers on HBO unless boxing fans suddenly start showing interest in the fight. As of now, there doesn’t seem to be a high level of interest in the Pacquiao vs. Algieri fight from fans because many of them see it as a mismatch with Pacquiao being far too good for Algieri.
