PacquiaoMayweather fight out

MANNY “Pacman” Pacquiao and Floyd “Money” Mayweather Jr., the world’s top boxers, won’t fight in May and the chances of their fighting late this year are very slim.

Just weeks after raising hopes of pulling off the fight that people were clamoring for, Mayweather on Wednesday told the Nevada State Athletic Commission that he would fight World Boxing Association light middleweight champ Miguel Cotto on May 5.

Pacquiao, who is scheduled to return to the

ring in June, will instead defend his World Boxing Organization welterweight title against unified light welter champ Timothy Bradley on June 9, according to promoter Bob Arum of Top Rank.

“Manny will announce his decision this week,” said Arum, who promotes both Pacquiao and Bradley.

He said during a telephone interview on Wednesday night that Top Rank would go ahead with a minitournament involving PacquiaoBradley and Juan Manuel Marquez vs. Lamont Peterson, with the winners likely fighting each other in the last quarter of the year.

Under this scenario, Pacquiao could end up in a fourth fight against his archrival Marquez, who lost to the Filipino boxing icon via a controversial majority decision in November.

And if this scenario holds, the earliest Pacquiao could finally face Mayweather, if at all, would be next year.

Arum stressed that fact that Pacquiao has made known his readiness to fight Mayweather “anytime,” but only under parameters that are quite known to both sides at this point.

Pacquiao, the Hall of Fame promoter said, had readily accepted Mayweather’s challenge, made through Twitter and a personal telephone call for a title unification fight on just one condition: a 50- 50 revenue split.

Mayweather ( 42- 0, 26 by knockouts) announced his choice of Cotto ( 37- 2, 30 KOS) in the course of a hearing to obtain his boxing license in Nevada.

Cotto, who was promoted by Top Rank since the start of his career, became a free agent at the end of 2011 when his promotional contract expired.

He was actually the frontrunner to face Pacquiao in a June rematch, but negotiations fell through because of disagreements in fighting weight.

Pacquiao refused to fight above the 147- pound welterweight limit, while Cotto was only willing to go down to as low as 150 pounds.

The Filipino fighter stopped Cotto in the 12th round of their 2009 welterweight title bout, which was fought at a 145- pound catch weight.

And although he won the light