Frank Warren

So at last Floyd Mayweather has finally signed this week to face Shane Mosley on May 1 in Las Vegas.

No fight could be as big as Mayweather-Pacquiao right now, but Mayweather-Mosley is a more than decent match up.

Mosley may be 38 and hasn't fought since last January, but he's a former P4P number one with a very impressive CV.

He'd be a much bigger name if some of his promoters had really got behind him, and he's the kind of fighter that I would liked to have worked with.

When Mosley beat Oscar De La Hoya a decade ago he should have become a major name.

He appeared at Madison Square Garden in his next fight, but in the venue's theatre, rather than its main arena.

One problem for Mosley is that he's been tainted by the BALCO drugs scandal - although it's ironic that Mayweather doesn't mind fighting a confirmed drug cheat when his fight against Pacquiao fell through over dope testing.

The winner of Mayweather-Mosley should, logically, face the win of Pacquiao's fight with Joshua Clottey, which takes place in March.

There are some big fights on the horizon, and it's going to be interesting to see how UK television is going to broadcast them all.

Haye-Ruiz on 3^rd April is on Sky Pay-Per-View and Amir Khan's proposed fight on 15^th May against Juan Manuel Marquez is also likely to be only available to those who want to pay for it.

Whether Sky will gamble on making Mayweather-Mosley PPV as well remains to be seen, whilst Ricky Hatton was due to fight at the end of May, that maybe pushed back to June, but then you have the problem of the World Cup.

Talking of Hatton, he wanted Marquez as his comeback opponent, but it looks like Khan has beaten him to it.

I wonder what Ricky will think of that given that he and Khan are both promoted by Golden Boy.

For a while this week it looked as if Mayweather wouldn't put pen to paper to fight Mosley, and he wasn't the only boxer in a "will he, won't he" situation.

Meanwhile WBC super-middleweight champion Carl Froch was kicking up a fuss about having to go to Herning in Denmark to face Mikkel Kessler.

Froch wanted the fight in Copenhagen so British fans could get there, but once he'd made the decision to fight abroad, he couldn't really have much complaint about the venue.

And if the only way Kessler's promoters could pay Froch's purse was by staging the fight in Herning, but then that’s showbiz.

Every British fighter wants to fight in the UK, just like Sir Alex Ferguson and Arsene Wenger want home advantage in big games. But sometimes you've got to bite the bullet.

Our fighters have gone to far worse places over the years - I'm sure Herning is a walk in the park compared to South America - and Froch fought Jermain Taylor in the back of beyond in the States.

Just last week Brian Magee traveled to Denmark and beat Mads Larsen to win the European super-middleweight title.

Back in the day, Ken Buchanan went to Puerto Rico to win his world title, and his fans couldn't even watch the fight on television at home.

I remember taking Robin Reid when he won his WBC title in Italy Vincenzo Nardiello, Robin coped with the hostile reception really well.

From my experience of promoting in Copenhagen, the fans out there are some of the best in the world, and they really appreciate their boxing.

He should have just got on with it this week because he's now got a great chance of beating Kessler on April 17. The Dane looked awful in his last fight.

***

Barking UKIP candidate Frank Maloney kicked off his campaign to become an MP by misspelling "Britain" on his promotional posters.

If I lived in Barking (dangerous place that) PUKI wouldn't be getting my veto.

***

I've just signed new promotional deals with Nathan Cleverly and Kevin Mitchell, two of the country's most exciting young fighters. I'm hoping they'll both be world champions by the end of the year.

***

Manny Pacquiao has just been voted the American Boxing Writers' Association boxer of the year for the third time, putting him level with Muhammad Ali and Evander Holyfield.

***

The rematch the whole world wants to see has been announced - Roy Jones against Bernard Hopkins, nearly 20 years after they first fought. Hopkins is hanging in there, but Jones is an irrelevance. Who cares if they meet again.

***

This week Bob Arum said that wouldn't pass comment on whether or not Ricky Hatton should keep on fighting.

Tellingly though he said that if Hatton was his son, he'd tell him to quit. "Obviously Ricky's priority should be his health and safety," said Arum.

Team Hatton have parted company with yet another trainer Lee Beard, who is rumoured to have gone off to the States to work with Joan Guzman.

Coincidently Guzman - who I once promoted and took to a world title - had his second fight at MSG in 1997 on the same card that Ricky Hatton also had his US debut.

***

What a brain box! Light-Heavyweight Nathan Cleverly passed 4 more exams this week, including Mathematical Programming. Let’s hope he can work out his opponent on the 13^th Feb.