Underdog Boxing: Floyd Mayweather is winning the war of public perception

We have to give Floyd Mayweather’s team credit. They were able to convince Justice of the Peace Melissa Saragosa to move his jail term from January to June. After Mayweather was sentenced to a 90 day incarceration, the boxing world agreed that this was the biggest hurdle to making the dream fight between Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao. Now that Mayweather will be a free man at least until June, people expected the fight to be made for May 5. However, the two camps still cannot seem to agree on the terms. Bob Arum said that the cut Pacquiao suffered in his fight against Juan Manuel Marquez still needs more time to heal. Arum also said that he prefers to hold a Mayweather-Pacquiao fight elsewhere as the 16,000 seating capacity of the MGM Grand Arena is too small for a fight of that magnitude. Arum’s reasons may have some truth in them but the problem is that boxing fans are seeing these as excuses. The boxing world has been waiting for this fight for so long. They are agitated. They want this fight as soon as possible. Mayweather’s team has done its part. They have made Mayweather available for May 5. The brash American has even personally called out Pacquiao through his Twitter account. The ball now is entirely on Pacquiao’s court. He has talked to a few writers saying that he wants the fight to happen. Some of the members of his team including Michael Koncz have echoed Pacquiap’s statement.  But what he needs to do is grant a TV interview and set the record straight. He needs to put the pressure on Arum to make the fight and he needs to do this now. Mayweather’s team has done a tremendous job of putting the pressure on Arum and Pacquiao. For so long, the media and boxing fans all over the world have felt that Mayweather was the one to blame for the failure to put together the biggest fight of our generation. But now they have totally reversed that perception. If Arum fails to reach out to Mayweather’s camp by next week, they will choose a different opponent for Mayweather and Arum will receive much of the blame for not making the fight happen. Pacquiao has already agreed to the random drug testing. He has even said that he’s willing to take the smaller purse. These two were the biggest hurdles in the earlier negotiations and these issues are all dead. If money if the issue, it’s really easy to solve. Arum said that they will make more money if the fight is held inside a bigger venue. This is correct. However, he fails to realize that they could make the fight for May 5 and then have a rematch come November. That’s more money for everybody. The entire world wins if Mayweather faces Pacquiao. The fight will generate a ton of money, insert new energy to the currently stale state of boxing, and bring old fans back to the sport. I don’t know what’s running in Mayweather’s head but he is making it appear that he is finally up for the challenge. The ball is on Pacquiao’s court. - OMG, GMA News