Los Angeles – Last night Floyd Mayweather Junior once again silenced a long line of critics and naysayers with a one-sided victory over Shane Mosley.
One thought enters my mind when it comes to boxing Sunday morning in the after-math: the pound for pound best fighter in the world Manny Pacquiao has no where to run and no where to hide when it comes to a future fight with Mayweather.
The world wanted Pacquiao vs. Mayweather and nearly got it, until negotiations fell apart over an Olympic-style drug test and the timing of the proposed blood draws.
I fault Mayweather for bringing up the need for these tests with no sold proof of Pacquiao using performance enhancing drugs, tests which are not mandated by any sanctioning body or State commission in the United States, but I also damn Pacquiao for not agreeing to the tests and keeping one the fight from happening.
The fans and sport suffered when Pacquiao – Mayweather, potentially one of the biggest fights in the history of boxing, fell through.
There is a saying when it comes to athletes and potential drug use , “only cheaters don’t like drug tests.”
My attempt has been to keep neutral in the debate surrounding Mayweather and Pacquiao’s failed negotiation, but as the weeks have passed, I ask myself more and more, “Why did Pacquiao balk at a simple blood draw and walk away from the payday of his life?”
Some say Pacquiao will not allow his character to be put in question with the mere mention of a drug test. Other say Pacquiao does not like blood draws. The fighter’s team said they wanted the final pre-fight blood draw to be 24 days before the fight, while Mayweather wanted one two weeks before.
I left thinking, “what did Manny had to hide?”
Now the tension had been wrenched up even higher with Mayweather’s successful performance against Mosley: the world wants Mosley and Pacquiao even more.
There is no bigger fight for Floyd Mayweather or Manny Pacquiao. There is no bigger fight in boxing now, or for the foreseeable future. The fight would pit the best offensive fighter of our time battling the most skilled fighter of our time and bring boxing to back into the mainstream spotlight for several months as the affair builds up.
Yet Pacquiao and his promoter Bob Arum have been flirting with the idea of facing convicted boxing cheater Antonio Margarito, a man Shane Mosley ripped to shreds, later this year. Could boxing fans, the ones who purchase tickets and pay per views, receive a bigger slap in the face than being offered a fight featuring the sport’s best against a man who was caught with a plaster-like substance in his hand-wraps, while being denied one of the greatest match-ups in the history of boxing?
Manny should crank the music box and make Arum dance for him. Make the message clear Mr. Pacquiao, tell your promoter, the media, and fans, that your only interest is in fighting Floyd Mayweather, and no one else – erase any festering doubts regarding your integrity and put on a show like we have never witnessed before against Mayweather.
If Pacquiao bypasses Mayweather again with the excuse being a drug test, his fans who deemed Mayweather a “chicken” might have to take a close look and see if Pacquiao is the one sprouting feathers.
