NEW YORK - Manny Pacquiao will begin negotiations with other potential opponents after Floyd Mayweather missed a deadline set by the Filipino fighter's promoter to make a megafight deal.

Promoter Bob Arum said on Saturday that Mayweather has another 10 days or so to make contact while he talks with other fighters such as Miguel Cotto and Antonio Margarito. Arum said the Mayweather fight is not dead but now he must start making plans for the Asian superstar's next bout.

"We now have to go out and secure an opponent for Manny Pacquiao assuming it won't be Floyd," Arum said.

"In the interim, while this was going on, if Floyd suddenly emerged and said he wanted to do the fight, there would be nothing opposed to getting together and doing the fight.

"The deal is dead when we reach a deal with an opponent for Manny's fight in November. Then we are contractually bound to do that fight and we would look hopefully to do a fight with Floyd next year."

"That is the fight that we want more than all others. There is no question about it."

Pacquiao, the reigning World Boxing Organization welterweight champion, rekindled hopes of a megafight showdown with unbeaten US star Mayweather in May by agreeing to blood test terms that scuttled a showdown.

Mayweather's uncle and trainer, Roger Mayweather, is facing criminal charges and Arum speculated that issue might have been a factor in the fighter not replying by the deadline Arum imposed.

"Floyd, for whatever reason, didn't want to commit," Arum said. "I'm sure there is a very good reason.

"Boxing fans are going to be disappointed but they have to cut Floyd Mayweather some slack. Floyd Mayweather is not saying he will not ever fight Manny Pacquiao. There is always next year."

Pacquiao, however, has commitments as well, including his new career as a congressman in the Philippines.

"He has legislative duties and commitments in the Philippines and I have really short windows to do various aspects of the promotion," Arum said.

"He will be training for the fight while being a congressman and he will have to fit his training into the legislative sessions."

Pacquiao, a 31-year-old southpaw, can seek an unprecedented eighth weight division world crown against Cotto, whom he stopped in the 12th round last November, in either Las Vegas or Texas, where "Pac-Man" defeated Ghana's Joshua Clottey by decision last March.

Arum said he has asked Nevada officials for a conditional license to allow the suspended Margarito to fight in Las Vegas. If rejected, Pacquiao would travel to the Mexican's homeland with the fight to be staged in Monterrey.

Former welterweight champion Margarito was suspended by California officials after a plaster-like substance was discovered in his handwraps before a bout in January of last year, one he eventually lost to Shane Mosley.

Agence France-Presse

(China Daily 07/19/2010 page23)