Pacquiao vs. Marquez 3: Pac-Man's Poor Performance Benefits Floyd Mayweather

Floyd Mayweather must have been licking his chops as he watched Manny Pacquiao put forth his worst performance in years against Juan Manuel Marquez, and even to see that the judges didn't penalize him for it.

In time, the controversy surrounding Pac-Man's suspicious victory over Dinamita will fade and all the boxing world will be left with, once again, is the same, stale yearning for the "biggest fight possible" between Pacquiao and Mayweather.

That is, if Bob Arum, the CEO of Top Rank and the man in charge of both combatants from Saturday's thrilling fight, doesn't block Golden Boy Promotions from his phone and put a tentative Pacquiao and an aging Marquez together in the ring for a fourth time.

May the boxing gods save us all, and the sport itself, if he does.

In the meantime, the onus will be on Mayweather's camp to initiate the next round of conversations about a bout with Pacquiao's people, which could be potentially record-breaking from a profitability standpoint.  However, they appear as reluctant as ever to risk Pac-Man's reputation and marketability. After all, if Manny can barely handle Marquez, how can he be expected to compete with Money May, a fighter whose defensive, intensely strategic style is similar to Dinamita's.

Except, of course, that Mayweather also has the speed and the strength to really put Pacquiao on his heels.

Hence, it will be up to Mayweather and Golden Boy to make a mega-fight worth his while, to give Pacquiao a chance to save face if/when he gets embarrassed by a boxer as comfortable at Welterweight as him and with similar sheer talent.

Of course, that isn't likely to happen, not with a guy whose ego is as big as Floyd Mayweather's. If he's gone out of his way to reserve space in Las Vegas for a fight on May 5th—essentially baiting Pacquiao's people into negotiating on his terms—then how could he ever be expected to give that up and let Manny dictate where, when and how much?

Such is the merry-go-round on which the boxing world once again finds itself, though, now more than ever, Pretty Boy Floyd has the motivation and the incentive to invite, if not outright drag, Manny Pacquiao to the table.

Even, and especially, if Pac-Man has every reason to resist.