Floyd Mayweather Jnr’s father and namesake Floyd Snr was right after all.
The senior Floyd had gone on record that the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight wasn’t the right match-up and it won’t happen before the fight negotiations was even started for what many billed as the megafight of this century.
And by the looks of it, it won’t happen.
Not because Floyd Snr was right about his unfounded and unsupported allegations that Manny was and is into performance enhancing drugs.
Rather, he and his own son probably harbored many doubts about the latter’s ability to survive an onslaught of two-fisted lightning attacks from the Filipino champion, let alone score a win.
Like what I had said before, the manner with which the substantial issues in the fight contract was dispensed off easily was too good to be true.
When the Mayweathers, including their designated negotiators in the entity and person of Golden Boy Promotions and Richard Schaefer, demanded an Olympic-style drug testing, they effectively put in place a hurdle too high to negotiate.
It might just have been an innocent promotional gimmick to whet the appetite of boxing fans, but as the days and weeks came to pass, it became apparent that the drug-testing imbroglio was more than just a pre-fight hype.
The Mayweahters played the drug-testing card to the hilt.
But they may have overplayed their hands.
Manny and his camp saw their uncompromising and unrelenting attacks as affronts to the image of a great athlete and true sportsman that is the Filipino boxing champion.
Pacquiao struck back and filed defamation charges against the Mayweathers and several Dicks and Harrys who joined their spiteful tirades against the Filipino boxing hero.
Despite efforts to salvage the fight and resuscitate flickering hopes for it to push through with both parties agreeing to a third party mediation, the fight went nowhere and by all account is dead by now.
The public relations stint of the Mayweathers has backfired.
It did not only scuttle the March 13 mega-million fight, it also reinforced the image of Floyd Jnr as a great boxer who ducked competition within his league.
Come to think of it, Floyd wanted to reclaim the mythical pound for pound king title from Manny Pacquiao. He could have done so easily if the two boxers, considered the best in their generation, are fighting in separate weight classes.
But as it stood, both Floyd and Manny are now campaigning in the welterweight division with a just couple or so of pounds separating them.
The only way to prove either man’s point that they are the best was for them to square off inside the ring as what boxing fans and the world all over eagerly wanted them to.
But like the Mosleys, the Maragaritos and the Cottos before him, Pacquiao became a member of Floyd’s most avoided opponents.
Pacquiao, however, is a class above all the said fighters. And he would have been Mayweather’s redeeming act – win or lose.
Mayweather is walking away from a shot at glory.
Forget the crap about drug-testing. It was a non-issue and has no bearing at all as to who is the best between two Hall-of-Fame bound boxers.
For all the claims that the money fight goes through him, Mayweather turned his back to what potentially is the biggest grossing fight of all time.
Will the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight still push through in the future?
If it does not happen in March, I doubt if it ever will.
Mayweather blew this one. And he blew it big time.
