Manny Pacquiao: Bob Arum Must Stop Flip-Flopping on Floyd Mayweather Megafight

Good news, boxing fans. Manny Pacquiao wants the oft-dreamed-of megafight with Floyd Mayweather, Jr. to happen. 

He said so himself. In speaking with a group of fellow congressmen and friends recently, he admitted that he was holding out hope of fighting Mayweather soon.

"Hopefully, the next fight is Mayweather," said Pac-Man, per BoxingScene.com. He was then quick to add, "I am not saying it will push through."

Indeed, that's up to Top Rank CEO and promoter Bob Arum. He's never really warmed up to the idea of having his star fighter go up against Money, and you honestly have to doubt whether or not he ever will.

But he's at least listening to people who actually want the fight to happen. Arum revealed to the Manila Standard recently that some investors are looking to make Pacquiao vs. Mayweather happen, and that he's doing his due diligence.

“There are a couple of investors who want to put up a lot of money to do the fight. So we are exploring how real it is," he said.

As for all those who suggest that Arum doesn't want this megafight to actually happen, Arum said "that’s ridiculous."

That's a message intended for you, me and pretty much everyone else who has ever doubted Arum's intentions. That goes for Mayweather's own camp, who recently complained about Arum dodging the fight.

Here's what Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer told ESPN.com earlier in November:

"

I am sick and tired of Bob Arum twisting the truth. It's another case of 'yesterday I was lying, today I'm telling the truth.' The truth of the matter is that we received this afternoon an email from retired federal judge Daniel Weinstein, who has informed us that Top Rank is pursuing a rematch with [Juan Manuel] Marquez and, therefore, is not interested in immediate talks for a possible Mayweather-Pacquiao fight. This is obviously as clear as it can be that they have no intentions of making a Mayweather-Pacquiao fight.

"

At the time, it was easy to take Schaefer's word for it.

Because of that, we should all be thankful that a group of investors have come forth and breathed life into the Pacquiao vs. Mayweather megafight. By Arum's own admission, he wasn't about to do the deed himself.

Said Arum: “If I explore the deal and Floyd likes the deal, hopefully he’ll accept it and if he doesn’t like the deal and then he says we have to do a regular ordinary deal so we run it ourselves, I’ll sit down with whomever he says. But right now it makes no sense to sit down with anybody else.” 

This sounds reasonable enough, but it's yet another example of how tentative Arum is to even talk about a fight with Mayweather. You have to give him credit for hearing out the investors who want the fight, but it's clear that he's in no hurry to make this fight happen.

It's been said often in recent years that Pacquiao and Mayweather are only going to fight if both camps make it happen. To do that, Mayweather needs to back off of his list of absurd demands. Arum, on the other hand, just needs to be a little more urgent. 

At this point, he should be urgent. Now is the perfect time for Pacquiao and Mayweather to put a fight together, as both are still in prime boxing condition and both have pretty much run out of worthy adversaries.

A fight would also make everyone a little richer, which is nice.

But Bob Arum is the gatekeeper. One way or another, this fight is not going to happen unless he really wants it to.

Even now, he's given very little indication that he really wants it to happen. He needs to pick a side.

Hopefully, he'll pick the side we all want him to pick.