“And yall buy the sh*t caught up in the hype. ‘Cause a n*gga wear a coofie it don’t mean that he right. ‘Cause you don’t understand him it don’t mean that he nice. It just means you don’t understand all the bullsh*t that he writes. Is it “Oochie Wally-Wally” or is “One Mic”? Is it – “Black Girl Lost” or “Shorty” owe you for ice?
Jay-Z on Nas, circa 2002
Gimme a minute, I’ll get back to that. But last night, after copping a few tickets to catch Denzel Washington’s new action flick “The Equalizer”, I passed the little arcade section and just couldn’t pass up something. This particular theatre was offering the throwback game “Ms. Pacman”, and all it took was a punk ass .25 to play it.
This irritated the Mrs., who begged me to see this movie (a Denzel “classic” by the way), which prevented me from writing the very article you are reading now. But I couldn’t overlook the symbolism or eerie coincidence given what I’d encountered earlier. I get on social media as I’m loathe (yet still prone) to do, and come across a collage of photos with Manny Pacquiao on his ass and face courtesy of his biggest admirer Floyd Mayweather.
Floyd derisively referred to Manny as “Ms Pacman”, declaring the Filipino congressman and the sports’ only eight-division champion as basically “broke” and “desperate”. This is a similar theme he has played out for many years now in different ways, and it came on the heels of Pacquiao’s public statement about Floyd after it was revealed that many elements of his “All Access” show on Showtime is really fake.
Here was Pacquiao via Twitter the other day:
.@FloydMayweather’s testimony to the commission on All Access’ authenticity tells me everything I need to know about his desire to fight me.
10:58 AM – 24 Sep 2014
Sounds like a statement from a man to me. I’ll let you decide what Floyd’s was in response.
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As I’m playing “Ms. Pacman”, I’m imagining Pacquiao “running” from 4 opponents before deciding to get bold after gobbling some steroids that wouldn’t last very long. But this doesn’t seem consistent with something Pacquiao would ever do, something Floyd seems to now agree with as evidenced by his recent association with Alex Ariza.
This is the same man he accused of making Pacquiao superhuman for which he was sued successfully.
In the real-life game of “Ms. Pacman”, Pacquiao has been chasing 4 different versions of Floyd for 5 years now without any large power pellets on the board. If any version of Floyd was the monster capable of consuming “Pac-Man” as he says he is – then he would’ve by now.
The saying goes: “If you can’t beat em – join em.” Now most people in the streets where I’m from view this saying a little differently. We used to say: “If you can’t join em, beat em”.
Since I know Floyd is a fan of Hip-Hop and comes from the same streets that I do, let’s take this to Hip Hop. There was a time when Jay-Z and Nas were the apex titans in the game, and they correctly went at each other. But it’s important to understand that Jay-Z both started it and he finished it. I was and I am – a fan of Nas. We share the exact same birthday. Nas, who responded by poisoning the soul of Jay-Z with the Hip-Hop classic “Ether”, eventually relented under the weight of Jay’s work to the point where he actually wound up signing him to a Def Jam contract.
All Jay-Z then did was bury him.
We know that Floyd is nothing like Jay-Z no more than Manny is anything like Nas. Yet he’s tried to act like Jay-Z, while doing nothing to offset the Nas-like “ether” Pacquiao has poured down his throat in challenging him publicly. We know that Floyd “owns” Filthy Rich Records, a record label which has produced “zero” hit records or even a copper selling recording artist. We know that Floyd “owns” TMT promotions, but that there are “zero” well known “B” fighters signed to TMT – let alone “A” level fighters. Sooooo… Why would Pacquiao accept offers over a phone with Mayweather. Why exactly would Pacquiao leave Top Rank and sign with TMT to earn a fight with Mayweather?
… … …
[Cricktets]
Oh. I see.
THE ORIGINS OF BEEF
People seem to forget that it was Mayweather who gave birth to this fight and has kept it on life support while not wanting to feed it. Jealous of Pacquiao’s universal recognition as the world’s best, it was he who came out of “retirement” to launch his “comeback” on the platform of Pacquiao vs. Hatton in Spring 2009. Floyd only fought Juan Manual Marquez to upstage Pacquiao. He cheated him on the scale while bringing Marquez up 2 divisions in his first foray at 147lbs.
Considering all variables, stylistically, the counterpunching Marquez was as made for Floyd in September 2009, as Oscar De La Hoya was for Manny in late 2008. Floyd’s win over Marquez was dramatically trumped by Pacquiao’s most complete overall performance in his destruction of Miguel Cotto in late 2009.
Floyd had already seen Pacquiao’s annihilation of Ricky Hatton with his father in the corner, and when he fought Shane Mosley in May 2010, he was competing against Pacquiao as much as he was competing against Mosley. Floyd never liked the idea of Pacquiao being regarded as the #1 pound for pound fighter in the sport, and was eager to prove he was better without actually fighting him.
How do I know this?
When they ended negotiations for the fight the first time, everything was pretty much agreed to. Floyd actually wanted the fight to take place at 154lbs with 10 ounce gloves. Pacquiao didn’t want to do it – but he agreed. This is after he gave up entering the ring last, had his name placed 2nd on the marquee after Floyd, and of course, after agreeing to the Olympic blood testing arrangement. Today, we now know that this was all bullsh*t, and nothing more than a ploy to avoid fighting him.
