Floyd Mayweather is set to get back in the ring on May 5, but it will not be against Manny Pacquiao. Photo by Jae C. Hong (AP)
Oscar De La Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions found a fill in for the May 5 date that Floyd Mayweather has secured far his next bout.
Since he failed to come to terms with Manny Pacquiao, Mayweather has agreed to fight Miguel Cotto on that date in an attempt to capture Cotto’s WBA super welterweight title, and it looks like Bob Arum of Top Rank Inc. is about to announce that Pacquiao’s next opponent will be Palm Springs unbeaten junior welterweight world champion Timothy Bradley on June 9.
It looks like any potential bout between Mayweather and Pacquiao probably won’t happen until the fall of this year.
Mayweather was able to convince the Nevada State Athletic Commission to grant him a license to fight before reporting to jail on June 1 and then made it official that he wouldn’t be fighting Pacquiao in the near future. He will be moving up in weight to 154 lbs to fight Cotto, and the bout will be at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.
“We didn’t want a catch-weight fight,” quoted Mayweather’s advisor Leonard Ellerbe. “We’ll leave that up to the catch-weight king,” referring to Pacquiao.
Pacquiao was able to knock Cotto down and beat him convincingly when they fought in 2009 in a 145 lbs catch-weight fight, ultimately securing a 12 round unanimous decision in that bout.
People all around the world are looking forward to a super-match between Mayweather and Pacquiao. But the relentless effort to come to a deal turned flat in part because they could not agree on how to split the money in what could be the biggest bout in boxing history since the “Fight of the Century” between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier that took place in 1971.
Mayweather reportedly offered Pacquiao a guaranteed $40 million for the bout but that is not a 50-50 split. Pacquiao’s manager Michael Koncz said that he offered Mayweather, with Pacquiao’s approval, a 55-45 split of fight revenues with the winner getting the larger percentage.
“Because it’s a prize fight,” Koncz said. “If you were the better fighter, you get the 10% bonus. $15 million to $25 million more than the other guy. That was my final offer, with a $50 million guarantee to each fighter. For Floyd to say that Manny never wanted this fight is totally absurd.”
Mayweather regards Cotto as ” a world class fighter,” he said in prepared statement. “But I have no doubt in my mind that… Cotto’s reign as champion will come to an end on May 5.”
In other boxing news, World Boxing Hall of Fame trainer Angelo Dundee, who trained the likes of Muhammad Ali, Sugar Ray Leonard, George Foreman, Carmen Basilio, and Willie Pastrano, (just to name a few) died last week in Clearwater, Florida. He had a blood clot that developed during a flight back to his home in Florida after visiting Muhammad Ali in Louisville, Kentucky for the boxer’s 70th birthday last month.
In a sport of drama and explosiveness, dealing with fighters filled with emotion, Dundee was the perfect complement, always calm, always analytical, ever able to maintain his cool, whether in the sweltering heat of Manila, or the fury of Zaire. Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family. He will be surely missed.??The scheduled match between Victor Ortiz and Andre Berto that was set for February 11 has been postponed due to an injury Berto suffered to his left bicep. Golden Boy Promotions will be announcing the re-scheduling of that bout at a later date.
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