Floyd Mayweather Jr. has many things on his mind at the present after reportedly witnessing a murder-suicide via FaceTime, but Manny Pacquiao doesn't appear to be one of them.
Top Rank CEO Bob Arum, who promotes Pacquiao, has been loudly goading Mayweather for weeks about setting up a super fight, but Mayweather is apparently not taking the bait.
"It's hard for me to be so pessimistic because there's such optimism from our side, on the Pacquiao side," Arum said. "But as the silence becomes defining from the Mayweather side, I become less and less optimistic. I don't know what it'll take to get Mayweather in the ring with Pacquiao."
Pacquiao is coming off a lopsided victory over Chris Algieri in China, his third consecutive win since losing back-to-back losses in 2012. Despite his return to previous winning ways, Pacquiao's ability to carry mediocre pay-per-view matchups to big numbers seems to be waning.
The pay-per-view buys for his Algieri fight are rumored to be alarmingly low; while Mayweather's numbers for two fights against Marcos Maidana also failed to break one million, he can still claim to be the bigger draw.
The super fight would have ideally happened several years ago, when the two were unquestionably the top pound-for-pound fighters in boxing. Now both are believed to have declined-Pacquiao hasn't knocked an opponent out since 2009, while Mayweather remains elite, but has been hit more than usual in his two fights with Maidana.
Still, there aren't many interesting opponents on the horizon for Pacquiao and less for Floyd. Even fighters within the boxing community are calling for it.
"I think it should happen," Timothy Bradley said. "Right now is the perfect time because after Pacquiao's fight with (Juan Manuel) Marquez (in Dec. 2012), the fight with Mayweather kind of went down. But now Pacquiao is coming off two great wins, actually three great wins, myself included."
If they fail to fight, Golden Boy president Oscar De La Hoya will be working hard to insert Amir Khan into the mix to fight one of them, assuming he gets past Devon Alexander Saturday night.
"I'm pushing for a Pacquiao fight. And I'm also pushing for a Mayweather fight," De La Hoya said. "He is a devastating puncher, has tremendous speed and he knows how to use it. He pleases the fans. He's exciting. People want to watch him fight."
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