by David P. Greisman

Despite Manny Pacquiao’s stunning knockout loss last year to Juan Manuel Marquez, World Boxing Council head Jose Sulaiman says a long-anticipated fight between Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather remains “the one that the world wants to see, more than any of the several other interesting fights that could be.”

“If, and only if, Floyd Mayweather retains his title against Guerrero, tough fight, on May 4 coming, and Manny also wins his next fight in Macau against any one picked, I invite them to put their egos and stubbornness aside, put on their gloves and jump into the ring to see who is the one that stays in heaven on a higher cloud than the other, as they both already live there,” he wrote in the Feb. 24 edition of his Hook to the Liver column.

Pacquiao is coming off two straight defeats — a controversial decision loss last year against Timothy Bradley, followed by the one-punch knockout at the right hand of Marquez.

“That J.M. Marquez defeated Manny for the first time in their four encounters - so what?” Sulaiman wrote. “Macho Camacho lost to Greg Haugen, but still fought against [Julio Cesar] Chavez in a fight after many years of threats among them, in the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, packed to the roof, and broke TV records in Mexico and Puerto Rico. After Haugen lost to Camacho in their rematch, he came to Mexico to fight J.C. Chavez to break the 300-year record of a live gate for a boxing match with 136,274 fans at the Aztec Stadium, breaking the Guinness record, perhaps forever.”

Of course, Mayweather holds the WBC’s world title at welterweight — and Sulaiman’s outfit gets a cut whenever that belt is defended.

David P. Greisman is a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. Follow David on Twitter @fightingwords2 or send questions/comments via email at fightingwords1@gmail.com