Busy boxing day, except for Mayweather-Pacquiao

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Richard Schaefer, the Los Angeles-based Golden Boy Promotions chief executive who’s arranged Floyd Mayweather Jr.‘s last three fights, was taking awhile to return my call. Was he making the much-anticipated Mayweather-Manny Pacquiao deal?

‘No, but I’ve never seen the interest in this fight,’ Schaefer said. ‘Everybody wants to know what’s happening. It’s amazing. This is something on a scale that’s beyond [Oscar] De La Hoya-Mayweather.’

That’s saying something, given that De La Hoya-Mayweather is the most lucrative fight ever.

Schaefer was, however, busy striking other deals Wednesday.

He said Huntington Park’s Israel Vazquez has signed to have a fourth fight with Mexico’s Rafael Marquez on Feb. 27 at Staples Center. The super-bantamweight champion Vazquez engaged in two fights of the year with Marquez, but endured more than a yearlong layoff after suffering a detached retina in the memorable third fight in March 2008.

Schaefer said Marquez’s promoter, Gary Shaw, and Showtime have expressed a strong willingness to make the fourth fight happen, and he expects it will.

Also, Schaefer said, he has received verbal instructions from both Ricky Hatton and Juan Manuel Marquez to pursue a fight that will pit them against each other next year at an open-air soccer stadium in Manchester, England.

‘Hatton wants to come back,’ Schaefer said, referring to the Englishman’s brutal second-round knockout loss to Pacquiao in May. ‘Marquez wants Pacquiao first, but he realizes this Mayweather-Pacquiao fight will probably happen first, so he told me he’s OK to fight Hatton, and willing to go to England.’

Lastly, Schaefer said, as long as Bernard Hopkins and Roy Jones Jr. win their tune-up fights next month, their rematch will occur March 13 in Las Vegas.

‘And Hopkins wants to move up to fight [heavyweight champ] David Haye if he wins,’ Schaefer said.

‘I told you I’ve had a busy day.’

-- Lance Pugmire