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Will Floyd Mayweather Jr.’s next fight be on CBS?

Floyd Mayweather Jr. attends the 2015 Spike TV Guys Choice Awards at Sony Studios in Culver City on June 6.

Floyd Mayweather Jr. attends the 2015 Spike TV Guys Choice Awards at Sony Studios in Culver City on June 6.

(Richard Shotwell / Associated Press)
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They’re crunching numbers, chatting with advertisers, trying to establish a dollar figure that may persuade Floyd Mayweather Jr. to put his Sept. 12 fight on CBS.

Yes, after his $100-a-pop pay-per-view victory over Manny Pacquiao was panned for its inaction, unbeaten Mayweather (48-0) is seeking to make his bid to tie former heavyweight champion Rocky Marciano’s 49-0 record at retirement a free fight for viewers.

That’s good news for former welterweight world champion Andre Berto (30-3, 23 knockouts), whose stature in the sport makes him Mayweather’s most likely opponent choice for the possible CBS bout.

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Berto, a native of Haiti, overcame a career-threatening shoulder injury to defeat Riverside’s Josesito Lopez by sixth-round technical knockout in March in Ontario.

“I’m happy to be in the running for this fight and am definitely up for the challenge,” Berto said in a prepared statement emailed to reporters Tuesday. “I know it will be a great fight if it happens.”

A fight against England’s Amir Khan (31-3, 19 KOs), a more sophisticated boxer with a more decorated resume than Berto, is viewed internally at CBS/Showtime as a pay-per-view offering.

Mayweather has huddled this week with his powerful manager Al Haymon to discuss the situation, and officials familiar with it say they expect his decision “within the next week.”

Reports that CBS/Showtime is obligated to pay Mayweather $30 million-plus are a “myth,” one boxing official familiar with the deal said.

So, now, it’s a matter of assessing how much advertising revenue can be amassed for a special event on Sept. 12.

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Typically, according to television officials, ads for a Saturday night in September are sold months in advance. But there’s flexibility to bill differently for a special event.

And a Mayweather fight is certainly unique, given his standing as boxing’s all-time pay-per-view draw, months removed from the record 4.4 million pay-per-view buys ($400 million) the Pacquiao fight generated. Mayweather’s bouts against Saul “Canelo” Alvarez and Oscar De La Hoya rank second and third on the list of richest fights ever.

Mayweather’s ability to draw massive attention swiftly is also seen as one of the strongest factors to pursue the CBS idea, even if there’s less than nine weeks before the fight date.

The boxer is said to favor the idea of being on free TV, and he’s reviewing financial models of both scenarios, calculating what he can earn in a CBS fight versus what he could expect in pay-per-view revenue on Showtime, according to officials close to the situation.

While Haymon has placed bouts with his new Premier Boxing Champions organization on CBS, NBC and ABC/ESPN, a fight on network TV with a boxer of Mayweather’s magnitude would be rare and a throwback.

Each of Mayweather’s bouts since he beat De La Hoya by split-decision in 2007 have been on pay-per-view.

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Mike Tyson fought Buster Mathis on Fox on Dec. 16, 1995, in his second comeback bout following a prison stay.

Network television previously aired heavyweight title fights featuring major champions Larry Holmes, Muhammad Ali and Sugar Ray Leonard.

Follow Lance Pugmire on Twitter @latimespugmire

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