It began with Floyd Mayweather claiming Manny Pacquiao is one the decline and is desperate to land a fight against him, even willing to lower his financial demands. It followed with Pacquiao saying once again that the only reason their fight isn’t happening is because Mayweather is ducking the challenge.

The busier man of the two, at the moment, is Pacquiao, preparing for his fight against Juan Manuel Marquez (their fourth encounter) that’ll take place on December 8 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. Most people are hoping that if he pulls out a win in this (which is far from a guarantee), it’ll finally pave the way for a fight against Floyd Mayweather, before it is actually too late.

Once Mayweather was released from prison the talks about his next fight were immediately buzzing, and obviously focusing on whether he’s ever going to get in the ring with Manny Pacquiao, as the two fighters edge closer and closer towards retirement. Again, there were no official talks, just numbers, figures and dates being thrown into the air. The 2013 year was talked about again and again by Bob Arum as the year it might finally happen. When Pacquiao and Marquez began promoting their fight, Pacquiao said he’s willing to go 45-55 in the revenue split to make it happen.

For Mayweather, that’s just a sign of weakness from a fighter who is way past his best, coming after a loss, desperate for one big payday. At least that’s how the undefeated recently released from prison fighter sees it.

In my opinion, Manny Pacquiao is desperate. He doesn’t make his own decisions, because Manny Pacquiao has a boss, his promoter Bom Arum, who makes his decisions. Once you take a loss and you’re on the decline… Listen, Manny Pacquiao, whether he got cheated or not, his stock drops enormously after taking a loss. No matter how you took a loss, you took a loss.

If that’s Mayweather’s reasoning, it means two things – he’s starting to feel like his old self again after staying rather quiet over the last few months regarding his plans and other things going on with his business, and that he simply doesn’t want to fight Pacquiao. Maybe he’s looking for more leverage when it comes to the business end of things, but that’ll only come if Pacquiao loses once again, this time without the judges having much to do with it.

Pacquiao? He just feels it’s the same old schtick from Mayweahter, coming up with yet another excuse not to make this fight happen – If the fight doesn’t happen, it’s not my fault. I’m not going to accuse him of being greedy or judge him. It’s hard to judge. It’s his title, it’s his life, but I believe he is avoiding me.

A lot less people care about whether this fight happens or not than they did a year ago. Too much dancing around the subject and eventually failing to make things happen just took the edge off of it. Mayweahter fought Cotto and went to jail, Pacquiao fought Bradley and lost in a huge stinker of a decision. It still doesn’t change the fact that his fight isn’t as hot as it should have been a year, two or three ago. Once again, it looks like Mayweather is the main reason of why it isn’t going to happen.

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