Floyd Mayweather announces pacquiao fight contract date / pay per view payment procedures.

Mayweather: "I been told the boy May 5th is open. I told him May 5th is open... May 5th is the date. Sign the contract. Sign the contract. I'm waiting," the undefeated boxer said. "Now, I can't be sitting waiting all day, now. You want a fight, let's make it happen. May 5th! "I'm here. I'm waiting. What's going on? You said you a clean athlete, and you said you would take the tests and all that. Well, let's do it." Mayweather announced that his next fight will take place on May 5th at Las Vegas' MGM Grand. Who that will be remains to be seen ... but everyone wants him to fight Pac-Man. So far, there's no indication that talks are underway.

 Mayweather's camp claims Pacquiao's team isn't interested in beginning negotiations for the anticipated fight, but instead, is aiming for a fourth show-down with Juan Manual Marquez, who he defeated with a majority decision in early November. Mayweather recently spoke to FightHype.com and called out Pac-Man, saying he wants the contract signed so they can finally make it happen.

Right after obtaining a favorable ruling from a Nevada Court allowing him to start his prison term on June 1 instead of January 6 as ordered, unbeaten boxing champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. announced in a Twitter message to his millions of followers he is ready to face pound-for-pound king Manny Pacquiao. In his message, he said, "Manny Pacquiao I'm calling you out let's fight May 5th and give the world what they want to see," he tweeted. Mayweather later followed it up with another message, which reads, "My Jail Sentence was pushed back because the date was locked in. Step up Punk." On Wednesday, Mayweather said, "I’m ready to put my belt (World Boxing Council welterweight crown) up. What about you Manny Pacquiao? Let’s make history." Clearly, Mayweather was trying to dare Pacquiao to commit himself to a May 5 fight, a date he has originally reserved for his ring return at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nev. In a GMA-7 TV interview, Pacquiao responded to Mayweather's call saying, "If he agrees to a 50-50 (sharing), then the fight will push through."

 Obviously, purse sharing is still one of the issues that will have to be resolved. Earlier, Pacquiao was quoted to have said he was willing to take a lower share of the purse in order to make the fight happen and for all fight fans in the world to see and enjoy. Another contentious issue is the venue of the fight. Mayweather wants it at MGM Grand, which he has locked up for May 5 to coincide with a Cinco de Mayo Mexican independence day affair. On the other hand, Pacquiao's promoter, Bob Arum, who is in Manila to confer with Pacquiao on the choice of his next opponent, said MGM Grand is too small for the Pacquiao-Mayweather super fight.

  He said an additional revenue in terms of gate sales can be generated which he estimated at $50 million. The most important issue yet to be resolved is the timing of the fight. Mayweather wants the fight to take place on May 5, but Arum wants it by the end of May or early June. There seems to be no problem with end of May, as Mayweather would still be free until June 1 as per court ruling. Arum believes the court can extend for at least a week after the June 1 deadline for Mayweather to report to the county jail to serve his sentence. On the three main issues that Arum has raised (venue, date of fight and purse splits/guarantees), not one has been addressed by Mayweather and his handlers as of Saturday, Manila time. So far, Mayweather has dominated the Internet, print and broadcast media with his Twitter call-outs, creating a media firestorm out of his tweets—but nothing concrete has been done by his camp to address the issues necessary to formalize negotiations.

 After his series of Twitter posts, Mayweather told Ben Thompson of Fytehype that he is not interested in fighting anyone of his probable opponents which include Canelo Alvarez, Robert Guerrero and Miguel Cotto. He said he wants Pacquiao and no one else. Mayweather's recent interview by Fytehype's Ben Thompson can be viewed here. Fight fans say unless an official negotiation takes place, the Pacquiao-Mayweather fight is far from being made. For now, no one, not even Mayweather's adviser Leonard Ellerbe or Richard Schaefer of Golden Boy Promotions, have said that formal negotiations have indeed commenced. Meanwhile, Arum said he won't be able to announce who would be Pacquiao's next foe after their meeting Saturday, saying he will study Pacquiao's choice further when he returns to the U.S. after a week-long visit and meeting with the Filipino boxing star.


Pacman and Mosley fight: 1-5


The two fighters weighed in at the Garden Arena. It had all the energy of a bout -- and as many fans, with some 8,000 madly screaming supporters watching. Rap music rumbled as the place shook, but the noise will seem like murmurs compared to what we will hear shortly. Surprisingly enough, there were as many women as men present at the weigh-in.

Watch more videos and stay updated at VesIntel News.

Boxer Manny Pacquiao running for Governor, Talks on political future

After Manny Pacquiao scored a disputed split-decision win over Juan Manuel Marquez in their second fight in March 2008, the cries were strong -- not just from the Marquez camp but from much of boxing fandom -- for a third fight to finally settle the score.

But Pacquiao's promoter, Bob Arum, had other ideas. He was determined to match Pacquiao with lightweight beltholder David Diaz. It seemed a gratuitously defiant act: Yes, Diaz held a lightweight title, affording Pacquiao the opportunity to add a world title in a fifth weight class. But the Pacquiao-Marquez rematch sold 400,000 pay-per-views in the United States, a record for the lower weight classes, and there seemed no way a matchup with the solid but limited and little-known Diaz could possibly do better than that.

Arum, however, says he was mapping out a longer-term plan.

