Pacquiao – Mayweather is off. I waited on wasting any time writing about the subject until I got official word on what the outcome would be, and I’m a bit surprised. I’m surprised Mayweather backed out, which he did. I’m not going to be bias, I’m not going to say who would win, because, I don’t know for sure – no one does. I thought it would happen for two reasons.
First, Mayweather, as he calls himself “Money” and carries around twenty grand on himself whenever there’s a camera around passed up a paycheck for at least fifty million dollars, that would turn into more, and I’m surprised because we all know Floyd needs the “Money” after his recent troubles with the IRS and before even fighting Marquez a lot of people thought it was for the money, yet, that’s not my beef with it. I always had Mayweather’s back when it was so easy not to, but he just ruined his place in history. When his name will come up in years to come and they talk about the “greatest” boxers and whatnot the subject that will come up will be “Floyd did not fight Manny” – plain and simple.
Riddick Bowe, former heavyweight champion, first person to beat Holyfield, first person to knock him out, in only two people who have knocked him out, retiring with a record of 42 wins and 1 loss, with Eddie Futch saying he could have been the best heavyweight of all time, he is remembered for one thing… he ducked Lennox Lewis. In Bowe’s “act” – holding the WBA, WBC, and IBF titles, his WBC mandatory was Lennox Lewis, a guy who knocked him out in the Olympics for the Gold Medal. In Bowe’s shot at redemption, a show of courage, giving the fans what they wanted, he instead took the WBC belt and threw it in a trashcan and said, “Lennox, if you want the belt, come get it, and you’ll be a trash picker.” There are a lot of cases where boxers drop titles to get a bigger, better, more challenging fight, and that is commendable, but Lennox Lewis was the biggest threat at the time, and no one bought, or would buy Bowe’s act, which I’m sure he is very sorry for doing. If he lost, he lost, he could get a rematch, maybe he would win – fact is, we’ll never know, he’ll never know, and he ducked him.
When this fight was announced I was very surprised that Floyd took it. I don’t think he had a choice, though, and now he is in a worse place. After taking off for over a year, and coming back and winning a decision over a lightweight that Manny Pacquaio and Chris John beat (at jr Lightweight and featherweight, respectively) Shane Mosley (this here gets odd, this will factor in the coming weeks) with Bernard Hopkins behind him, challenged Mayweather, in which he said, “I’ve been calling him out forever (a lie) he’s old and just trying to make a name for himself” – so Mosley took the high ground and signed to fight undefeated welter Andre Berto in a title unification fight, and Pacquaio knocked out Cotto and Margarito was suspended, yet just lost to Mosely, and Paul Williams was sick of no one wanting to fight him at welterweight, after beating Margarito, he went to Jr Middleweight and is now at Middlweight. And that pretty much sums up the Welterweight division. So everyone wanted to see this and Floyd was backed in a corner, see, Pacquiao does not need Mayweather, but Mayweather did need him. So they signed to fight.
If you heard of “ridiculous” demands on Manny’s part for the fight, that’s not true. Pacquiao, and let me be clear, when I mention any boxer’s name, I am also at the same time including their “camp” which includes promoter, trainer, advisor, ect. The stipulation was that this would be a welterweight fight, for a welterweight title, and the welterweight “weight” is 147, and if Mayweather came in over that, he would be fined “some kind of outrageous figure” for every pound over. This is not ridiculous. Not many people know this, but Floyd Mayweather hasn’t fought a welterweight since 2006 – Carlos Baldomir, who had 9 losses and 6 draws. Yeah. See, the Mayweather – Marquez fight was a “catch-weight” – not welterweight, and it would be fought at 145, which is very kind to Floyd, whereas Marquez was coming from 135. At the weight in, Floyd was 147. When given time to drop 2 pounds Floyd weighed in again at 147 and happily paid Marquez 600, 000 dollars. He never attempted to make that weight, he never trained for it, and he would have rather paid the penalty, because, see, Marquez could have refused the fight, but this is Pay Per View, and more money than Marquez would ever make before or after. This may bring you to the question, “Why is Mayweather ranked number 3 at Welterweight when he hasn’t fought one in close to 4 years?” This is where another story starts.
Bob Arum was the man. He was the biggest promoter and then came Don King. They battled, but did business together. Bob Arum, through most of his career handled De La Hoya, who later on with a lot of money, was able to start “Golden Boy Promotions.” Arum had Pacquiao, De La Hoya met Pac Man at a steakhouse with a duffel bag filled with cash, that Pacquiao took, then gave back, pledging his allegiance to “Top Rank” (Arum) – a war was going on for a while with that, after Manny broke on the scene destroying Barerra and beating him again later because team “Golden Boy” is… Oscar, Bernard Hopkins, Shane Mosley, and Marco Antonio Barerra.” The promotion is doing very well, and Oscar has made more money. This is where is crosses over, because throughout history “Ring” Magazine was known as “The Bible of Boxing.” And that would tell you the truth. Not anymore. If you open up Ring it will tell you Wladimir Klitschko is the heavyweight champ.
