Manny Pacquiao vs. Floyd Mayweather: The Ball Is in Whose Court to Make Fight?

Floyd Mayweather Jr. (41-0 25KO) has finally made his return back to the ring against Victor Ortiz (29-2-2 22KO). He has returned from his year long vacation and a little soul searching in between.

Since he has returned, he slowly but surely tried to repair his public image and show that he’s really not a bad guy at all. In his interview with Brian Kelly, he claimed he spent most of his time with his family and tried to dispel the rumors he beat his prior girlfriend.

Also, during his press conference with Victor Ortiz Wednesday night, he seemed a lot more humble. The Mayweather we saw on the TV screen and the Mayweather we’ve been reading about were two completely different people. 

Since Floyd steadily started his comeback into the boxing world, so were his claims that he agreed to fight and that he’s waiting on Pacquiao to take the tests. Earlier this year before Pacquiao fought Shane Mosley, Mayweather began saying he had proof Pacquiao was the hold up for the fight and not him.

Mayweather’s proof is that he had a copy of the contract from the second negotiations signed with his name and that he was waiting for Pacquiao to sign his end of the deal.

This would deal a huge blow to the whole story of who’s holding up who if it wasn’t for one problem: he hasn’t shown anybody the contract yet. This added onto the fact that Mayweather’s camp denied the second negotiations happened, and he announced this a year after the fact doesn’t really help either.

So far, the main hold up for the fight not being made was supposedly because Pacquiao didn’t want to agree to the random blood testing all the way up to the fight or with a cut-off date up to 14 days before the fight.

Pacquiao’s side said they agreed to the 14-day cut-off and full random blood testing during the second negotiations to get Floyd to sign.

Who’s telling the truth in all of this? I have no idea, and none of us have no way of knowing without a doubt up to this point except for Pacquiao, Mayweather and their respective camps.

Fast forward to this week when Floyd Mayweather Jr. went onto SportsCenter and did an interview with Brian Kelly. During that interview, they were more concerned addressing Manny Pacquiao rather than the challenge in front of him, Victor Ortiz.  

Floyd said that he’d absolutely love to face Pacquiao if the chance arises. Of course he talked about having to take the test before the fight is ever going to be made.

Then during Floyd and Ortiz’s press conference Wednesday night, Floyd Mayweather formally called out Pacquiao saying, “We only want to fight the biggest and the baddest out there, and Manny Pacquiao, yes, you’re next.”

This was a lot more straight forward and direct than what Pacquiao usually says. I’m not saying Pacquiao doesn’t want to fight him, I’m just saying it was more of a direct way compared to the way he usually answers his questions.

I was able to find one instance where Pacquiao said, “If Mayweather is not really a coward, he needs to prove himself in the ring."

Now, I’m not quite sure this is something he would ever say because anytime you ask him about Floyd, he’ll either say he’s up to fighting him or let his promoter handle it.

So it’s out, Mayweather says he want’s Pacquiao and this fight to happen, and he’s been waiting for Pacquiao. 

According to Pacquiao, he’s willing to take the test whether it’s a 14-day cut-off window or all the way up to the fight as he says here. He claims he’s ready too, and he’s been waiting for Mayweather as well.

With that being said, both men are willing to make this fight happen, and it’s evidently within arm's reach of happening. I wouldn’t be surprised if this fight were to be made for next year. 

The question now is, since both men are willing to make this happen, who will step up to the plate and deliver this fight?