It’s the fight everybody wants to see – but the Filipino has settled for Joshua Clottey in the meantime over a blood-testing squabble.
Las Vegas, September 19thand Floyd Mayweather Jr beats Juan Manuel Marquez by a unanimous decision as he celebrates a winning return to the ring.
November 14th, again in Las Vegas, and Manny Pacquiao stops Miguel Cotto in the twelfth round as he becomes a seven-weight, seven-time world champion.
The crowd at the MGM Grand that night applaud Pacquiao and his achievement, but their show of appreciation has other motives.
The Filipino has reaffirmed his status as the pound-for-pound king, but his victory over Cotto has set up, potentially, one of the greatest fights ever to grace the state of Nevada.
Pacquiao v Mayweather, Mayweather v Pacquiao, whatever way it is sold, is a fight that will put two genuinely great champions together to see who truly is the best around. It is also a clash that both fighters want.
Mayweather has been forced out of retirement to prove his quality as people begin to compare the two more frequently after Pacquiao destroyed Ricky Hatton inside two rounds.
Pacquiao’s win over Cotto was the last piece in the jigsaw to bring this epic encounter together.
However, like the child who doesn’t get the present he really wants at Christmas, disappointment has set in amongst fight fans as a dispute over blood testing has put the fight in serious doubt.
Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum announced the fight was off two days before Christmas, another reason for fight fans to take their frustrations out on the turkey.
Hopes of a turn around in negotiations were dealt a blow when it was announced Pacquiao’s next fight will be against Ghana’s Joshua Clottey, and not Mayweather.
Without being disrespectful to Clottey, this isn’t the fight that fans, and possibly Pacquiao, would have wanted. It’s like Chelsea resting players for a cup-tie v Walsall as they prepare for a game with Barcelona days later.
With the mood between the Mayweather and Pacquiao camps being more than frosty at present, the wait for the match-up could lead the whole deal to be called off.
Enough words have been said about this fight but the only way to resolve the issue would be for both men to get in the ring and attempt to knock each other out, although I’m sure both camps would have a better strategy than that.
After a year dominated by these two great fighters it would be a great way to start the new decade to announc that this fight is back on.
