Arum and Schaefer ready to make it happen?

Top Rank Promotions CEO Bob Arum said that he is willing to negotiate with Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer regarding a bout between THE RING's No. 1-rated pound-for-pound, Manny Pacquiao, and RING No. 2-ranked pound-for-pound, Floyd Mayweather Jr., as well as an all-Mexican clash of unbeatens matching RING No. 5-rated middleweight Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. and RING No. 2-rated junior middleweight Saul "Canelo" Alvarez.

"You know, conversations are never bad. Conversations, that's what adults do," said Arum. "They discuss business and they don't do it through the media. They do it face to face."

Mayweather (42-0, 26 KOs), who turns 35 in February, announced last week that he will make the first defense of the WBC welterweight belt he won in September by stopping Victor Ortiz (29-3-2, 22 KOs) against an opponent to be determined on May 5 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.

Mayweather wants "to start from the top, and that's obviously a Mayweather-Pacquiao fight," said Schaefer. "But that's assuming that Bob Arum wants to get the fight done."

The 32-year-old Pacquiao (53-3-2, 38 KOs) has Saturday night's defense of his WBO welterweight belt at the MGM Grand against THE RING 's No. 5-rated pound-for-pound and RING lightweight champ Marquez Juan Manuel Marquez (53-5-1, 39 KOs), owner of the WBO and WBA belts.

The 25-year-old Chavez Jr. (43-0-1, 30 KOs) has defense of his WBC middleweight title against Peter Manfredo Jr. (37-6, 20 KOs) on Nov. 19, and the 21-year-old Alvarez (38-0-1, 28 KOs), one of his WBC junior middleweight belt opposite Kermit Cintron (33-4-1, 28 KOs) on Nov. 26.

When the smoke clears for Pacquiao, Chavez Jr. and Alvarez, Arum said that he would be ready to talk.

"Both guys, Manny and Chavez, have difficult fights coming up in the next couple of weeks, and if one or both are successful in winning those fights, then I would be very pleased to sit down and talk to Schaefer about those subjects," said Arum. "That's all very good, and I'm in favor of it, and that's all that I've got to say. I'm not going to comment any further."

Schaefer says he's ready.

"But we're not going to be talking about that this week. This week, of course, the focus is going to be on Pacquiao's next fight with Jan Manuel Marquez," said Schaefer. "But after that, there will be plenty of time to talk about that match up between Mayweather and Pacquiao."

Negotiations to make Mayweather-Pacquiao have failed twice over Mayweather's insistance on Olympic-style random drug testing.

Lem Satterfield can be reached at lemuel.satterfield@gmail.com