Something that people may be missing out on as to why Floyd Mayweather Jr. hasn’t made any comments about Manny Pacquiao willing to be tested at 14 days before a fight is that a fight between him and Pacquiao wouldn’t necessarily be the best money-making options for Floyd. Although the fight would likely be the biggest in history, it might not bring Mayweather the kind of money that he wants because he will likely have to cut the revenue with Pacquiao 50-50 in order to fight him.
In contrast, if Mayweather fights another opponent, he basically will get 90-10 revenue split and will be able to keep most of the money for the fight. Why fight Pacquiao for $40 million when Mayweather can fight a lesser fighter and get the same amount? Mayweather isn’t in this for the legacy. He wants the most money he can get without getting hit too much. If he has to give Pacquiao half of the money just to get a fight with him, it’s not really worth it.
And then when you throw in the problems of the random blood testing that Mayweather wants and Pacquiao really doesn’t, it seems much easier to skip the hassle and take on someone else who is willing to be tested randomly all the way up to the fight like Mayweather wants. Pacquiao has said recently that he’d be agreeable to being tested up until 14 days before their fight, but that’s still not a random blood test. Mayweather is going to want more than that, and it doesn’t sound like Pacquiao is willing to budge from his latest concession.
This is why I think the fight won’t get made. Pacquiao has limitations that make the fight basically undoable. If he was willing to be tested throughout like the way Mayweather wants, then I would give the fight a chance to be made. But it still wouldn’t be a really appealing fight for Mayweather because he would have to share more of the income with Pacquiao. Why share with a fighter that’s not willing to take the tests that you want? And all the other mess with Pacquiao suing him doesn’t help either. That has to be difficult to for Mayweather.
I think the fight can be made if Pacquiao and his team do a number of things. First of all, they need to agree to the full random blood testing all the way up the fight. Second, they need to agree to a smaller cut of the revenue. Third, Pacquiao should, in an offer of good faith, drop the defamation lawsuit against Mayweather. If Pacquiao does all those things, I can see the fight getting made with Mayweather. If Pacquiao does none of them, I don’t think there’s much if any chance of this fight getting put together. In that case, Pacquiao needs to start looking in another direction towards the next best opponent. There’s really no one popular right now in the welterweight division for him to fight. The same for the light middleweight division.
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