Mayweather wants to retire with perfect record– Pacquiao wants to hand him first defeat
[BoxingGlove Notes]
The boxing lovers Manny “PacMan” Pacquiao and Floyd “Money” Mayweather, Jr. claim they want each other for their ring armageddon on Saturday, May 2, 2015 but, they have not worked out their purses as to who gets the bigger share of the revenue of this global event.
If you ask me it should be parity pay since they are both pound for pound ring icons.
It has already been agreed that the fistic clash should take place at the M.G.M. Grand & Casino, in Las Vegas, Nevada, but, the question is, when are they going to finally agree on everything else?
When the first fight was announced to take place on, June/ 2010, the boxing world and of course the fans were excited that at last these 2 giants of the squared circle were finally going to meet to settle the controversy as to who was the real pound per pound ring king.
The purse was an astronomical $40 million dollars each plus pay-per-view percentage which to, many fans was like hitting the Mega jackpot.
When all of the agreements were approved, Floyd Mayweather, Jr. suddenly refused to sign because he insisted that Manny Pacquiao take random drug testing all the way to fight time, which is exactly what Olympians are obligated to do; the U.S.A.D.A. anti-doping test.
A furious Pacquiao refused to take the test and the fight of the century was cancelled much to the disappointment of the boxing community. An angry Pacquiao stated, “How dare he accuse me of taking steroids, I am clean, I never cheated on any of my fights. I won all of my fights cleanly. Why is he attacking me and not his other opponents? I feel he is afraid of me”.
Cooler heads prevailed, and later on Pacquiao agreed to take the test but, only up until 3 weeks before the fight, which of course was not to Mayweather’s liking since he insisted that the drug testing should be conducted until the night of the fight.
Surprisingly, many people including some media agreed with Mayweather; but the question that I asked was, why didn’t Mayweather insist on this drug testing for all of his other opponents, and why just Pacquiao? I believed then and now, that Pacquiao was and is clean, and drug-free.
The fight was then cancelled and they both went their separate ways fighting other opponents.
Years later, facing a jail term for domestic abuse, Mayweather received a postponement of his 90 day jail sentence because he had contracted the M.G.M. Grand Hotel & Casino for a fight, on May 5, 2012.
Immediately he contacted Pacquiao, again exercising the upper hand in trying to force him to accept only $40 million dollars as his total pay for the mega fight. When Pacquiao again refused to accept his money terms, the negotiations were called off again. Mayweather then contracted a willing Miguel Cotto, whom he defeated.
After his release from jail, Floyd Mayweather signed a very lucrative mega million dollar 6-fights contract with ShowTime Cable; and now with 2 fights remaining, he is now under very heavy pressure to include Pacquiao in one of the 2, preferably the last one which will be his 49th, before he retires.
After defeating Chris Algieri November 23, 2014 in Macao, China, Pacquiao expressed the desire to fight Mayweather. “Just name the date and place and I’ll be there. It’s about time he stops hiding and finding excuses not to fight me”, he stated.
During a recent interview Mayweather responded to Pacquiao’s remarks by saying that “Yes, this has to happen, Pacquiao has been ducking me for too long, I want him now”.
Floyd further stated that the problem was the money, “He doesn’t deserve more than the $40 million dollars I am offering because he is not at my level; he has been knocked out 3 times and lost a decision, while I am still undefeated, and I’ll remain that way after I beat him.”
It has always been my understanding that the Promoter sets the terms of the fight, not the boxer.
The measure of success in the ring oft times is when a fighter comes back after a defeat like Pacquiao has done. Mayweather has yet to experience that since he has carefully selected his opponents, in his 47-0 ring career. Manny Pacquiao’s ring record of 57-5-2, 38 knockouts, does not make him a lesser fighter than Mayweather.
The pressure is on Mayweather to pick an opponent very soon, preferably, Pacquiao to generate the pay-per-view moneys that his recent fights have not.
Many fighters like Amir Khan, an upset winner over Devon Alexander, former 147 W.B.O. Champion, could be Mayweather’s next opponent or maybe Timothy Bradley who fought to a draw with Argentine knockout artist, Diego Chavez.
There are many other opponents willing to fight Mayweather but, in reality, they are not pay-per-view worthy. That is why Pacquiao is the best and only choice.
In the court of public opinion, it is Manny Pacquiao that the fans want as Floyd Mayweather’s next opponent, and time is running out for these 2, Pacquiao, is 35, and Mayweather, 37.
There is a possibility that this fight could be the highest money grossing fight, perhaps in the hundreds of millions of dollars worldwide, with each fighter pocketing a possible $80 million purse for himself.
Footnotes:
Is Floyd Mayweather’s new posture in wanting to fight Pacquiao a new “bluff”, since he has always created the excuses, money, steroids testing, retiring, and has always placed the blame on Top Rank’s promoter Bob Arum and Pacquiao? Only Mayweather knows.
Has Mayweather developed an intense personal hatred or jealousy of Pacquiao because he was named, “Fighter of the Decade”, 2000 to 2009, plus the modern day, “Hammerin’ Hank Armstrong”, and he wasn’t? If true, Mayweather should remember that at that time he was either retired or on his comeback to the ring wars.
There is speculation however, that Mayweather has never wanted to fight Pacquiao because he does not have the confidence that he could defeat him, since he has never wanted to fight a southpaw, and risk losing his “0” defeats status.
Manny Pacquiao is more than a southpaw, he is a powerful hard hitting wrecking machine in the ring; he fights from all angles and never tires. Perhaps that is what Mayweather fears most of all, going through a gauntlet of pain for 12 rounds or maybe less, and wind up losing.
Manny Pacquiao vs. Floyd Mayweather, has become one of boxing’s longest running soap operas of modern times. It is about time that we witness the last chapter.
Floyd Mayweather, Jr. has finally run out of excuses not to fight Manny Pacquiao especially since now it is Pacquiao who has been constantly calling him out, and calling him a coward.
If the Mayweather vs. Pacquiao fight is finally contracted, we will then have another problem. The long awaited championship match between Saul “El Canelo” Alvarez and Miguel Cotto, W.B.C. & Ring Magazine Middleweight Champion, is also scheduled for the same day, Saturday, May 2, 2015.
Two mega fights on the same day and maybe the same state, Las Vegas, Nevada. This is a promotional blunder and migraine for the organizers because no one will want to step back and accept another date.
How about Madison Square Garden in Manhattan, or the Barclays Arena in Brooklyn, N.Y.?
Black Star News readers, what do you think?