"I was beginning to feel what I had in Manny Pacquiao, basically because of the adoration from the Filipinos, whether in this country or elsewhere," Arum told reporters at the MGM Grand, where Pacquiao will finally meet Marquez for a third time this Saturday. "So I knew I had someone, like [Cassius] Clay, who, if I could only bring him to the attention of the general public, could be someone quite special."

Which, perhaps counterintuitively, is where Diaz came in.

"I realized the only way he could be special is if he fought higher-weight fights, if he fought guys like [Oscar] De La Hoya, like [Miguel] Cotto, like [Antonio] Margarito and not if he just limited himself to the fighters at 126 and 130 [pounds]," Arum said. "We luckily promoted David Diaz, who was a very good fighter, but nothing exceptional. And he lucked into a WBC lightweight title, and then he defended it against Erik Morales and barely eked out a win, and so I figured that that was the move. Even though it would [sell], which it did, [to] less homes than a third fight -- and it didn't do particularly well -- it wouldn't make it crazy when I could pull off the impossible and put him in with De La Hoya. As it was, after he beat Diaz, the Philippine Congress passed a resolution saying he shouldn't leave the country because he was going to get killed [by the much larger De La Hoya]. Can you imagine if he hadn't fought Diaz?"

Even so, Arum had second thoughts about the notion of putting in his young phenom with his former phenom, who had been fighting at junior middleweight and even middleweight -- more than 20 pounds higher than the weight at which Pacquiao was now campaigning -- since 2001.

"When the De La Hoya fight became possible, I had a big meeting -- I'll never forget it -- with Pacquiao in the suite at the Mandalay [Bay]," said Arum. "And I said: 'Manny, do you know what you're doing here? De La Hoya's so much bigger, so much stronger, you're liable to get hurt. There's a lot easier guys to fight. I'm telling you all of this because I want you to realize that maybe you shouldn't fight him.' And he got angry, and he said, 'I want to fight De La Hoya. I know I can beat him.' He looked at me with those steely eyes, and he really was sincere. It wasn't a question of the money or anything else. That's when I knew we had a helluva shot, and Freddie [Roach], who had trained Oscar, told us that Manny was going to beat Oscar. So we knew it internally, although Bruce [Trampler, Top Rank's Hall of Fame matchmaker], who knows fights, was leaning toward De La Hoya."

Of course, Pacquiao demolished De La Hoya in December 2008, sending the Golden Boy into retirement, and went on to defeat Ricky Hatton and Miguel Cotto before taking on larger-yet foes such as Joshua Clottey and Antonio Margarito. Arum admits that, in the aftermath of the Margarito fight, he realized matching the former flyweight with such relatively hefty opponents had to end.

"After he fought Margarito, when he told me how much he was hurting from those body shots -- to the public, it looked like a one-sided fight, but really, Margarito banged him around to the body, and the guy hurt him. He was in pain for a month. I thought, 'Am I crazy? I can't keep him fighting bigger guys all the time.' So he's in with Marquez now, and maybe down the road he'll fight Timothy Bradley, guys he matches up better with physically."

For that reason, Arum is dismissive of the notion of a matchup with middleweight champ Sergio Martinez, even if Martinez commits to weigh in at 150 and weigh no more than 164 on fight night. If Martinez and promoter Lou DiBella really want to make that fight, Arum says, he has an idea that is simultaneously novel and old school:

"Now, what I would say is, if you really want to fight Manny Pacquiao, you say you want to fight him at 150, let's go to a commission -- not necessarily this [Nevada] commission; maybe New York, maybe Texas -- and say, 'Both fighters want to do the fight and they want to go back to the old days and they want to do the weigh-in at noon on the day of the fight.' Once they do that, we can start talking."

As for the never-ending saga of the prospect of a bout with Floyd Mayweather Jr., Arum, naturally, puts the blame for the fight not being made solely on the man from Michigan.

"It's not a question of him making it difficult," Arum said of Mayweather. "He's making it impossible, because he's not making it. I thought to myself: 'OK, maybe he's got a point, even though I think it's baloney on this doping/drug test thing.' So Manny and I discussed it, and I said, 'Manny, even though they can, they're not going to go into the dressing room on the night of the fight to take blood, and if they do, let 'em take it from your ass, not your arm. So he said, 'OK, OK, no conditions.' None. And then [Mayweather]'s on [TV] this weekend, saying, 'I'll fight him, take the test.' What is he saying? And why doesn't the press take him up on it? How many times are we supposed to say that that is not an issue?"

Whether that fight does or does not happen, time for potential opponents is running out. Pacquiao's boxing career, says Arum, has a finite time remaining and a clear end date.

"Let me give you the political situation. He's now a Congressman from Sarangani. His term is up in 2013, when he will run for governor of Sarangani Province, and probably win," Arum said. "That's the end of boxing, because as a [Filipino] congressman -- like [U.S.] congressmen -- you don't work very hard. It's the truth! Some of them do, but how many days are they in session? Two days a week?

"But as a governor, it's different. As a governor, you've got to run the whole province; you're responsible for the water, the electricity, everything. So that's what he's going to concentrate on, and then in 2016, he's going to run for the Senate, which is a six-year term, and then in 2022 when he'll be over 40 years of age, that's the first time he's eligible to run for president. So that's a big, tough, political career to build up to, and he won't have time -- nor should he have time -- to spare coming over to the Wild Card, doing press conferences and so on."