Not in the near future.
That’s what I honestly think about this potential matchup. For the second time, boxing fans lost a surefire classic fight. One that would have been as great as Sugar Ray Leonard vs. Roberto Duran, Ali vs. Foreman, and Mike Tyson vs. Holyfield. And there are, in my opinion, two factors to blame here…
1. Bob Arum’s deadline
Quite honestly, I sort of felt like my hopes, along with the hopes of boxing fans, have been falsely lifted by Top Rank’s head honcho. Bob Arum, along with Richard Schaefer and Golden Boy Promotions have all agreed to keep mum on their reopened negotiations to make the potential megafight of Pacquiao and Mayweather happen. Arum just couldn’t keep his mouth shut and kept sending small signals to the media that all is going well with the promotion, saying that both camps are reaching the final stages of negotiations and that the purse shares and most importantly, the blood test issue has already been resolved. He even went so far as to impose a countdown on Mayweather’s decision on Top Rank’s website. He must have forgotten that Floyd’s ego dictates that he won’t allow himself to be dictated upon, so obviously, no word came out of the Mayweather camp.
To be fair, the Mayweather camp did the right thing of keeping its silence, that alone would have kept the fans’ anticipation on stagnant grounds and not give us false hopes. Although it does prove what Mayweather’s real color is: Yellow. Which leads us to the second factor that also did not make the fight happen…
2. Floyd Mayweather Jr. is scared to lose.
There’s no other rational explanation as to why Floyd is still not keen on facing off against Pacquaio in the ring. Before his fight with Mosley and Manny’s fight with Clottey, he had valid reasons to back up his claim on why he doesn’t want to fight the Pacman through the blood tests. Manny, being superstitious, thumbed down the Olympic style blood testing because he believes if his blood is drawn mere days or even the night before the fight, it will render him weak, stating that this happened during his first encounter with Erik Morales (which Manny lost). Seeing an opportunity not to make the fight happen, the Mayweathers even attempted to taint Pacquiao’s demigod abilities in boxing by claiming that he was on the juice, that’s why he was not agreeing to the blood test and what could be the reason why he was not just beating his opponents, but destroying them, the recent ones in the form of Oscar Dela Hoya, Ricky Hatton and Miguel Cotto being naturally bigger than Manny. This led to Pacquaio filing a defamation suit against the Mayweathers, Oscar Dela Hoya and Golden Boy Promotions, making the fight possibility bleaker and further complicating the situation. Naturally, the fight negotiations died a horrible, horrible death and Pacquia0-Mayweather was shelved… for now.
After the Mosley fight, Pacquiao has already agreed to random blood tests, biting the bullet to finally get a chance to shut Floyd and his dad and uncle Roger’s mouths for good. Floyd, sensing himself being backed against the wall, told sports media that he now wants 60% of the purse and an overnight blood test. Again, Pacquiao agreed. As a desperation move, when Mayweather attended a charity event, he told media that he’d be taking at least a year off from boxing AGAIN. Nobody bought it of course, it was all drama. So Floyd used his last ace: Silence.
Simply put, Mayweather is a coward. When you claim to be the best in the sport, you have to back it up by fighting the best as well. This guy acts like he invented the sport, dictating rules after rules after rules of what should be done before anyone can fight him, and claims he is bigger than Muhammad Ali and Sugar Ray Robinson. Mayweather is indeed bigger than these legendary fighters, in trash talking. He worships his undefeated record too much and wouldn’t allow anyone to put a blemish on his immaculate W-L status. Now Pacquaio enters the picture and is labeled as the fighter with the greatest chance to shatter that undefeated record, the only warrior left for Mayweather to possibly beat and cement his self-proclaimed status as the number 1 pound-for-pound boxer in history. It could have been an epic battle, a clash of two distinctive styles, one wherein fans would be going all-out and screaming at the top of their lungs for their favorite boxer as he pummels his rival. But Floyd won’t have any of it. He’s scared, that’s all there is to it.
To top it all off, don’t expect to see this fight happen at all. Manny’s last fight is most likely going to be with that cheater Antonio Margarito (who doesn’t even deserve a fight with Pacquiao, they are aeons apart. That old fart Bob Arum is only after the green devil). When Manny retires and Floyd calls him out, then he has cemented his status not as the greatest fighter ever, but the greatest ducker and coward in the face of boxing.
UPDATE: As of press time, Floyd Mayweather has reportedly been seen hanging out with legendary boxing promoter Don King. Now, King is not role model material, but he makes fights happen. Could he be the missing key to making Pacquiao-Mayweather a reality in the near future??? Make this happen please!
August 17, 2010 at 12:59 am |
Great post, man. Money had all those millions in front of him and he just walks away. That is the sign of someone who doesn’t want any part of the Pacman.
Also, the recent fight between Chad Dawson, whom Mayweather called the best pure boxer in the sport, and the brawling Jean Pascal, may serve as a precursor to a possible Mayweather-Pacquiao fight. The slick boxer (Mayweather) who’s a light hitter, going against the power-punching brawler (Pacquiao), and the brawler just beating the daylights out of the boxer.
August 17, 2010 at 7:20 am |
it’s true that defense wins championships, but they are not going to work forever. someone is going to find a hole in that style and mayweather has never been truly hurt, his chin never been tested. he may have been hit by a sledgehammer punch by mosley, but he’s gonna be hit by a runaway train when pacquaio lands a clean shot on him.