Mayweather vs Guerrero Won't Happen, Says Richard Schaefer

Dan Rafael of ESPN.com reports that Golden Boy's Richard Schaefer says a May 5 fight between Floyd Mayweather Jr and Robert Guerrero is not happening, so there's some relief.

Now get ready to something else that isn't very good, but will look better because it isn't Mayweather against Guerrero, a fight nobody wanted to see.

Mayweather (42-0, 26 KO) has that 48 hours for Manny Pacquiao to decide whether he wants the fight (he does, it won't happen), but most likely we'll see Floyd in with a Golden Boy guy. With Guerrero out, that leaves 21-year-old Canelo Alvarez as the leading candidate, or at least so it would seem. When Golden Boy named potential opponents recently, they had only Canelo and Guerrero on their list.

As for what I believe happened here, with Guerrero having been the top candidate all of two days ago, is Guerrero's name was floated out there in connection with the fight, the response came back overwhelmingly negative, and they chose to scrap the idea.

What about other possibilities?

Miguel Cotto (37-2, 30 KO) and Lamont Peterson (30-1-1, 15 KO) are promotional free agents, free to do what they wish, and both want paydays. Cotto, 31, remains loyal in his heart to Top Rank, Bob Arum, and Todd duBoef, and he may indeed be the lead candidate to face Manny Pacquiao in June, which would give him less reason to actively seek the Mayweather fight. He would probably make more to fight Pacquiao than he would Mayweather.

Peterson, 27, is supposedly in the discussion to face Pacquiao, but he's a distant fourth option. Basically, Top Rank would have to whiff on Cotto, Juan Manuel Marquez and Timothy Bradley in order for Peterson to get the fight with Pacquiao, and that's not going to happen. Most likely at this point is Peterson wins up facing Amir Khan in a rematch this spring.

Pretty much everyone Golden Boy has between 140 and 154 is tied up too close to the May 5 date for Mayweather to fight them -- guys like Victor Ortiz, Erik Morales (oh god, this again), James Kirkland, Danny Garcia, Devon Alexander, and Marcos Maidana are all fighting between February 11 and March 24, so they're pretty much out of the discussion.

The options are limited. It looks for all the world like Canelo Alvarez will be getting this fight, or at least has to be the new strong front-runner.