Ariza says Mayweather will not fight Pacquiao because of Arum

Alex Ariza, Manny Pacquiao’s former strength and conditioning coach who is now with Floyd Mayweather, feels that the mega-fight between the two boxing superstars will not happen.

“It's not going to happen. We're fighting May 2nd but it's not going to be Manny Pacquiao,” he said in an interview with Steve Angeles of ABS-CBN. “Hopefully eventually Bob Arum will blow away in the wind or whatever. As soon as we get rid of him, we can get it on.”

Pacquiao gave Mayweather’s camp until the end of January to sign the contract but a lot of impediments still remain.

In an interview with Lem Satterfield of Ring Magazine, Pacquiao’s adviser Michael Koncz admitted that they already looking at a Plan B in Amir Khan.

“I truly don’t believe that Floyd is going to step up to the plate and fight us because he doesn’t give two [expletive] about his fans,” Koncz told RingTV.com. “We’re not going to sit around waiting for him. We haven’t closed the door on it, but we’re not going to sit around waiting, so we’re looking at other options.

“That includes Amir. I’ve spoken to Amir on a couple of occasions, and Golden Boy has talked to him, too, I talked to Amir directly before [Golden Boy Promotions President] Oscar [De La Hoya] and [Top Rank CEO] Bob [Arum] got involved. We’re not going to sit around with our hands up our butts.”

Pacquiao last fought in November of 2014 in Macau where he successfully defended his WBO welterweight title against Chris Algieri. After that fight Pacquiao openly called out Mayweather. The Filipino fighter said he has agreed to all the terms of the contract and that he’s only waiting for the American’s signature.

“But just because we’re looking at other options doesn’t mean that we’ve slammed the door on Floyd either. But I’m not very optimistic that he’s going to step up to the plate. We’re going to fight in April or May, regardless of whether it’s Floyd or somebody else,” added Koncz.

“We’re not going to sit around and let our world revolve around Floyd waiting for him to make a decision. We hope that he does the right thing and gives the fans what they want and see who the No. 1 fighter is, pound-for-pound. But I think that the only way to force that fight is that the fans are going to have to force it. We can’t do any more.”