By Rick Reeno

Former two division world champion Bernard Hopkins is not holding his breath on a Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Manny Pacquiao mega-fight taking place on May 2nd at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.

Mayweather has two fights remaining as part of his exclusive contract with CBS/Showtime. That agreement guarantees Mayweather a very significant amount of money per fight. Some speculate that number is around $30-32 million dollars.

Hopkins believes Mayweather-Pacquiao will possibly happen in the future, after Floyd's contract expires with Showtime. As the days and the weeks continue to pass, so does the likelihood of the fight taking place on Cinco De Mayo weekend - according to Hopkins, who is far from alone in that opinion. 

The Mayweather-Pacquiao negotiations continue, but there are still significant issues remaining. The fighters have yet to reach an agreement on all terms and Showtime has yet to reach an agreement with HBO, who have Pacquiao.

Hopkins is not expecting Mayweather to take an easy fight in place of Pacquiao. If the Pacquiao discussions fall apart, then Hopkins is predicting Mayweather will face British superstar Amir Khan or WBC middleweight champion Miguel Cotto.

"I think if Floyd Mayweather really wants to fight him, he would be announcing it right now. That's one side to look at it," Hopkins told BoxingScene.com.

"Khan, Cotto, Pacquiao - all three of those individuals that I mentioned, they are not coming and saying 'please give me a fight for $3 million dollars or $5 million dollars.' That was over with with the Maidana fight. That's not happening no more. The dead-end [for is next fight] is with the three guys I just mentioned - Cotto, Pacquiao and Khan."

"We got to hear something soon. I believe that he wants Pacquiao last. Nobody who loves money would walk away from $80 million dollars or however much he would make with all the bell and whistles. When someone has that mentality and loves money - they always want more. And I'm not saying if that's good or bad. But I don't think he wants Pacquiao right now, because it would be a bigger hit if they both win their next one, or the two fights that Floyd has on his contract."

"So I think if he can get Cotto [on May 2], and under the illusion that it's not us messing up, [then he will do it]. But I can tell you Rick they are not gonna fight. Do I know anything? No. I could be wrong. It's my gut feeling.  When next week comes.... This is a short month. If we start getting into the end of February and the start of March, people are not going to talk about him fighting Pacquiao. They are going to start asking 'well, who is he going to fight?'"

"A fight of that magnitude and you got less than 60 days to promote it? The fight with Maidana, they rushed [the promotion] and did that press conference late and that's why the pay-per-view numbers sucked. It wasn't what they wanted. This is not a regular fight. Doing a million [pay-per-view buys] is okay, but this is Floyd Mayweather and we want 1.5 million or 2 million, because [Showtime] got to pay out a big number guarantee."

"We know that if we don't hear something [soon], and I mean a press conference jumping off....I'm telling you that if you don't hear something by next Sunday - you are going to have to start writing about the next hot fight."