Officially Official: Floyd Mayweather vs. Juan Manuel Marquez Rescheduled for Sep. 19

Rib injuries, a postponement and whispers of slow ticket sales had become the stories, but boxing fans can take heart that Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Juan Manuel Marquez will finally be getting down to boxing each other this fall.

The date rumored to be in the works since the initial July date was pushed back was made official today, as Mayweather-Marquez will take place on Sep. 19 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.

With Mexican Independence Day taking place on Sep. 16 and Mexican fans accustomed to seeing Oscar De La Hoya in action around that time, the new weekend makes perfect sense. Some pundits have also pointed to the difficulty of selling a fight in the desert in the middle of the summer, and getting it out of the 100-plus degree heat has to be a relief for fans thinking about watching in person.

But was slow business at the gate at least partially responsible for the move (the official reason remains Floyd's rib cartilage injury)? Shane Mosley recently suggested it was, but the AP story contains a flat out denial by Golden Boy CEO Richard Schaefer. Both men have vested interests in their versions of the story, so the truth may be somewhere in-between.

This also means that fans hoping for a Mayweather-Manny Pacquiao clash will have to wait until spring of next year at the earliest. There was a school of thought that maybe Floyd would try to wriggle out of facing JMM to go for the truly huge money against Pac-Man, but that's dead now.

Assuming Mayweather defeats Marquez and Pacquiao finalizes plans to meet Miguel Cotto in November, we won't be seeing a Floyd-Manny bout until at least April 2010.

Posted by The Franchise