Not true, there is no heavyweight champ. More so, Oscar de la Hoya purchased Ring Magazine – he owns it. You may have read the “impartial” blog from Ring where Oscar implies that Manny did steroids – “I’ve felt the punches of” – blah, blah – “and Manny’s were the same, I’m not saying…” You just said it. Also, an interview with Floyd Sr., (convicted felon, along with Roger Mayweather, convicted felon, both failed boxers and not ever proven themselves as trainers – Roger may be going to serve jail time soon). Floyd Jr started as a pro when Floyd Sr was in prison, Floyd Sr before that got shot while holding Floyd Jr. – they never had a relationship, they don’t like each other, until the Marquez fight. Floyd Sr. and Roger don’t talk, maybe they do now) shows he blatantly accused Pacquaio taking anything he said he did and “juicing.” When the thing about Manny not wanting to get blood draw came up and we’ll get to that, Oscar found through tapes of 24/7 that Manny got blood drawn two weeks before he fought Ricky Hatton. While he was going thought the 24/7 series I wonder if he ran into the part where Floyd went on about how much he disliked Oscar. Who cares? Money is to be made, Golden Boy joined with “Mayweather Promotions” (which is as powerful as Floyd’s record label “Filthy Rich” – as powerful as my boxing promotion and record label which I have yet to name) to go up against Top Rank – with Floyd fighting Manny. Of course there’s going to be fighting and demands, but all in all, both parties want it. When it first came about the blood testing, I thought it was humorous, playing mind games.
All is fair with that. First off, I believe it was Floyd Sr.’s idea, although Floyd Jr went with it, when he asked for ridiculous testing that is done in the Olympics only for reasons of “comparing” blood because the Olympic games are spread out four years, and it is also true that blood tests can’t prove anything urine cannot, according to every boxing commission, especially Nevada, the one they were going to fight in, HGH is un-testable even in urine, and Manny never had an incident with testing positive for anything, if he was taking HGH, you would notice. However, it really baffles me that Oscar is not going to try to overturn his loss to Shane Mosley, because it came out that Shane Mosley, after sealed testament about Balco, lied to the public, because when the testimony came out, Mosley was in fact taking steroids, but… he’s with “Golden Boy” Lawsuits have been filed against Oscar, Richard Shaeffer, Floyd “Joy” Sinclair/Mayweather Sr., Roger “Black Mamba” Mayweather, Floyd jr., and I do not know who else.
In the end, Manny Pacquiao agreed to give blood two weeks before the fight, Mayweather demanded Olympic style, even though Manny also said after he would give blood right after, which would show you anything you need to know. Most likely, Pacquaio will be going up to Junior Middleweight to face 28-0 WBA champ Yuri Foreman, while Floyd is most likely going to fight Matthew Hatton, little brother of Ricky, who is worse than Ricky, has four losses, or Pauli Malignaggi who is a jr welterweight who got beat by Ricky Hatton and Cotto.
I was looking at a 2007 magazine, Floyd was “Welterweight Champ” (after beating Zab Judah and Carlos Baldomir) and under him were the names Cotto, Mosley, Margarito, Paul Williams, and at lightweight, Pacquiao. How he managed to not fight any of these 5 guys when he could have, and had an excuse for every one of them, and is now ranked number three at Welterweight really boggles my mind. I ask you not to look at race, Asian, African American, Caucasian, Hispanic – just look at the facts. It doesn’t matter what Floyd does now , it doesn’t matter what happens in the future, he cemented his status. Numbers don’t mean a thing in boxing, 40-0? Who did you beat? Jumping up in weight classes is nothing new, Pacquiao is a 7 division champ, Floyd is a 5 division, and Oscar is a 6 division champ. If you want to do some research, look at Roberto “Hands of Stone” Duran and the weights he jumped, and the power he took with him.
Robert Earle Stanton is a freelance writer, short fiction author and novelist.
Editors note: The views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of the camelclutchblog.com, other camelclutchblog.com contributors, or owners. These are the views of Robert Earle Stanton and only Robert Earle Stanton.
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Manny Pacquiao recently failed to negotiate a fight against the former Pound for Pound king Floyd Mayweather because of the random blood testing that the Mayweather camp wanted both fighters to take. Pacquiao was keen to accept the said test but should not be 12 days before the fight because it might weaken him, and Mayweather’s Camp didn’t accept those excuses, thus it paves way to Joshua Clottey.
Hey, someone wake up the Fraziers’ quickly! Clean up the Rocky statue and call Sylvester Stallone to come down and visit. Is Larry Holmes out there somewhere? Philadelphia is actually sending a fighter to a heavyweight title fight, although it is in Germany.
I got into boxing mostly because of my uncle and I have memories of being really young, my father and my uncle going to the Philadelphia Race Track to watch Close Circuit TV to see Michael Spinks fight Larry Holmes for the world title. The big one was Gerry Cooney vs Larry Holmes, unfortunately, due to race. I thought we came a long way from that time, but we’re not. This an article on Pacquaio – Mayweather, but it seems like it’s becoming a race thing, even though it’s an Asian man against an African American it turns out that “some” feel that Pacquaio is the “Great white Hope”which was Cooney’s role in that fight, a role (white) against a black champion. Holmes was a proven champion, and because of this hype, challenger Cooney got parody in the fight. The only time that’s ever happened. However, this was not the “Great white Hope.”
I love boxing. I love watching boxing. And yet again, the sport shoots itself in the foot by not giving the fans what they want.
The proposed Manny Pacquiao vs. Floyd Mayweather, Jr. fight has put boxing back into the 24-hour news cycle. I can’t think of a more anticipated fight since Mike Tyson fought Evander Holyfield. Unlike Tyson-Holyfield, a few drops of blood may be the difference between the Super Fight of the Century becoming a reality or a distant dream.
