With less than a week for Floyd Mayweather to respond to the contract offered by Manny Pacquiao and his team, there is growing speculation that he is ready to walk away from the fight altogether.
Other options for a November opponent are being publicly looked into by Pacquiao and his team, and there has yet to be any word either way from Mayweather or Golden Boy regarding his plans.
Despite this though, it seems unlikely to say the least that Mayweather would simply make no response and let possibly the biggest fight of all time slip through his fingers.
If the terms of the contact offered were not to his liking, then surely he wouldn't have waited until now to cancel the fight. The war of words between himself, Golden Boy and Top Rank would already be raging in the media and accusations from both sides would be free flowing. As well as an expletive laden tirade or two from his father and uncle no doubt.
But that isn't the case, and his silence in this case means that he is at the very least still considering the fight.
Equally important to the fight is that Floyd Mayweather is an opportunist. At this stage of his career he fights only those who he can make a big pay day with and who stylistically he will do well against. Pacquiao fits both of these criteria perfectly.
He has had trouble with counter punchers in the past and leaves himself open too often at times. Not to mention he is the smaller man and has a shorter reach. It's a testament to Pacquiao's speed and ferocity that he the odds are fairly even for the fight, but to Floyd and his trainers, Manny is the perfect opponent.
As much as anything else though, assuming he does intend to fight again sooner or later, there just isn't anyone else out there who Floyd would want to fight that he could sell well against. None of the light welterweight stars are big enough draws just yet. Williams, Berto and the like are high danger low reward. Miguel Cotto has already been wrecked by Pacquiao.
The reality is that there might not be another peaking star for Mayweather to take on for several years. Meaning he can either risk his unbeaten record for less money against up and coming or larger fighters, or sit on the sidelines as his reflexes and skills inevitably erode.
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