'Foolish it's not happening'

MANILA, Philippines - The great Angelo Dundee said it almost defies logic that Manny Pacquiao vs Floyd Mayweather Jr. is not happening at all.

“It’s foolish,” the 90-year-old Dundee told Michael Marley of The Examiner.

Dundee was at the 70th birthday bash of his favorite pupil and the greatest of them all, Muhammad Ali, last Saturday in Louisville when he talked about the greatest fight of this era.

Make that the greatest fight that just won’t happen.

Dundee said Pacquiao vs Mayweather should realize that the world can’t wait for them forever.

“They’re talking each fighter getting something like $40 million and they cannot come to terms?” said Dundee.

“I just don’t get it, that’s what boxing is all about, what Muhammad was all about. Muhammad did not run away from (Joe) Frazier or (George) Foreman, he ran to them even when everyone thought Big George was an unbeatable, unstoppable monster.”

Pacquiao and Mayweather are the two biggest stars of boxing today, and over the last two years talks of the superfight have remained just that: all talk.

Pacquiao said he wants Mayweather, and Mayweather said he wants Pacquiao, and therefore, Dundee hinted that there must be something wrong with the people behind them.

“I think both of these camps are making a mistake. They may be misreading the boxing public and it could cost them,” Dundee told Marley, who’s been around boxing just as long.

“That fight has been a hot topic, a fight the fans really want, for a long time, for a few years now. But the public can be fickle. Maybe some new fighter or fighters come along and catch the public interest.”

Dundee said there may come a time that the public may no longer care.

“Where does that leave Mayweather and Pacquiao? They need to sign the fight up and get it done,” said Dundee, who helped out Oscar dela Hoya in his 2008 dream match with Pacquiao.

Dundee said what’s important is for Pacquiao and Mayweather seal the fight as soon as possible, and get it done perhaps in May or June.

But not even that would guarantee the same public interest as today’s.

“Six months from now, maybe the public won’t care so much about them. That would be terrible but it’s a risk they are taking,” said Dundee.

“Again, I just think it’s stupid and it hurts the whole sport.”