ShareThisBy EDDIE G. ALINEA
Filipino boxing icon MANNY Pacquiao is set to meet promoter Bob Arum as the reigning World Boxing Organization welterweight champion insisting he wants a fight against undefeated American Floyd Mayweather Jr.
“I‘ve said this over and over before and I’m saying this again, I want Floyd Mayweather Jr. to be my next opponent and I haven’t changed my choice despite recent developments,” Pacquiao said.
“I am meeting with my promoter tomorrow (Tuesday) and I will insist that the fight with Mayweather be given preference than the four others in the list,” Pacquiao said, adding Arum is set to arrive today.
Pacquiao stressed he doesn’t want to be blamed if the mega-fight with Mayweather fails to materialize.
“I don’t want some quarters to blame me if, in the long run, the fight wouldn’t push through,” the 33-year-old champion said. “As I have been saying many times before, I fight for the fans. I want the fans to be happy always.
“Whoever the fans want me to fight, I will face him atop the ring. I don’t choose fights. It’s my promoter who does because it’s his job. My job is to fight, everybody must realize that,” Pacquiao emphasized.
“Whoever says I’m ducking this fighter or that fighter doesn’t know me, or just plainly wants to put me in bad light,” he said. “I’ve never dodged a fight. If I did, I won’t be where I am now.”
Mayweather, supposed to serve a 90-day jail sentence in Las Vegas starting last week, gained a reprieve when Nevada Justice of the Peace Judge Melissa Saragosa deferred the implementation of her decision.
Despite this, the May 5 battle between the American and Pacquiao is far from being realized.
Arum, on the other hand, wants a Pacquiao-Mayweather fight, if it pushes through, to be held in November. Realizing the lure of the fight, Arum wants it to be staged in a ring to be constructed in Las Vegas rather than the MGM Grand.
“After we’ve met, there will be negotiations between my promoter and his counterparts. Many things can happen in a negotiation. If we agree that I will face Mayweather, then my promoter will talk to his counterpart in the Mayweather camp,” said Pacquiao.
“When Arum sits in the negotiation table, he will be laying on the table all the conditions we want which, everybody knows, are simple. I will abide by his (Mayweather) demand for drug testing. I am even agreeable to getting a lesser purse just so the fight would push through. In other words, as far as my side is concerned, there will be no problem.
“We know that Mayweather has no promoter. He negotiates by himself. So if the fight won’t be realized, it’s no longer because of me,” Pacquiao concluded.