WBC MOVE MAKES PACQUIAO-MAYWEATHER FIGHT CLOSE TO REALITY

Right after Manny Pacquiao's November 24 win over Brandon Rios which earned him the WBO international welterweight title and garnered a PPV buyrate of only 500,000, speculation has been swirling around on who Pacquiao's next opponent will be.

According to Scott Christ of BadLeftHook, the Pacquiao's win over Rios didn't move the needle in the build-up, as the fight was Pacquiao's lowest buy rate since 2008. Pacquiao's fights are not just about the opponents or the gates, but also, and more importantly, about pay per view buys. There is not another fight where the boxing fans are itching to witness either in the stadium or on the hi-definitation PPV telecast -- Paquiao vs Mayweather fight.

The awaited dream match between Pacquiao and Mayweather has gotten an unexpected boost and may now be nearer to materialize than ever before. In a surprising move, the WBC has installed Pacquiao as its top contender of the welterweight division in its latest rankings replacing previous No. 1 Luis Abregu of Argentina. And guest what? Floyd Mayweather Jr is the current WBC welterweight champion.

According to Tempo's Nick Giongco, the inclusion of Pacquiao to the WBC welterweight class is so sudden since Paquiao wasn’t even rated in the last rankings that were released during the boxing body’s annual convention in Bangkok last month.

The WBC may be in the process of preparing for the much awaited megafight by making Pacquiao the number contender to Mayweather's throne.

It is also possible that Golden Boy Promotions, who promote all of Mayweather's fights, may have a hand in the rankings since it works closely with the WBC. Showtime, which has a TV contract with Mayweather, may also be working behind the scenes to make the Pacquiao-Mayweather fight possible.

Golden Boy Promotions CEO, Richard Schaefer, told BoxingScene.com that if Bob Arum, Top Rank’s CEO, wants Mayweather-Pacquiao, then make Top Rank should make Pacquiao available and Mayweather Promotions and Golden Boy Promotions will take care of everything.

On the other hand, Top Rank, which has a promotional contract with Pacquiao and works with Showtime's rival HBO, might be also working behind the scene to make the fight happen possibly in 2014.

Arum has announced during his interview with USA Today that his company was ready and willing to make Pacquiao-Mayweather showdown.

“We’ve announced we’re willing to make anything happen. Now somebody has got to contact us so we can sit down and explore how it can happen. Isn’t that the way normal people deal? You can’t wave a wand. I’ve said unequivocally, we’re ready to sit down and see if a deal can be reached,” Arum said.

Pacquiao-Mayweather is still the biggest money fight in the history of boxing that the world awaits.

WILL 'PACMAN' AND 'THE GHOST' FINALLY MEET IN THE BOXING RING?

The highly popular classic arcade game Pac-Man where the yellow pellet-eating creature try to evade the ghosts, may soon have its real-life counterpart when Filipino boxing hero Manny 'Pacman' Pacquiao battles American Robert 'The Ghost' Guerrero.

According to Joaquin Henson’s article of The Philippine Star, “The Ghost” has declared himself available to fight the “Pacman” and express his confidence that the match will be a PPV blockbuster. Guerrero said that neither of them will be running and believes the fans would want to see their fight.

“Neither of us will be running. Everyone knows the fight will have fireworks. And I do believe the fans would want to see us fight so they can make their own comparison. I come from a hard-working family and we know how hard it is to earn a dollar and to pay top dollar for a pay-per-view, you want to see an explosive fight. When Mayweather feels threatened, he gets on his bike and runs and when Manny feels threatened, he fights toe-to-toe and that’s why he’s loved world-wide,” Guerrero told the Star.

Pacquiao is currently shopping for an opponent for his next fight after his successful comeback fight where he demolished Brandon Rios in Macau more than two weeks ago. If the Mayweather fight cannot be made, Top Rank has floated the names of Juan Manuel Marquez, Timothy Bradley and Ruslan Provodnikov as Pacquiao's most likely opponents. Top Rank may add Guerrero up to the list.

Except for Marquez, Pacquiao has defeated more impressively Oscar De La Hoya (TKO 8), Ricky Hatton (KO 2), Miguel Cotto (TKO 12) and Shane Mosley (KD 3, UD 12) than Mayweather did (De La Hoya, SD 12; Hatton, TKO 10; Cotto, UD 12 and Mosley, UD 12). If again Pacquiao beats Guerrero more impressively than Mayweather where he beat Guerrero by unanimous decision last May 4 in Las Vegas, it will add additional pressure to Mayweather to finally fight Pacquiao.

Guerrero is rated WBC No. 8 welterweight while Pacquiao has been elevated by the WBC to No. 1 contender on its latest rankings. Mayweather is the current WBC welterweight champion.

Is Mayweather hyping up a future fight with Pacquiao with his memes?

Another social media post by Floyd Mayweather Jr goes viral after his “Manny Roach” photo and “Christmas card to the world” directed towards his nemesis Manny ‘Pacman’ Pacquiao.

Once again the undefeated American boxer mocked the Filipino boxing champ where he now dubbed as a "leftover" from his defeated opponent.

The posted photo shows Mayweather hits Pacquaio’s with a solid punch in the face that goes with the caption: "Juan Marquez ate Timothy Bradley's leftovers. Now you're telling me I got to eat Marquez's leftovers? Let me talk to the IRS about this..."

The photo is reaping more than 5,000 shares, close to 60,000 likes and nearly 10,000 comments on Facebook while nearly 3,000 retweeted it on Twitter.

Mayweather, on his first attack to Pacquiao, made a humorous meme where Pacquiao made the plea to fight him after Pacquiao was knocked out by Marquez, It gained almost 190,000 likes, nearly 33,000 shares and more than 20,000 comments on Facebook.
His “Manny Roach” photo with a caption: “Manny Pacquaio mixed with Freddie Roach. Meet my friend, Manny Roach” earned more than 100,000 likes, almost 7,000 shares and nearly 10,000 comments on Facebook.

All in all, by the numbers, Mayweather has earned almost 500,000 shares, likes and comments on his memes with Pacquiao on Facebook.

Is this a marketing genius on the part Mayweather in preparation for finally taking a fight with Pacquiao?