Sources have informed us that undefeated pound-for-pound champion Floyd Mayweather will indeed be making a return to the ring later this year upon completion of his 90-day jail sentence, which is set to begin on June 1. Although he must first get past WBA jr. middleweight champion Miguel Cotto on May 5th, assuming all goes well, Mayweather plans to be back in the ring as early as November, or December at the latest. Although the news gives hope that a potential showdown with 8-division world champion Manny Pacquiao could still take place in 2012, promoter Bob Arum is already pooh-poohing the idea, explaining that a fourth fight with Juan Manuel Marquez would likely be his focus if Pacquiao is victorious against undefeated jr. welterweight champion Timothy Bradley on June 9th.
"I don't think that Mayweather will be available in the fall to fight Manny. He certainly doesn't indicate that he wants to fight him now. I would think, probably, everybody would be better off if we thought about that fight next year [2013]," Arum would comment in a recent interview with Keith Idec of Boxingscene.com. "But everything is open. First of all, Manny has a really tough fight with Bradley. And secondly, depending on how things break, everybody would certainly agree that Juan Manuel [Marquez] deserves a rematch [with Pacquiao]. So I would think that would be what I'm focusing on."
While Arum didn't exactly close the door on a winter showdown between the two best fighters in the sport, he also doesn't like it's a realistic option that he plans on exploring, as was the case earlier this year when news broke that Mayweather would indeed be able to move forward with a fight on May 5th. "Manny can chase the wild rabbit in the television commercial [for Hennessy], but as a promoter, I can't chase a wild rabbit," Arum continued, comparing Mayweather to the wild rabbit which represents "that elusive motivation that drives us to succeed" in the new series of Hennesy of commercials. "If Manny is able to fight through until next year, I'm planning or hoping that the Mayweather fight can take place next year."
Knowing Arum, if Manny is able to fight through until next year, I wouldn't even hold my breath for the fight to take place then. Given that Arum is Pacquiao's promoter, he's the only one other than Top Rank President Todd duBoef who is authorized to finalize any type of formal negotiation, and thus far, he has shown little interest in sitting down at any negotiating table to discuss the fight with anyone representing Mayweather, whether that be Al Haymon, Leonard Ellerbe, or Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer. The one time that Schaefer did extend an opportunity to sit down and discuss the fight with retired federal judge Daniel Weinstein, the mediator who has worked closely with both sides in the past, Arum declined the offer. In other words, don't expect that to change for the remainder of 2012 or even moving forward to 2013.
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