SLIM indeed, but there was one last chance the Manny Pacquiao-Floyd Mayweather Jr. mega fight could be staged; although promoter Bob Arum may have blown this with his grudging refusal to step away from the negotiation table.
This could be gleaned from the latest exchange of unkind words between rival camps of the two great fighters.
In a desperate dig, Arum did not hesitate to squirt foul air and slur Mayweather as a scampering fowl, a chicken.
At least Mayweather did not sling back and tell Arum (pardon, please), “Farting is such sweet sorrow.”
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Pacquiao himself had cried he was giving Mayweather until the end of this month to sign the contract.
After the ultimatum, however, the eight-division world titlist was blatantly branded a pawn, who functions on the whims and dictates of his grandpa promoter.
The word war took a momentary halt after it was made clear by a top Showtime Sports executive that, in the first place, there was no contract waiting to be signed by Mayweather. Reason: The contract the Pacquiao camp was supposedly dangling had not even been drafted.
Mayweather did not have to restress he would never negotiate as long as Arum, who had allegedly conned the unbeaten American champion earlier in his career, was around the table.
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Next they heard, Pacquiao had slipped off to London for a dinner with Prince Harry, fourth in line to the British throne.
It was no plain coincidence that Pacquiao was next caught in a friendly huddle with Amir Khan, WBC Silver welterweight champion, in a simple downtown boxing gym for poor children.
Reports yesterday said the two fighters, who once trained together under Freddie Roach, had discussed a possible meeting (for Pacquiao’s WBO title) in case the mega bout against Mayweather doesn’t push through. Arum picked May 30 for the possible bout.
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However, after Saturday’s savage conquest by Brandon Rios of Mike Alvarado in Denver, pundits tried to line up other names, like Lucas Mathisse, Ruslan Provodnikov, Mikey Garcia, as worthier challengers to Pacquiao.
Notably absent from the elite list was Chris Algieri, who took multiple falls in a losing challenge to Pacquiao in Macau last November.
One critic went out of his way to say that the brittle-chinned Khan, who had suffered at least two knockout losses in his career, should be fittingly matched against Algieri—“for the world welterweight floor mop championship.”