Walking through the Lakewood Mall this afternoon amidst last minute Christmas shoppers, I ran across a gentlemen wearing a shirt with the now familiar MP logo. Clearly a Manny Pacquiao fan, I quickly asked the man, “Do you think your fighter can beat Floyd Mayweather?” His answer was enthusiastic and confident, “I am sure he will beat his ass.”
Imagine that, two grown men, in a public place, discussing boxing. Had I been swept into a time wrap back into the 1950s? No, we were just two guys talking about the biggest fight in the last ten years.
A fight that had been created due to the demand of fans, across the globe. A fight that was seemingly locked and loaded for a March 13, 2010 delivery at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. A fight that had been so quickly and easily negotiated, that fans thought they had received a true Christmas gift from a sport that regularly fills stockings full of coal.
Of course as this complete stranger and I discussed Pacquiao’s challenge against Floyd Mayweather, we were unaware that the fight was unraveling at the seams. Mayweather’s demand that Pacquiao succumb to a more strenuous drug test used by United States Anti-Doping Agency caused the Filipino star to balk at the request, thus putting the bout’s probability into questions.
So why this demand of a drug test that goes above and beyond the urine analysis administered by the State of Nevada before and after boxing contests to test fighters for performance enhancing drugs? Because the idea that Manny Pacquiao is under the influence of performance enhancing drugs has risen to the consciousness of boxing fans.
As Pacquiao moved from featherweight into lightweight and then welterweight, he has left a path of destruction that has never been seen in boxing by a man jumping from division to division. In defeating David Diaz, Ricky Hatton, and Miguel Cotto, he knocked out all three men in convincing fashion. While some men drown in moving up to heavier divisions, Pacquiao has thrived.
And where do the origins of these speculations surrounding Pacquiao arise? Team Mayweather.
Remember back to April of this year, weeks before Pacquiao ruined Hatton? Does anyone remember Hatton’s one and done trainer Floyd Mayweather Senior running his mouth about Manny Pacquiao and the use of performance enhancing drugs?
There might have been murmurs about Pacquiao’s physique and weight gain before then, but Mayweather Senior is the man who put the idea in the headlines of boxing columns worldwide. And Floyd Senior has continued to stand by his opinion time and time again, through out the year, and even reiterating it on The Boxing Truth Radio a few weeks back.
So while the negotiations for Pacquiao – Mayweather hit a snag – I openly wonder if this was a mind game set into motion earlier this year by Team Mayweather in case they would ever have to face new pound for pound King Pacquiao?
Devious, yes. Speculation, yes. But we are talking boxing and you can never keep any conspiracy theory out of the realm of possibility.
Mayweather’s comments about Pacquiao and the use of performance enhancing drugs had spread through the boxing world, with other name figures chiming in as well. Now less than three months away from the date of a proposed fight, Team Mayweather has Team Pacquiao in very awkward position.
If Manny refuses to take the test and declines to fight, he will have the shadow of possibly using drugs lurking over his past and future triumphs. If Pacquiao agrees to the test, his routine will be thrown off, and the distraction of monitoring every single supplement and vitamin he takes will be put into the training camp’s mix.
Either way you look at, Mayweather has the upper-hand in this mental chess bout.
Was Team Mayweather savvy enough to lay the ground work for all of this over eight months ago via the mouth of one of boxing’s most outlandish figures? Impossible to prove, but an interesting angle to a fight the fans want to see and may eventually lose via the mouth of Floyd Mayweather Senior.
