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Floyd Mayweather Jr will be getting rid of a lot of his legal woes by pleading guilty to reduced charges on several misdemeanors on Wednesday, which knocks down one of the repeated concerns about Mayweather fight Manny Pacquiao on May 5, if indeed each side is really serious about making the fight happen.
Top Rank promoter Bob Arum has been fond of bringing up Mayweather's impending court cases when giving reasons why Floyd and Manny Pacquiao didn't fight in 2011 and maybe can't in 2012, so this ends that whole thing. Arum knew better, of course -- it was just an excuse, something to say, and a way to point out that Mayweather had a lot of legal trouble on his plate. At no point did Arum likely believe Floyd Mayweather was going to serve jail time or anything of the sort; Mayweather fought Victor Ortiz on September 17 with all of this hanging over his head, and he wasn't going to miss a May 5 date either.
David Mayo of the Grand Rapids Press has more:
Mayweather faces a nominal fine and from two days to 18 months in jail, and it's a fair guess he expects to hear something much closer to minimum than maximum. ... Mayweather is the highest-earning athlete in the world when he decides to work, and there was tremendous pressure to make the heavy-handed charges vanish, brought to bear by industries that don't see many like him. He is from Grand Rapids, and often corrects those who say otherwise, but he lives in Las Vegas and plies his trade in a state with no income tax, and depleted state coffers, because of the suffering casino industry and depressed tourism climate.
Mayo also figures there may simply be nobody left for Floyd or Manny to fight but one another. Amir Khan lost. Canelo Alvarez is apparently moving on to another date. Juan Manuel Marquez is playing hardball for a fourth Pacquiao fight. Victor Ortiz and Andre Berto are busy with one another on February 11.
I think Mayo is right -- it's just time to do it. It's time for the fight to happen. It's not ideal, and frankly it isn't what it once could have been, but neither of them are getting younger or better, and the "safer" options aren't out there anymore.
Now that I've said that, and possibly gotten someone to think it really could happen this time, expect Pacquiao vs Timothy Bradley and Mayweather vs Lamont Peterson.