Amid the prevailing skepticisms over the Manny Pacquiao – Floyd Mayweather Jr. mega-buck fight from happening, world-class trainer and Pacman coach Freddie Roach has come out recently to say that the world’s most awaited boxing bout is already close to being a reality.
Roach said that he just talked to Top Rank boss Bob Arum and the promoter told him that negotiations are in high gear and that the fight seems very close from happening, reports The Sweet Science.
Despite the latest pronouncement from Roach, the boxing community seems not intent on buying it hook, line, and sinker.
More than five years ago, Bob Arum and Freddie Roach also hinted that the Pacquiao-Mayweather fight was almost a done deal and that the two pugilists would be squaring off on the ring very soon. Everybody knows that it did not happen then.
The ball is in the hands of Mayweather
Whether the negotiations for the fight are close to an agreement or not, it is no doubt that the decision rests now solely on the hands of pound-for-pound king Mayweather.
Bob Arum and the Pacquiao camp should be aware of that by this time. And no amount of verbal or social media jabs can convince Money to take on the challenge that the Pacman has posed on him since coming out victorious against Chris Algieri late in November 2014.
With the way Mayweather has been flaunting his wealth on Instagram as of late, it would appear that he wants to show the whole world, particularly Pacquiao and his camp, that he is too rich to even think about receiving the richest payday in the history of sports.
A bluff from the sports’ biggest bluffer
Some boxing pundits however believe that the recent gesture of Mayweather on social media in flaunting his wealth is part of his grand scheme of avoiding Pacquiao on the ring eventually.
He has somewhat committed himself to the fight sometime in December when he said in an interview that he wants to fight Pacquiao on May 2, 2015. Everybody in the boxing world got excited with Money’s pronouncement then. But nothing has happened since then and no word has come out from his camp or subsequent efforts to really push the historic bout on May 2.
It turns out May 2 falls on a Monday. History would indicate that there is no major pay-per-view boxing event held on a Monday. Not even one. As such, Mayweather’s May 2 pronouncement was a bluff, a major bluff. And it came no less from the sports’ biggest bluffer.
If Mayweather really wants the fight with Pacquiao to happen, and knowing his penchant for trash-talking his ring opponents before the bout, he should already be talking about how he’s gonna beat the Pacman to a pulp by this time.