Top Rank promoter Bob Arum's deadline of 3 a.m. ET came and went Saturday morning with no response from Floyd Mayweather Jr. or his representatives about whether he would accept the terms of a deal for a Nov. 13 fight with Manny Pacquiao.
So there is no deal, Arum said, and he will begin negotiating another fight for the pound-for-pound king.
The two candidates are other fighters Arum promotes, disgraced former welterweight titlist Antonio Margarito, who remains unlicensed in the United States because of the scandal over his hand wraps before his knockout loss to Shane Mosley last year, or a rematch with Miguel Cotto, whom Pacquiao knocked out to win a welterweight title in November 2009
Those fights would take place at junior middleweight and give Pacquiao a chance to win a title in a record-extending eighth weight class.
He would either fight Cotto for the 154-pound belt he won from Yuri Foreman on June 5 or face Margarito for the belt vacated by Sergio Martinez after he moved up and won the middleweight championship in April.
But Arum did give Mayweather some wiggle room to still accept the deal. He said the deadline he imposed was only as it related to negotiating exclusively with the Mayweather camp.
"People have asked me does [the deadline] mean the Mayweather fight is dead," Arum said on a media conference call that began moments after the countdown clock on Top Rank's website struck zero. "Even though Mayweather hasn't responded by the deadline my answer is a simple one -- it's dead when we conclude a deal with an opponent for Manny to fight. ... And then we would look to do a fight with Floyd next year. In the interim, while this is going on, if Floyd suddenly emerged we would not be opposed to doing the fight. While these negotiations are going on [with Cotto and Margarito], if Floyd came to the table, that's the fight we want more than all others."
Not only did Arum leave the door open to Mayweather to still accept the fight in the next 10 days or so -- the length of time Arum figured it would take him to make a deal with Cotto or Margarito -- but he was also conciliatory toward a fighter he has had raging public feuds with since their promotional agreement ended on a sour note several years ago.
Rather than bash Mayweather for his silence and lack of response to the deadline and for not accepting the fight, Arum was soothing toward his nemesis.
"I am sure that there is a very, very good reason that Floyd Mayweather has for not committing to a fight at this time," Arum said. "I really, truly believe that. Now I am speculating, but one of the reasons could be the uncertainly regarding [uncle and trainer] Roger Mayweather. Roger Mayweather is scheduled before a court in Nevada regarding criminal charges. I know how Manny would feel if he had to go into a fight like this without the services of Freddie Roach."
Roger Mayweather is scheduled to go on trial early next month on a year-old battery charge that alleges he beat a female boxer he once trained. Mayweather has already served time for a previous assault charge -- during which time he missed one of his nephew's fights -- and faces a maximum 10-year sentence
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