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PONTIAC -- HBO Sports president Ross Greenburg said his network must wait to receive some notification that Floyd Mayweather legally is in the clear to fight again before making any potential match involving him, but added that he has received no signals that the Grand Rapids native has any immediate interest in fighting at all.
Greenburg said he is "always" in contact with Mayweather's business adviser, Al Haymon, but that no future fight talks are in the works.
Mayweather faces four felony and four misdemeanor charges in Las Vegas, where he lives, stemming from a domestic-violence arrest in September. He faces up to 34 years in prison if convicted on all counts.
"We have to follow the lead of the Las Vegas authorities," Greenburg said. "We can't start scheduling fights until we're told it's a possibility. And I don't know what Floyd's thinking right now. It's really not for me to say.
"HBO will take it one step at a time and we obviously have not been approached about any imminent Floyd Mayweather fight while this is going on, and it's my understanding that they really want to resolve Las Vegas, and those issues, before they start putting together a fight. That's my understanding but you'd have to ask Al."
Haymon has a long-standing policy of not talking to the media.
Greenburg was here in conjunction with Saturday's junior welterweight unification fight between Devon Alexander and Timothy Bradley, which his network televised.
The winner steps up as a leading candidate to fight any of the top fighters at 140 or 147 pounds, including Mayweather.
"The winner of this fight could go in a number of directions," Greenburg said. "Obviously, Amir Khan is out there. I think the winner of this fight would be well-positioned to be an opponent for Floyd Mayweather down the road. So this is a star-power fight. Whoever emerges from this fight is a legitimate presence, not only at 140 pounds, but probably 147."
Notably absent from Greenburg's list was Manny Pacquiao, who is scheduled to fight Shane Mosley on May 7.
That fight will be televised by on pay-per-view by Showtime.
HBO has no interest in losing Pacquiao on a long-term basis, and Greenburg stressed that the Showtime agreement is only for one fight. But Showtime's revitalized attempt to challenge HBO's supremacy in televised boxing is seen as a potential competitive boon for the industry -- and a source of immediate concern for HBO.
Showtime last mounted such a challenge when Mike Tyson fought for the network. But when Tyson fizzled, Showtime had no backup plan.
"It's more a matter of establishing, over 35 years, a brand at HBO boxing, and I've been a part of it for 32 of those 35 years," Greenburg said. "This is not going to upset our positioning as the premier boxing network. That's what we've prided ourselves on and we continue to look for the best fighters in the world. If they're in the same division, we'll match them up. That's what the public expects of us and that's what we'll continue to do."
Alexander-Bradley was part of that plan, and the first unification fight between undefeated American fighters since Tyson defeated Grand Rapids' Tony Tucker for the undisputed heavyweight title in 1987.
Greenburg was architect of that tournament and held it together despite numerous withdrawals, including when Michael Spinks opted not to make a mandatory International Boxing Federation title defense against Tucker, in a tournament semifinal, in order to fight Gerry Cooney, and ostensibly to avoid a tightly held purse structure for what became a pay-per-view bout against Tyson.
Buster Douglas filled Spinks' spot, lost to Tucker in one semifinal, Tyson beat Pinklon Thomas in the other, and Tyson defeated Tucker on a 12-round decision.
"Boy, that's like an out-of-body experience, reminiscing about that," Greenburg said. "I was reminiscing with Don King today about the fights at the table, between Butch Lewis and Don King, when Michael Spinks was pulling out of the tournament and was afraid, in that context, of fighting Mike Tyson. He was focused on getting away from Tyson until he wanted to fight him. Those were extraordinary times. To think that those were two undefeated heavyweights going at it, I didn't even think about it until we were working on this fight."
The boxing world continues to wait for the Mayweather-Pacquiao proposal to be jump-started, and Greenburg said that "once everything is cleared up in Las Vegas, we look forward to Floyd coming back to the sport and doing what he does best."
"I think Floyd is a charismatic personality, in and out of the ring," Greenburg said. "He has some issues. When he gets them resolved, I hope that -- you know, he had a lot of years on the straight and narrow, he really did. He conducted himself well for a long time. So we'll just give him the benefit of the doubt and hopefully, after this resolves itself, he can move on and become the Floyd Mayweather that we knew from 2000 to 2010.
"This is a special, gifted athlete who jumped through the screen on 24/7, and continues to mesmerize the American public, both in and out of the ring, and we're looking forward to the day he steps back in."
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