It wasn’t Manny Pacquiao, and it wasn’t Floyd Mayweather that got knocked out. It was the fans that got knocked out in this situation. From the first mention of the Manny Pacquiao collision with Floyd Mayweather, the fans got excited like I have not seen in a very long time. Then the negotiations started, and at first it appeared as if this fight may have gotten inked.
Both camps agreed on the weight. Both camps agreed on the ring size. Both camps agreed on the glove size, and both agreed on the money. Then things took a turn south when Mayweather demanded that Manny undergo Olympic style drug testing, and have to submit to random blood testing.
The fans took sides, and the lines were drawn. Following up this mess was a slander lawsuit launched by Manny Pacquiao for the several Mayweather allegations of illegal steroid use. This all but did in the big fight, leaving the fans beat up and tired.
Recently the examiner toured the local Jackson, Mississippi sports bars and got the fans thoughts on the breakdown of the big fight. We ran into Jack McKellen at Buffalo Wild Wings, an avid boxing fan and asked him who he thought was at fault for the loss of this fight, “I don’t know, I think both guys are stupid. Who would throw away 30 million dollars because of a few drops of blood?” Jack went on to say, ” I mean, if Manny is afraid of needles, then why all the tattoos?”
This is a fair question, a question that I posed to a Manny Pacquiao fan at Last Call bar in Jackson, MS. David Jones, a huge Pacquiao fan answered, “It’s not about needles. Yea, he doesn’t like them, but that’s not why he refused random testing. He accepted the blood tests, just not a day before the fight. He agreed to test the day after the fight. If he was using steroids, he would come up dirty the next day regardless. Mayweather was looking for a way out of this fight from the beginning, and he got it. Now he can kiss his millions goodbye, he’s an idiot.”
It’s clear both sides of the fence are disgusted by the entire ordeal. The fans are left with the black eye more so than the fighters are. Once again boxing figures out a way to tarnish it’s image.
