Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao is OFF

As of right now, the fight that was tentatively scheduled to take place between Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao is not happening, and promotional organizations involved with the two fighters were already looking for other opponents to fight.

The issue of contention, as it has been for the last couple of weeks, has been Mayweather's insistence on regular and continuous blood testing for Pacquiao, who evolved into implications by Floyd that the Filipino was taking performance-enhancing drugs, which in turn led to a lawsuit for defamation that Pacquiao filed in Las Vegas on December 30.

Originally, Mayweather was demanding that the blood tests be administered at random, all the way to the day before the fight, if need be. To Pacquiao's credit, he had agreed to do three blood tests,which was already three more than would have been required by the Nevada State Athletic Commission.

He also consented to take them up to 24 days prior to the bout, a compromise after standing form at 30. The whole thing actually became the subject of a mediation, which took this thing from being part of a decent little publicity tool to sheer silliness.

Mayweather's people have suspicions about Pacquiao, and I'm sure they feel they have some justification for those suspicions. But they also don't have any evidence, or at least any that they have been able to bring to the table.

While the blood testing is something that can be part of a contractual arrangement and need not be governed by the requirements (or lack of same) on the part of any athletic commission, it is indeed unusual, and for such a thing to be the deal-killer, well, let's just say you can't blame fans who were eagerly anticipating this fight if they accused Mayweather of being afraid to face Pacquiao.

Still this is boxing, and if an agreement for the fight was ultimately reached, it wouldn't be the first time a fight had been called off, then put back on. The respective camps each seemed to have alternative bouts made. My understanding was that last night, Bob Arum, head of Top Rank, which is the promoter for Pacquiao, was seeking to make a deal to fight Yuri Foreman, who is the new WBA junior middleweight champion. That would constitute yet another division the Pac-Man was going to compete in, but there was no guarantee that Pacquiao would fight Foreman.

Mayweather's crew, which includes Oscar De La Hoya and Golden Boy Promotions, has a fall-back plan that may include Matthew Hatton, the brother of Ricky, and an opponent that even his former trainer says would be a complete mismatch. "Matthew would get a big payday and something to look back on but every time he threw a punch he’d be punished for it as he’s not in the same league as Floyd," says Billy Graham.

Other opponents that have been mentioned for Mayweather include Paul Malignaggi, who just beat Juan Diaz, and Paul Spadafora, the undefeated former IBF junior welterweight champ who has spent time in jail and is still undefeated. Timothy Bradley, the WBO's 140-pound champion, also wants to be in the mix for either Mayweather or Pacquiao. “I’d go up to 147 pounds to face any of these guys. And I’m a 140-pounder. I’ll do whatever it takes,” said Bradley.