Pac-Man gobblin’ ’em up

It’s hard to imagine a more impressive trifecta than the one Manny Pacquiao has pulled off in the past 11 months: making back-to-back-to-back victories over Oscar De La Hoya, Ricky Hatton and Miguel Cotto look like a walk in the park. The ease of those wins should not make us forget that many “experts” considered each of those such a dangerous exercise that they believed Pac-Man had finally overstepped his bounds - and remember, too, that the “tuneup” for that three-peat was a bout against Juan Manuel Marquez.

The widespread assumption is that the next step for Pacquiao is a 2010 fight for global supremacy against Floyd “Money” Mayweather Jr., but don’t hold your breath. Although at this point neither man needs the dough, there will be the customary wrangling over the division of the purse, but the bigger stumbling block may be Mayweather’s ego. Money can talk all he wants about repeatedly challenging himself, but the fact of the matter is Mayweather likes to have the deck stacked in his favor while presenting the illusion of competitiveness. Which is to say that he doesn’t get himself into fights he’s not absolutely certain he can win.

It’s probably worth noting that Pacquiao promoter Bob Arum said last week that, while he would not stand in the way of a Mayweather fight, if the choice were his and his alone the fight wouldn’t happen at all. . .