Bob Arum told ESPN.com this week that Floyd Mayweather Jr. has until Friday to decide if he'll face Manny Pacquiao in November, in what would arguably be the biggest fight of this era. However, if Mayweather opts against fighting Manny, Arum has other plans for his top fighter though he hopes that won't be the case.
"We're ready to go on with the Mayweather fight," Arum told ESPN.com, "but we have to make contingency plans just in case and I don't really want to talk about that too much. But Mayweather has until the end of the week. He could wait until the last minute. If it's Friday and it's 11 p.m., and he says we have a deal, we have a deal."
Arum pointed out that Top Rank needs as much time as possible to properly promote a fight of this magnitude and a decision needs to be made sooner rather than later.
"We're waiting on Floyd," Arum said. "He might not want to fight again this year. If he wants to say, 'See you next year,' there's always next year. But I don't think we can't wait much longer for him to make up his mind because if we do the fight we want to make it as big as we can make it, and that takes time. I think Floyd will give us the courtesy of a response one way or the other. What that response will be, I really don't know."
The Top Rank boss also stated that Miguel Cotto and Antonio Margarito are backup opponents though a fight with Margarito might be more difficult given the Nevada State Athletic Commission's recent stance on granting him a license.
Either of those two fights would likely take place at junior middleweight while Dallas Cowboys Stadium is being looked at as an option for the venue.
"We haven't heard back from Floyd yet and if we don't in the next few days, we will enter into a deal with one of the other fighters. Bob and I have spoken about both Cotto and Margarito. We will have a done deal and a signed contract for a fight by the end of this month, whoever it's against -- Mayweather, Cotto or Margarito," concluded Arum.
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