Floyd won’t be Pacman’s next foe
BOB Arum, the Top Rank promoter, is set to announce anytime now the next opponent of Manny Pacquiao in his much- awaited ring return for 2012.

Don’t look for the name of Floyd Mayweather Jr. though.

Arum said the final choice for the Pacquiao sweepstakes still boiled down to the four fighters original listed by him-- Miguel Cotto, Timothy Bradley, Lamont Peterson, and long-time nemesis from Mexico Juan Manuel Marquez.

The 32-year-old Pacquiao, already made his choice last week when Arum visited him in the country to present the names of his possible opponent for the June 9 bout to be held at an outdoor facility still being built in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Along the way, Mayweather’s name was also considered especially in the light of the challenge posed by the unbeaten American for him and Pacquiao to face off in a potentially mouth-watering fight on May 5.

But in the end, both Pacquiao and Arum deemed it best that a May 5 date give them too little time to prepare for a title bout of such magnitude.

“He (Pacquiao) realizes that economically the May 5th date is not smart,” Arum said in an interview by The Ring from his Top Rank office in Las Vegas.

“If you postpone it two or three weeks, you can make so much more money,” said Arum, who initially proposed publicly that Mayweather reconsider his option and moved the match date near the end of May instead.

Mayweather, however, already quashed any possibility of a meeting with the `Pacman’ middle of this year as he insisted that it’s May 5 or bust for him.

“People all around the world want to see Mayweather versus Pacquiao and that’s a fight that I really, really want. I’m the best in the sport and I’m going to continue to show the world I’m the best,” Mayweather told U.S. boxing beat writers in Las Vegas.

“There is no fight I want more than the Manny Pacquiao fight. I guess he said he agreed to fight. The only thing that is stopping this fight right now, that I truly believe is stopping the fight, is Bob Arum,” added the reigning World Boxing Council (WBC) welterweight champion from Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Leonard Ellerbe, advisor to Mayweather, explained that Floyd Jr. needs to fight on the specific date, which became the bone of contention why a Las Vegas County judge decided to defer from January 6 to June 1 the 90-day jail term handed out on the boxing champion for a battery domestic charge.

“We can’t move off May 5th even if we wanted to. That’s where’s we’re at,” Ellerbe said. “We’re legally locked in. The judge granted us, based off of what we had locked in, May 5th with the cable system, with the MGM, but that’s when we were fighting. We would never, ever remotely go back to the judge.”

As it stands now, the Mayweather camp is considering facing instead, middleweight champion Sergio Martinez in an equally explosive title match.

For the fight to happen, Martinez has to go down and face Floyd Jr. at a catchweight of 150 lbs.

“If Sergio Martinez can make 150, let’s make the fight happen,” Mayweather said. “Like I said, there are no excuses. I’m a little different than other guys. He’s got a very, very impressive style. But like I said before, my main focus is a Manny Pacquiao fight.”