Both Al Haymon and Leonard Ellerbe were in agreement for the March 2010 fight to take place, just four months after Pacquiao faced Cotto. Floyd, and namely his father, simply didn’t think they could win and didn’t want the fight.
To mock Mayweather, Pacquiao kept the date by beating up what was essentially a middleweight in Joshua Clottey. He then watched a very muscular Floyd survive nearly being knocked out by Mosley and then white wash him the rest of the way. I believe Floyd was shook to the core by Mosley, and then, by Pacquiao’s brutal bludgeoning of a super-middleweight Antonio Margarito, whom everyone knows Floyd feared.
Pacquiao foolishly weighed 144lbs that night, and discarded Alex Ariza’s program in camp. Again, this was a direct result of trying to prove a point to Mayweather. It then culminated with a more emphatic beating of Mosley than Mayweather’s; which featured a one-punch knock down of Shane, afterwhich, Pacquiao appeared to lose interest in not only a Mayweather fight, but Boxing itself.
QUICK ANALYSIS OF LAST FEW FIGHTS…
Anything that’s happened from that time on while continuing on the subject of these two, has been more about Pacquiao’s desire to face and defeat his ultimate style challenges, and Floyd’s desire to skate on the road of least resistance while hoping Pacquiao would just go away.
I thought Mayweather looked bad against the aggressive southpaw Ortiz, in a fight I’ll always see as “fixed”. He was ordinary and hittable against an ordinary Cotto in 2012, before bringing his dad back in 2013 against Guerrero and Canelo Alvarez. He looked great in both. In beating Maidana over 24 rounds this year, he looked worn down in the first and somewhat diminished in the 2nd.
I thought Pacquiao looked better in defeat to Marquez in Dec. 2012 than he did in suspect victory in Nov. 2011. He trounced a Robert Garcia trained bruiser in the punishing Brandon Rios, and outclassed a world-class fighter in Timothy Bradley this past April to regain his WBO welterweight title.
PACQUIAO VS. MAYWEATHER: 2015 A.D.
If this fight does indeed take place in May 2015 as has been widely speculated, it will of course take place about 4 years after its death. At the very least, it should’ve taken place no later than May 2012 – when Floyd brought it back to life on the podium after the Ortiz farce.
To watch it in May 2015 would be like watching The Godfather III, after reading or hearing about the first 2 films never made while the actors took other roles. Boxing’s historical script has never been re-written or altogether avoided so blatantly before, and it is all Mayweather’s fault.
If you cannot see that this man has purposely and deliberately avoided Manny Pacquiao in a ring, then you also don’t know that he hasn’t avoided him outside of it. If they were to fight – finally – you would know why he did just that.
He can’t beat him.
Pacquiao will probably have a fairly difficult time with Chris Algieri for awhile, before breaking him down and recording his first KO victory since Miguel Cotto in 2009. Algieri has shown incredible stamina and fitness, durability, and some surprising intangibles. He’ll prepare Pacquiao for Mayweather in the same manner that Marcos Maidana made Floyd even more vulnerable for Pacquiao.
Mayweather has always been more about stealth and singular striking. He doesn’t want to throw in combination or punch with his opponent. Pacquiao would force him to do both, while attacking him from angles his orthodox defense isn’t designed to defend. He’d find himself getting chipped with shots cleanly in a way we’ve never seen before.
Pacquiao is no stranger to war or the occasional solid shot, which Floyd would catch him with, but he has nothing to really keep Manny off him. For the first time ever a few weeks ago, I saw Mayweather visibly tired while losing a fair amount of sharpness. His reflexes have diminished enough to leave him even more susceptible to Pacquiao’s arsenal – even as his own has diminished.
Both have lost speed, but Mayweather’s is more glaring, both in his hands and his feet, plus the 2 year age difference between them is now very apparent. Floyd’s skin has also thinned, as he’s likely to cut, swell and bleed. Pacquiao, a notoriously damaging puncher, would probably turn his face into something reminiscent of Meldrick Taylor’s after Julio Cesar Chavez got to him.
I believe the fight itself would follow a similar vein, as Floyd would win rounds but lose a lot of small wars in there. Pacquiao has always had better feet and bigger balls, and THAT is what would decide this fight in 2015. I can’t see any way Mayweather doesn’t get stopped.
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It’s hard to call someone who’s won 47 consecutive fights (and one of the greatest boxers to have ever lived) a coward. But that is exactly what Mayweather has been in his history with Manny Pacquiao. History will – and can – conclude the same thing. As of right now he’s 47 and “Oh”, because all anyone wants to talk about is who he hasn’t or won’t fight.
It is a thorn in his side it is one the public has placed there, and he resents Pacquiao for that. But its far deeper than that, which can explain his hatred of Pacquiao and I think I understand why.
All hatred really is, is a coward’s revenge for being intimidated. Thus “Pacquiao vs. Mayweather: 2015 A.D.” may never happen. Either that, or Jesus will return first.
