Barring some kind of miracle ? and those have been known to occur in the fight game ? a mega-bout between Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather will not happen this year. It may not happen next year, either. Let?s face it: this epic encounter may not ever happen at all, which would be a crying shame for boxing fans.
But that doesn?t mean there are no other high-quality matchups on the horizon. That?s the good news. The bad news is, those fights may never happen, either.
Other than Pacquiao-Mayweather, the most anticipated potential matchups are Juan Manuel Lopez vs. Yuriorkis Gamboa at featherweight, and Timothy Bradley vs. Devon Alexander at junior welterweight. All four of these fighters are young, undefeated, and at ? or at least near ? their full potential.
None of the four has yet achieved the marquee value of Mayweather or Pacquiao. But their value as fighters is unquestionable. That?s why a Lopez-Gamboa or Bradley-Alexander contest would make big bucks, indeed. Just not as big as Pacquiao-Mayweather.
Lopez-Gamboa and Bradley-Alexander are both rumored to be in the works, though no contracts have been signed as yet. Both pairs? management teams are ? or at least should be ? steering their fighters directly toward these logical and lucrative paydays. Yet both superfights could end up derailed, not at the negotiating table, but in the ring against other opponents.
This past weekend, Alexander just barely managed to pull out a points win over Andreas Kotelnik. More than a few observers thought Kotelnik deserved the decision. A few weeks earlier, Bradley tried his luck at welterweight and came away with a clear but unimpressive decision over Luis Carlos Abregu.
If an Alexander-Bradley match is to be made, the deal had better be done soon, before somebody knocks one ? or both ? of them off their pedestal.
?Juanma? Lopez?s near-disaster against Rogers Mtagwa late last year is another warning sign. The highly touted Lopez was almost stopped in the twelfth round of his winning effort over the tough Mtagwa. Gamboa, an ultra-talented Cuban, then stepped up and knocked Mtagwa kicking in two rounds. Thus far, Gamboa hasn?t had a ?hold-on-there? moment, even though he?s hit the deck a few times. But then so did Felix Trinidad, even in his prime.
History is replete with highly anticipated bouts that should have happened, but didn?t. Only a few years ago, the hot ticket was a showdown between middleweights Kelly Pavlik and Arthur Abraham. Both fighters were undefeated. Pavlik had twice beaten Jermain Taylor, who had in turn twice outpointed future Hall-of Famer Bernard Hopkins. Abraham had displayed tremendous courage in hanging on to win a decision over hard-hitting Edison Miranda after Miranda had broken Abraham?s jaw during the bout.
The two 160-pounders were on a collision course. But the collision never occurred. Terms for a bout could not be reached. In the wake of the failed negotiations, Hopkins schooled Pavlik, and Abraham moved up to super-middleweight, with mixed results so far. Abraham and Pavlik might still fight each other some day, but the allure of such an encounter has diminished considerably.
For those with long memories, another case-in-point is the fight-that-never-was between Lennox Lewis and Riddick Bowe. In the early 1990s, these two young, undefeated giants carried the hopes of the heavyweight division on their wide shoulders. Who else was there? Mike Tyson was doing time in prison on a rape conviction. Tyson?s conqueror, Buster Douglas, had been flattened by Evander Holyfield. Bowe, in turn, defeated Holyfield in one of the greatest heavyweight contests of all time. Meanwhile, Lewis demolished Razor Ruddock, who had given Tyson two tough fights, even though Ruddock lost both bouts.
On top of that, Lewis had defeated Bowe for the gold medal in the 1988 Olympics. The prospect of a second meeting as undefeated professional champions was mouth-watering, to say the least.
But the big fight never happened. As negotiations sputtered, Bowe lost his focus and was defeated by Holyfield in their rematch. And Lewis got his chin checked by underdog Oliver McCall.
Pacquiao-Mayweather.
Lopez-Gamboa.
Bradley-Alexander.
Make these matches ? please!
Charles R. Saunders is the author of several books including Sweat and Soul: The Saga of Black Boxers in the Maritimes from the Halifax Forum to Caesars Palace. Considered by many to be one of the leading authorities on boxing in Canada, he is the current Vice-President of Boxing for the Society of North American Sports Historians Researchers.
