Pacquiao-Mayweather is off – but money says it could soon be back on

Keep your diary open for May or late autumn for the bout promoter Bob Arum says Floyd Mayweather never wanted

The fight boxing craves to the point of obsession, between Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr, "is off". Again. For now. Maybe.

Bob Arum, not for the first time in recent weeks, and possibly not the last, has declared it so, this time after Mayweather rejected a compromise his negotiators put to him after talks in Santa Monica, California, before an independent mediator, the retired federal judge Daniel Weinstein.

"Mayweather never wanted it," Arum, Pacquiao's promoter, said. "Manny wanted the fight. He was agreeable to terms. The fight's off."

Now the odds are Mayweather will fight the New York light-welterweight Paulie Malignaggi – stopped by Ricky Hatton in November 2008, since when he has won twice and lost – on the original date of 13 March, either at the same venue, the MGM Grand, Las Vegas, or in his home town, New York, at Madison Square Garden.

Pacquiao, the WBO welterweight champion, prepares to challenge for a world title at his eighth weight, meanwhile, against the new light-middleweight title-holder Yuri Foreman at the Thomas and Mack Centre in Las Vegas on 20 March.

Arum promotes Foreman. Crocodiles have shed more convincing tears.

If it is "off", there is one certainty: it will not be long before it is very much "on" again, given there is $200m (£125m) riding on the promotion. Keep your diary open for May or late autumn.

Pacquiao said in a statement: "I am very disappointed that we could not make this fight for the fans." He said on his official website he was still angry over suggestions he was taking performance-enhancing drugs and would proceed with the writ for defamation he issued against Mayweather, his father, Floyd Sr, uncle Roger, as well as Richard Schaefer and Oscar De La Hoya, of Golden Boy Promotions.

There could be more legal complications in store for Golden Boy Promotions, who retain a share of Pacquiao's revenues because of a disputed contract with the fighter, who also signed with Arum's Top Rank company.

Arum told ESPN.com: "There's an arbitration which calls for them to lose any percentage of Manny's promotional contract, something we asked for and had postponed, but now will go forward."

Mayweather and his negotiators were not immediately available for comment. However, sources told the Los Angeles Times: "The fighters still have time to strike a deal before a 'business deadline'."

See that straw: clutch it – which has been the mantra of this tiresome saga since three days before Christmas, when Mayweather demanded Pacquiao submit to random blood tests in the 30 days before their bout.

It is understood Pacquiao agreed to take a blood test 24 days beforehand – as he did in the lead-up to knocking out Hatton spectacularly in May – as well as immediately after the fight. But Mayweather's negotiators, Schaefer of Golden Boy Promotions, and the fighter's representative, Al Hayman, said Mayweather would not accept the compromise.

"I always knew Mayweather would kill it," Arum said, "because he didn't want it. He didn't want to lose. The fight's off not because of us, not even because of Golden Boy. It's because of him personally.

"Mayweather's never stepped into the ring with a guy unless he knew he could beat him. That's why there's never been a fight with Shane Mosley, there's never been a [fight with] Antonio Margarito, there never was a Miguel Cotto.

"Mayweather is a coward. He will never fight anyone who will remotely give him a tough fight."

The voluble Malignaggi told Boxingscene.com: "I agree with Floyd Mayweather's decision. Pacquiao just left a $40m fight on the table because of a random drug test. Do you know how stupid that sounds?

"You can flip it any way you want, and in as many languages as you want, but it still comes down to Pacquiao allowed a $40m fight to go down the tubes because he wouldn't take a random drug test to prove he's clean.

"They can place the blame on whoever, but the fight hinged on this kind of test. If Pacquiao is allowed to juice, he beats Floyd. If Pacquiao is not allowed to juice, then Floyd beats the shit out of him and shows him what a real welterweight is like."

Although Malignaggi fights at 140lb, he does not lack ambition and his rant against Pacquiao sounded like a sales pitch for a fight against the much bigger Mayweather.

"Floyd is the best today," he continued, "and I'm ready and available, and I'll take any kind of drug test because I'm clean and I don't have anything to hide."

If he fights Mayweather, as now seems likely, it leaves Hatton's brother, Matthew, out in the cold after being named as an alternative for the unbeaten American in the event of the Pacquiao fight falling through.

And looking on in Manchester is Ricky Hatton, who once was in the mix, stopped by the two best fighters in the world and now contemplating a return to the ring. He must want to scratch that comeback itch very badly.

Olympic Tests Have Never Detected HGH in an Athlete: USADA Backs Urine
by Kevin Riley

The biggest fight in the history of boxing is in danger of not happening because Floyd Mayweather Jr. wants his opponent Manny Pacquiao to agree to random Olympic-style blood tests.

The only problem is that these random blood tests have never—yes that's right—never found Human Growth Hormone in any Olympic athlete that has ever been tested.

Interesting, huh?

Mayweather somehow believes that if his opponent Pacquiao who has never failed a drug test, refuses to take a test that has never caught anyone, then this fight can't happen.

How does this make sense? It doesn't. No wait, maybe Mayweather knows something the rest of us don't...no wait, maybe Mayweather is just trying to avoid the best fighter he has ever met.

But hold on, it gets even better.

Mayweather's camp has somehow wrangled the alliance of Travis Tygart, CEO of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, to try and spin this whole charade of events in their favor.

Tygart has told Yahoo Sports! that Pacquiao's resistance to submit to the blood tests "would provide a huge loophole for a cheater to step through and get away with cheating.”

Please explain yourself Mr. Tygart, how can a test that's never caught anybody possibly provide a "loophole" for a cheater to step through?

It seems like the test itself is a loophole.

And if you don't think this sequence of events can get even more interesting, it can.

Listen to this.

USADA announced last year that they were funding a company that has developed a test to detect HGH in urine. And Pacquiao, as everyone knows, has agreed to submit to as many random urine tests as the Mayweather camp would like.

Tygart even told USA Today last year that the developers, Ceres Nanosciences, "have developed an outstanding technology. And we're looking forward to helping them develop it further so it can have a practical use in anti-doping efforts."

Yesterday, Ceres Nanosciences launched the first release of that new technology, NanotrapTM ESP Particles.

These particles are designed to improve complex biofluid sample processing allowing for the detection of low-abundance proteins that would not otherwise be detected and also uses existing medical equipment.

What this means, simply, is that HGH use is now detectable through testing of urine samples and the breakthrough technology is officially ready to "Rock-and-Roll."

Now we'll find out if Mayweather is ready to do the same.

Pacquiao certainly is.*