Part 2, The Making of the Floyd Mayweather-Manny Pacquiao Super Fight
Let me warn you now, right from Jump Street.
Let me so advise you thrillseekers, you rumormongers, you scandalous types…all the other assorted riffraff which tends to follow te Floyd Mayweather-Manny Pacquiao telenovela.
I will not mention syringes in this article. I refuse to talk about fighters, boxers and MMA warriors, who show up in dressing rooms with testosterone patches clinched to their manhood.
I won’t get into who should run the blood doping testing and the incredibly catty jealousies between those various parties.
No, sir or Madame Auring, today I just want to discuss why, purely on boxing considerations, Mayweather MUST fight Pacman in November.
Bottom line, and keep in mind that nobody has ever said that L’il Floyd, Big Floyd and Uncle Roger do not know a left hook from a fish hook, is that a November bout is clearly the last, best chance for Money May to meet and defeat the Pinoy Idol.
Two of the oldest boxing axioms in the world work in Megamanny’s favor and work against the chances of Mayweather remaining undefeated should he show up in the opposite corner against Pacman.
AXIOM #1–This is a bit less important than Axiom #2 but the fact remains that Mayweather did himself no physical favors with his 17 month retirement. He may have refreshed his mental batteries, always an important factor, but during his absence Pacquiao was improving his skills almost on a daily basis under Master Mechanic Freddie Roach. The late, great trainer Ray Arcel–on a par with Angelo Dundee, Georgie Benton, Roach mentor Eddie Futch and Manny Steward in the Great Trainers Pantheon–always emphasized that for a fighter, “to rest is to rust.”
Is Pretty Daddy telling Pretty Boy, “Remember, son, fight Pacman now before you have to sue your legs for nonsupport?” (AP Photo)
AXIOM #2–Punchers never lose their whacking power. That’s why a middleaged Big George Foreman could take out Michael Moorer with massive shots. But fighters who depend on their hot wheels, well another ring truism applies.
THE LEGS GO FIRST.
You saw Mayweather, heretofore agile, mobile and nearly untouchable, in the second round against almost age 40 Sugar Shane Mosley. Mosley cracked him with a good but not spectacular right hand and Mayweather’s legs turned to spaghetti.
But, while the legs were leaving town, his chin kept him erect and he survived the storm. Otherwise, Money would have lost his previous “0.”
Mosley didn’t have the steam to finish Mayweather off but Pacman, seven years younger than Shane, is all that and a bag of chips when it comes to finishing a wounded foe.
Even the most ardent Mayweather fanatic cannot argue that Money wasn’t not hurting for certain.
Mosley did not deliver the coup de grace, or the golpe de gracia depending on whether you prefer French or Spanish synonyms for KTFO.
Pacquiao almost certainly would have flattned Mayweather under the same conditions. Mayweather would have been scrambled on canvas a la Ricky Hatton.
So, in summation, I say Mayweather takes the fight now, at the tail end of 2010.
He, his father and his uncle may not be able to tell you the difference between Venice and Venezuela but boxing they know. They know it inside out as lifers in our sport.
They know the last, best chance for L’il Floyd to beat Pacman is this year.
The money jackpot will never be bigger and all the other terms and conditions are getting worked out as Richie Rich Schaefer and Bob Arum both keep their big mouths shut.
The Mayweathers know. They know they can win this fight in 2010.
Go into 2011, or later, and it will be too little, too late.
The legs go first and the Mayweathers know this as it happened both to Floyd Sr. and to Roger in their own careers.
That’s why Mayweather is taking this fight because he also knows he can’t count on his pins like he used to.
THE LEGS GO FIRST.
That’s why Mayweather will fight Pacquiao in November.
Oh, yeah, that and the mountain of money also. As for rapper Redman, enjoy this video interviewfrom Vlad.TV in which he comes across as a fan who loves Mayweather but is doubting himself on the Super Fight now, and remember, Redman has the right to be wrong.
