The hunt is on for Pacquiao’s next foe

By Al S. Mendoza

 (My apologies for being absent last week. Unless one is impeached, there’s no acceptable reason to miss a piece here.  I’m sorry, indeed.)

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HOW would you describe the act of Melissa Saragosa?  Who is she by the way?

Saragosa postponed the jailing of Floyd Mayweather Jr. from January 6 to June 1.  She was the judge who sentenced Mayweather to a 90-day incarceration in Clark County, Las Vegas, Nevada.

The jailing of Mayweather was the result of Mayweather entering a guilty plea to a charge of domestic violence and harassment filed by his ex-girl friend in September 2010.

Without the guilty plea, Mayweather could have drawn as many as 34 years in prison for hitting his former live-in partner, harassing and threatening their two kids and stealing the cell phone of his own son, then 11 years old.

And this is the same Mayweather that Manny Pacquiao had accused of libel and defamation in 2010.

The case now pending in Las Vegas stemmed from Mayweather’s allegation that Pacquiao had used performance-enhancing drugs to bulk up and climb up to higher divisions.

Pacquiao began as a flyweight at 108 lb in 1996.  He is now a welterweight at 147 lb, the owner of an unprecedented eight world crowns in eight weight categories, including the 154-lb division he captured from Antonio Margarito in 2010.

Now back to Saragosa.

Why did Saragosa change her mind, in the process moving the date of Mayweather’s incarceration to June 1 from January 6.

“Because of Mayweather’s contractual obligation in May 5,” said Saragosa.

Mayweather had reserved a “May 5 fight” at the MGA Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.

But who he is going to fight in May remains unknown.

Pacquiao had been reported set to fight Mayweather in May 5 until that got aborted with the January 6 jailing of Mayweather.

The 90-day stint in the slam beginning January 6 would have disrupted Mayweather’s training – thus Saragosa’s rather unsolicited action of transferring the date of Mayweather’s jailing.

As a result, Pacquiao now faces four possible foes:  undefeated Tim Bradley, Lamont Peterson, Miguel Cotto and, yes, Juan Manuel Marquez.

Pacquiao had beaten Cotto by a 12th-round TKO in 2009 and Marquez by majority decision in November 2011.

As I was writing this, Bob Arum, Pacquiao’s American promoter, was en route to Manila to discuss fight plans.

Already, if a Pacquiao-Marquez IV should ensue at all, Pacquiao said he wants no less than “$28 million” for the fight.

And where would Floyd Mayweather Jr. be in the fight equation?

Maybe, Pacquiao would have him in either November or December.

Or, better yet, no Mayweather at all for the National Fist.

Let Floyd “The Fraud” rot in jail for his cureless disease of diarrhea in the mouth.

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