Don King expects ringside guest Saturday: Floyd Mayweather Jr. | The Fabulous Forum | Los Angeles Times

Boxing took another crazy turn Thursday, as an unexpected man emerged to possibly resuscitate the twice-failed talks to stage aFloyd Mayweather Jr.-Manny Pacquiaomega-fight:

Don King.

Yes, the big-haired, legendary promoter blamed for so many of boxing's ills has struck up a close friendship with Mayweather, feting him with a $500 lobster tail at a Boca Raton, Fla., restaurant last week, and reinforcing to the 41-0 fighter the kudos King believes he deserves to hear.

"Whatever Floyd wants, he gets," King told The Times on Thursday, adding he expected Mayweather to join him in St. Louis on Friday for the weigh-in of Saturday's junior-welterweight title fight between King fighterDevon AlexanderandAndriy Kotelnik, and to sit ringside with King in front of HBO cameras on Saturday.

"I'm just telling Floyd what he is, a bad sucker."

Pacquiao has already moved past the second round of failed talks with Mayweather to schedule a Nov. 13 super-welterweight fight againstAntonio Margarito, but if the mega-bout is ever going to occur, someone with the brashness and confidence of King might be the only man who can make it happen.

That's the opinion coming from Pacquiao's promoter,Bob Arum.

"King's the most persuasive guy I've ever met," Arum said."With enough time, he'll get this kid {Mayweather} to come over. Don's no fool. He knows how to make a fight."

Arum and King were once bitter rivals, but Arum has now come to dislike Golden Boy Promotions Chief ExecutiveRichard Schaefer, an advisor to Mayweather in negotiating recent fights. The first stage of talks with Pacquiao imploded when Mayweather's team insisted on random drug testing.

"If King were ever involved, it would give a real impetus to make this fight happen," Arum said."All those little details that have stopped us before, King doesn't give {a thing} about. All he cares about is the end result, making the most money possible."

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