Floyd Mayweather Jr. can choose the weight he wants and Manny Pacquiao won’t object to it if only to make their megabuck bout happen next year.
Whether the fight will be at 147 pounds or 154, or at a catch weight, Pacquiao hardly cares, the Filipino icon’s team said.
Trainer Freddie Roach said all the eight-division world champion wants is to get into the ring with the unbeaten American and find out who really is the better fighter.
This despite the Hall of Fame trainer’s recent announcement that he is thinking of making Pacquiao slide to 140 pounds, where the Filipino icon’s power will be more pronounced.
Pacquiao fought and beat Chris Algieri by a lopsided decision at a catch weight of 144 pounds, though it was for his World Boxing Organization welterweight (147) crown, on Nov. 23 in Macau.
Though Pacquiao knocked down Algieri six times, he was unable to finish off the New Yorker and score his first knockout since stopping Miguel Cotto in the 12th round in 2009.
“We’ll (Pacquiao) fight Mayweather at whatever weight he wants to fight at,” Roach told fightnews.com much earlier.
Since Mayweather has said that he will decide on all the terms (purse, revenue sharing, drug testing protocol, gloves, venue, date) if Pacquiao really wants to fight him on May 2, it’s likely that he will seek a weight limit of 147 pounds up.
Mayweather is naturally bigger than Pacquiao, having weighed in at 150.5 pounds when he fought and beat Canelo Alvarez at a catch weight of 154 lb in 2013.
Pacquiao has not checked in at more than 147 pounds and weighed in at 143.8 lb when he beat Antonio Margarito at a catch weight of 150 pounds in 2010.
Another issue that could stifle negotiations is Mayweather’s insistence that the fight be held on May 2, the weekend of Cinco de Mayo, which is a Mexican holiday.
Top Rank Promotions head Bob Arum believes that a Mexican or Mexicans should headline the fight card on that date. For Mayweather, however, there’s little room for compromise. He’s calling the shots. Roy Luarca