Floyd Mayweather Jr. has postponed his scheduled July 18th comeback fight against Juan Manuel Marquez after suffering a rib injury while training last week.

“I am extremely disappointed that this fight has to be postponed,” Mayweather said in a statement released by Golden Boy Promotions. “I was training very hard and looking forward to getting back in the ring on July 18th.”

Mayweather’s camp insist the fight will still happen in the near future but not until he is 100% healthy.

“It was very painful,” Golden Boy CEO Richard Schaefer said. “I don’t know the extent of it is, but he went to go see a doctor and he is in tremendous pain, so we have no choice but to postpone the fight. He obviously knows how dangerous of an opponent Marquez is and he wants to make sure he is in the best shape possible.

“We will find out more in the next few days as he goes and sees the doctor again. He definitely wants to fight and he wants to fight Marquez. He knows it’s a big fight. But at the same time, he knows he has to be in the best shape. He said, ‘Let’s see what dates are available and let’s postpone it.’ We want to make sure he is OK. Like he said when he came back at the press conference, this isn’t just for one fight. He wants to make sure he is perfectly healthy and ready to go.”

I have a feeling Mayweather is ducking Marquez to pursue a much bigger fight with pound for pound king Manny Pacquiao.