Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao: What's The Real Deal?

(Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)

But suffice it to say, with two firm offers on the table from Shane Mosely and Miguel Cotto, Manny was holding his ground and waiting out the Mayweather-Marquez fight before deciding what to do next.

Then came news of the Mayweather injury and subsequent cancellation.

Now things were suddenly turned upside down. There were rumors of slow tickets sales for the fight (those seem to be true), rumors that Mayweather was trying to get of the fight so he could fight Pacquiao instead (those seem to be false) but I think we should take Floyd at his word and assume he was actually injured.

What I do know, is that the Pacquiao camp put out feelers about restarting the negotiations for PBF-Pac-Man fight but were rebuffed. Golden Boy also let them know that the Mayweather-Marquez was back on and would happen in September.

That was when Pacquiao decided he had to take the next best fight out there to stay on his own personal schedule and that fight is the Cotto-Pacquiao fight which will take place in November.

Now, I'm sure there are people who will post all kinds of nonsense about what I've said here. But I really haven't stated anything that can't be found in several other legitimate sources that you can easily Google.

BUT - please don't send me your links to a Filipino gossip rag that publishes out of Bulgaria. Don't send me your quotes from Bob Arum who changes his statements ever day and lies through his teeth.

And most of all, don't send me PBF quotes because he's a born promoter and even though he's a great, great fighter, can not be trusted at this point in terms of being believable in any way.

I honestly don't know if we will ever see these two in the ring. I don't think Floyd will lose to JMM but it is possible. JMM is a great fighter but going up at 27 and 28 is one thing because the average human doesn't completely develop until the age of 28. Going up at 35 is another ball game all together.

Manny's fight is a little tougher. Cotto is a tough guy, and at 145 the catch weight is now basically a non issue. Cotto fights best at 147, and he weighed in at 145 as recently 2007 for one of his fights.

Then there's all the other issues. Manny's imminent retirement, Floyd's arrogance, Arum's meddling. And who knows what else.

That's what I think is the saddest thing about the whole affair.

It looked like we had another Hagler-Leonard fight on our hands. One of those fights that helps the sport because the whole country gets jazzed about it.

It could have helped the sport in way that 100 Marquez-Mayweather or Pacquiao-Cotto fights never will be able to.

And now it may not happen.

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