Is Bob Arum looking to protect Manny Pacquiao by avoiding a fight with Floyd Mayweather? (Photo via latimesblogs.latimes.com)

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BoxingScene.com spoke with Top Rank's Bob Arum, and the legendary promoter says he wants to see a fight between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Shane Mosley, and that 60-40 for Mayweather against Manny Pacquiao will not happen.

"60-40? That’s music to my ears. If I start hearing 60-40, that just tells me to hang up and move on to the next guy."

On Mayweather's guts:

"I think Cotto probably beats Mayweather. I think Manny probably beats Mayweather and I think Mosley beats Mayweather. I think Shane Mosley, because of his style, has the best chance to beat Mayweather. The fight that should be made is Mayweather and Shane Mosley. But Mayweather won’t take that fight. He won’t take any fight where there is any possibility where he might lose. Money is secondary with him. He will not take a chance like a normal fighter. He cares more about his legacy and being able to retire undefeated, so he could say that he never lost a fight."

Arum has long held this belief, and he's hardly alone. Mayweather claims to this day that Arum never allowed him to become the star he felt he could have been, and the star he has actually become since 2007. But Arum has said that Mayweather didn't have the balls to take the biggest fights out there. Like most things, the truth is likely somewhere in the middle. He rematched a Jose Luis Castillo who clearly had a chance at beating him, and many felt Mayweather would lose to Diego Corrales years ago, which of course he did not. Mayweather also went up to junior middleweight to take on Oscar de la Hoya, and there was a genuine chance he'd lose that fight, too.

To be honest, it kind of sounds like Arum is positioning himself to not sacrifice the Cotto-Pacquiao winner to Mayweather. You may well feel that the winner of that fight could or would beat Mayweather, and I think either of them would have a decent enough shot, but frankly I favor Floyd against either man, and pretty heavily. That's just my opinion, but I'm sure there are many who agree.

And unless Cotto-Pacquiao equals the Mayweather-Marquez buys, 60-40 Floyd is the split for Mayweather-Pacquiao, and it's hard to argue that that shouldn't be the split. That's just business, and Mayweather at this point drives a lot more of it in the States than Manny does. They have three common opponents, and Floyd has done better with all of them. Floyd-Oscar did 2.4 million, Oscar-Manny did 1.25. Floyd-Marquez did a million, Marquez-Manny II did about 400K. Floyd-Hatton outdrew Manny-Hatton, though that one was fairly close.

It's just going to be hard for Arum to sell Mayweather on the idea that he shouldn't be getting a bigger piece of the pie, and for some reason it smells fishy to me. Bob has to know that Mayweather is the bigger star and moneymaker. And why is he so keen on Mayweather-Mosley? Perhaps because he really does feel that Mosley has the best shot to beat Floyd, and then he can make a much easier deal with Golden Boy for Mosley against the Cotto-Pacquiao winner.