Mayweather vs. Ortiz: Win for Money Won't Make Pacquiao Next "Manny" Up

Win or lose against Victor Ortiz at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Floyd Mayweather Jr. is anything but a shoe-in to meet Manny Pacquiao in a match for the ages to save the sport of boxing.

Sure, it'd be the obvious thing to do, to pit "Money" Mayweather, at 42-0 and with the WBC welterweight championship belt slung over his shoulder, against "Pac-Man," at long last. Both fighters would make tons of money, everyone would tune in and, for the first time in years, MMA and the UFC would be relegated to second billing among combat sports.

Such a match, if it were to take place, would likely have to wait until sometime in 2012, at the earliest, with Pacquiao set to defend his WBO world welterweight title against Juan Manuel Marquez in Las Vegas on November 12.

That being said, these two have been struggling to get together in any meaningful way for years, with the usual overload of bravado and machismo that so defines the modern-day weigh-in poisoning the negotiations between Golden Boy, Mayweather's promoter, and Top Rank, Pacquiao's promoter.

From doping allegations to defamation lawsuits to racist rants, this Cold War rivalry has run the gamut from the ridiculous to the childish.

But as narrow as that range may seem, it's still wide enough to keep either fighter from reaching the other with a blow inside the ropes.

Which is a crucial part of the reason a Mayweather vs. Pacquiao mega-fight makes more sense than ever. The bad blood, trumped up as it may be by the circumstances of the sport, still exists but no longer seems to be boiling over the point that it will burn out these fighters' eyes from seeing all the money still sitting on the table.

The history and the drama between the two is such that fans will snap up pay-per-view packages at any price as much to see how this long-running story is resolved as who actually wins the fight.

Do both sides really need any more proof that this fight should happen? The Mayweather vs. Ortiz match has already been drowned out by speculation about whether this is a prelude to Pacquiao, and the same is bound to happen in November when Pacquiao vs. Marquez takes center stage.

This fight will happen eventually. It pretty much has to, at this point. Both fighters will have practically exhausted their options for respectable opponents by the end of the year, leaving only each other to turn to lest Mayweather retire into gambling and Pacquiao into full-time parliamentary duty in the Philippines.

This fight will happen eventually, just not as soon as fans would hope. What's to suggest the two camps won't drag this out longer, milk it for everything that it's worth? They've waited this long, and the lengthier the stalemate grows, the bigger the buzz will be and, in turn, the bigger the money pie for the fighters, promoters and sponsors to share.

This fight will happen eventually. It just might take a firm date of retirement, rather than a vague rumor, for any punches to actually fly.

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