BY JUN MEDINA SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

LOS ANGELES: Manny “PacMan” Pacquiao on Tuesday welcomed reports that Floyd Mayweather Jr. was ready for a big-money fight with the newly crowned World Boxing Organization (WBO) welterweight champion, saying: “OK, let’s do it.”

The USA Today newspaper reported that Mayweather would begin negotiations on a mega-blockbuster fight within the next 24 hours.

The 30-year-old Pacquiao said his job as a boxer was to fight and he would fight anyone his promoter Bob Arum puts in the ring with him—despite his mother’s wish that he retire from prizefighting.
Pacquiao said he was to fly back to Manila this week to take a break and spend time with his family.

Pacquiao, who solidified his status as the best boxer in the world pound-for-pound after stopping WBO title holder Miguel Cotto Saturday (Sunday in Manila), visited the Wild Card Gym owned by his trainer Freddie Roach in Hollywood to thank the gym staff and fans as he always do after every fight.

Earlier on Sunday in Las Vegas, Pacquaio put away Cotto in a 12th -round technical knockout. After a close first couple of rounds Pacquiao (50-3-2, 38 KOs) switched to his up-tempo style and pummeled Cotto for several rounds before the referee stepped in and stopped the one-sided slaughter.

Mayweather ready

The unbeaten Mayweather, 32 and former pound-for-pound kingpin, told British broadcaster Sky Sports that he was ready to fight Pacquiao.

“If he wants to fight Floyd Mayweather all he has to do is step up to the plate,” said Mayweather, who is nicknamed “Money,” in an interview posted in Sky Sports’ website.

Mayweather told USA Today on Monday (Tuesday in Manila) that he wants to fight Pacquiao, and that it disturbs him that the Filipino would not admit he wants the fight as well.

“Manny Pacquiao is the fighter, and every time someone asks him if he wants to fight me, he says it is up to his promoter, he’s going to take a vacation, whatever the answer is,” USA Today quoted Mayweather.

“I have yet to hear him actually say, ‘Yes I want to fight Mayweather.’ We are the fighters, and if one fighter is talking about fighting another fighter, then they should just come out and say it,” he said.
“Manny Pacquiao doesn’t say anything directly about fighting me, because he might just know it’s not a fight he can win,” he added.

Mayweather also said, “Tell Manny Pacquiao to be his own man and stop letting everyone, including his loudmouth trainer [Roach], talk for him.”

“I am my own boss, speak for myself and tell it like it is,” he added.

Negotiations to begin

Bob Arum, Pacquiao’s promoter, who also used to handle Mayweather until they had a falling out in 2005, said he would pursue a PacMan-Mayweather mega-fight even as he expressed his reluctance to deal with Mayweather’s manager Al Haymon.

“Maybe I prefer not to deal with him,” Arum said. “But if your fighter wants a fight, you deal. Mayweather is not one of my favorite people, and I’m sure I’m not one of his. What difference does that make?”
Arum said he would rather deal with Richard Schaeffer, chief executive officer of Golden Boy Promotions which packaged the Mayweather-Juan Manuel Marquez fight on September 19.

Ross Greenburg, the president of HBO Sports, said a spring showdown between Mayweather and Pacquiao was possible.

“The boxing pubic and the sporting public want this fight to happen,” he added. “There are a lot of egos involved, but at the end of the day, it’s going to come down to making the fight. It just has to happen,”

World’s top fighters

Both voted twice as The Ring magazine fighter of the year, Pacquiao and Mayweather are arguably the best fighters in the world today.

Pacquiao, who won a record seventh world title with his Cotto victory, has defeated top-flight opponents: Marquez, David Diaz, Oscar De La Hoya, Ricky Hatton and Cotto en route to winning four new world titles in less than two years.

Mayweather (40-0, 25 KOs) returned to boxing after a two-year hiatus, beating the over-matched world lightweight champion Marquez in September.

In his Sky Sports interview, Mayweather belittled Pacquiao as a “one-dimensional fighter” even as he acknowledged the Filipino would be a favorite with the crowd.

“The thing is with Pacquaio I don’t see any versatility as a fighter; he’s a good puncher, but just one-dimensional,” he said. “. . . Do you think he can beat Floyd Mayweather? Absolutely not.”
Roach said Pacquiao-Mayweather would be a huge event with the potential to be the biggest fight in the history of the sport.

When asked to comment on Mayweather’s claim that Pacquiao is a one-dimensional fighter, Roach said: “He’s the one who is one-dimensional; all he does is run, run, run. He is boring.”

Mid-year showdown

Roach said that realistically Pacquiao-Mayweather could be packaged no earlier than June or July, but Pacquiao have other options, like a third fight with Marquez or a title unification bout with the winner of the January match-up between Shane Mosley and Andre Berto.

Filipino sportsman Wakee Salud, Pacquiao’s close confidante, said he has no doubt that Pacquiao-Mayweather would happen.

“Mayweather came back for money and for Manny. This is the biggest fight in boxing, and I have no doubt it’s going to happen,” Salud said in an interview.
The Cebuano sportsman said Pacquiao would love to take on Mayweather any time, because the Filipino icon likes to fight the best.

But Filipino boxing scribe Hermie Rivera said Pacquiao “does not have to chase” Mayweather for that potentially lucrative fight because the Filipino boxer’s legacy was secure.

“Manny would be taking other pursuits, and if he gets elected in public office, it’s good bye boxing,” said Rivera, who now lives with his family in California.

WITH REPORT FROM AFP