By Rob Smith: Floyd Mayweather Jr’s uncle/trainer Roger Mayweather thinks boxing fans still want to see a mega fight between Floyd Jr. and Manny Pacquiao despite Pacquiao’s recent bad knockout loss to Juan Manuel Marquez. Roger thinks fans will still want to see the fight regardless.
Roger said to hustleboss.com “People don’t care whether he [Pacquiao] got knocked out. Floyd will knock him out and that’s the fight people want to see.”
A Mayweather-Pacquiao fight won’t take place this year considering Pacquiao is tentatively scheduled for a rematch with Juan Manuel Marquez in September. Unless Pacquiao takes a tune-up bout in April, which doesn’t look likely, his September fight will be the only time Pacquiao fights in 2013. This means we won’t get the chance to see Mayweather fight Pacquiao until 2014, if then.
There are a lot of things that could get in the way of a Mayweather-Pacquiao fight getting made next year. Roger doesn’t seem to understand that Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum likes to plan Pacquiao’s fights well ahead of time, and that doesn’t leave much of an opportunity for Mayweather to get a fight. Arum also tends to set firm dates for when Pacquiao will fight again, and those dates may not work with Mayweather.
Pacquiao has lost his last two fights dating back to June of last year. If he loses to Marquez in a rematch in September then that’ll be three straight losses for Pacquiao. That’s too many defeats. Boxing fans might not care too much about Pacquiao having lost his last two fights, but if he loses again that’ll make it really tough for Arum to sell a Pacquiao-Mayweather fight. The selling of the fight might be difficult unless the casual boxing fans aren’t aware what’s going on with Pacquiao’s career because they don’t follow the sport closely enough to understand he’s no longer winning his fights.
Putting the fight together will be the biggest problem. If Arum and Pacquiao insist on getting a near even purse split despite Pacquiao’s lack of recent success in the ring, then a fight between Mayweather and Pacquiao won’t happen next year. Arum might believe Pacquiao is still popular enough for him to deserve a 50-50 deal with Mayweather, but I don’t think Mayweather will go along with the idea of giving a Pacquiao an even split when he’s lost his last three fights.