What happens when you’re Ring Magazine’s #1 or #4 pound for pound best fighter in the world? You get a lot of attention, fame and publicity. With all of that of course comes criticism. After all, you can’t please everybody. And sadly, once you are perched that high up top, there’s also a lot of jealousy.
Take for example the case of the Philippines’ top two boxers Manny Pacquiao and Nonito Donaire Jr.
Pacquiao, who years ago used to be loved by everyone (including Mayweather – click here for proof) except for fans of the opponents he demolished which were predominantly Mexicans who incidentally make up a good percentage of his fan base now, is all of a sudden being painted as a villain through the vile verbal assaults of one insecure Floyd Mayweather Jr.
If you are a Mayweather fan, I advise you to look away unless you can handle the truth. Money is a great boxer, but his unsolicited attacks on Pacquiao since he was replaced by the Filipino slugger as the best fighter in the world simply shows his jealousy. Imagine if Kobe was talking smack about LeBron James for winning back-to-back MVPs. Just because you’re in boxing doesn’t mean you can’t be classy and that people can’t call a jerk a jerk. Money is acting like a jerk. It’s not a bias thing, I’m just calling what I’m seeing. When you’re there talking about another man’s failed marriage like Floyd’s cheap shots on Mosley, you definitely aren’t classy. Some people might like it and then there are others like respected African-American boxing trainer Nazeem Richardson who said he was ’embarrassed to be in the same race’ as Mayweather because of his antics, that don’t.
And don’t even pull the ‘I’m just selling this fight’ card because at the end of the day, he hasn’t even signed up to fight Pacquiao yet and that fight sells itself anyway just like how a LeBron-Kobe NBA Finals match-up would probably be one of the most watched NBA Finals series in history. All the talk, especially done excessively like Floyd has, really is just CHEAP. Mayweather might brag that he gets in the heads of his opponents, but one thing he can’t deny is that he can’t get Pacquiao off his head either. Even while Pac Man was out of sight campaigning in the Philippines for a seat in Congress, most of the hype around Mayweather’s fight against Mosley and Money’s comments and trash talk surrounded Pacquiao.
And now you got the case of Nonito Donaire Jr. who has been on the receiving end of Vic Darchinyan’s trash talk since he knocked out the naturalized Australian in 2007. Donaire might be a case of being too good, too soon, for his own good. The Darchinyan KO made him an instant household name. Donaire was still just a rising star, but with the respect and notoriety he received from that sensational victory, the best fighters around his division started having second thoughts about risking their records against a dangerous opponent. Call it the Pacquiao effect. Do you want to end up like Morales, Barrera and Marquez who all became stepping stones to Pacquiao’s ascension to the top?
Darchinyan on his part was not going to just sit and be labeled a stepping stone. But instead of fighting Donaire again, he opted to take less physical risk and just concentrated on verbally bashing him. Sounds familiar? For some reason, I’m craving some KFC.. I don’t know why.
From where I’m from, talk is cheap. If Maywaether and Darchiyan truly felt they can beat Pacquiao and Donaire so easily and that those two fighters are simply ‘one dimensional’ or ‘frauds’ as they claim, what’s stopping them from fighting? Why all the fuss? Maybe that’s why Floyd was with Reebok and not Nike. All he did was ‘Pump’ stuff up instead of following the slogan “Just do it”. Just fight!
Far as Donaire, he already beat the crap out of Darchiyan so he really has little to prove. The soft-spoken Pacquiao on his part was just minding his business when Money started his hate parade on him that has now evolved into a pseudo-drug cleansing crusade. Yea right. Who R U fooling? Not I. Perhaps the clueless mice listening to the Pied Pier, but those who’ve followed this from day one know what’s truly going on. One thing’s for sure, Mayweather would’ve been the laughing stock of boxing 3 decades ago with how he’s avoided the best and talk as if he’s the greatest. “Oh, how times have changed.”
