Pacquiao-Mayweather Bout: Mayweather Still Want Fight

While Floyd Mayweather Jr.’s camp believes his prospective bout with Manny Pacquiao can be saved, Pacquiao’s promoter says he’s moving on. After six weeks of contentious negotiations failed to produce a compromise on Mayweather’s insistence on stringent drug testing for the bout, Pacquiao has made plans to fight welterweight Joshua Clottey in mid-March, Top Rank boss Bob Arum told The Associated Press on Friday. Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer, who works with Mayweather, isn’t ready to give up. He’s worried Top Rank hasn’t told Pacquiao that the potential richest fight in boxing history could be saved if the Filipino star would agree to take a blood test for performance-enhancing drugs 14 days before the proposed March 13 bout — just 10 days later than Pacquiao already agreed. "I am hopeful that this fight can still happen," Schaefer told the AP. "No matter what, Floyd Mayweather will fight at the MGM Grand (in Las Vegas) on March 13. I hope the man across that ring will be Manny Pacquiao." Schaefer was angered when Arum came out of the camps’ mediation hearing Tuesday blaming Mayweather for the fight’s collapse, saying Mayweather wouldn’t agree to a final blood test 24 days before the bout. Schaefer claims Top Rank turned down a compromise of 14 days on New Year’s Eve, but he isn’t sure whether Pacquiao — who’s at home in the Philippines — was involved in that decision. Both fighters stand to make much more than $25 million apiece from the much-anticipated bout.