Make no mistake about it, should the Floyd Mayweather Jr-Manny Pacquiao megafight not go ahead on March 13 as planned there will be consequences. There will be consequences for the sport of boxing, consequences for the reputations of both boxers and consequences for both promoters. If they can’t sort this out, why would anyone buy anything from them again?
The present row – over blood tests, their frequency and timing – just strikes everyone with a sane mind as utterly pathetic. The richest fight of all time, worth a potential ?100 million to boxers, promoters and TV companies, and they are quibbling over a blood test.
The rights and wrongs of it matter not a jot. The sport is bigger than this group of egos. One would hope that either Mayweather or Pacquiao (left) would be happy to back down and act the bigger man.
Here is the latest in a seemingly endless stream of press releases and statements over recent days, this time from Pacquiao, seemingly incensed at the slur suggesting he could be on drugs (made by Mayweather’s dad, Floyd Sr, who, denied a real job in his son’s team, seems to have become their unofficial Muckspreader General).
“I can’t believe these guys can lie without batting an eyelash and they would even make it appear that I am the culprit for the delay of the fight and saying that I don’t want it to happen,” said Pacquiao in Tagalog, as he released part of the information that he has been keeping as proof that Mayweather Jr directly accused him of performance enhancement drugs use. “Liars go to hell. They should be man enough and own up to their words.”
I mean, who cares? No one really thinks that Pacquiao is on drugs. Yet it now seems to come down to a bit of hurt pride. I always assumed that those things were said to try and mess with Pacquiao’s head, it obviously has.
Now, if we believe the hard talk and the threats Pacquiao is going to fight Paulie Malignaggi and Mayweather might end up coming to Britain to face Matthew Hatton, thus completing an unlikely family double. Could you imagine a pair of more uninspiring fights? Malignaggi was beaten from pillar to post by Ricky Hatton, who was then knocked cold by Pacquiao. Matthew, while he has improved of late, is clearly the less talented Hatton brother and, let’s face it, no one wants to see Ricky have a rematch with Mayweather.
For an idea of how one-sided these fights are, I asked Ladbrokes to price them up. They made Mayweather a 1-50 favourite to beat Hatton Jr, who was a 10-1 shot, Pacquiao was regarded as a 1-33 shot to beat Malignaggi, who is a 9-1 shot.
So let’s make this really clear, instead of the biggest fight in history, we would be left with two bouts that, should you back the favourites in a double, you would get odds of 1-20. To put that into perspective, if you put ?10 on the double and both won, you would make a profit of 50p.
Personally, I think Mayweather (above) v Pacquiao will happen. If the disagreement over testing the fighters is an issue now, then it will be in the future. Surely there must be people in both camps who realise the dangers of letting the fans down. Surely it will not be too difficult to find some middle ground.
It has become usual for the names of Mayweather and Pacquiao to be mentioned alongside the greats of the sport, whether it is Ali, Robinson, Armstrong or Duran. But if this fight doesn’t happen, they can both forget that. They will then be remembered as two great boxers who, at the end of it all, were just a bit too thin-skinned.
