Is he? No, not at all.
Whew, glad we got that controversy over with. Seriously, though, I don?t know what Bernard Hopkins was trying to imply by saying Manny Pacquiao is avoiding a tough fight against an African-American fighter.
In a way, I guess, I can see he is trying to say though he is going about it all wrong. Some African-American fighters are extremely slick and give fighters all sorts of problems in terms of their style. Heck, we even saw it with Hopkins against Kelly Pavlik.
But we also saw Pavlik get schooled by Sergio Martinez, too. Fighters like Sugar Ray Leonard, Pernell Whitaker, Meldrick Taylor, etc., did provide monster challenges to fighters not accustomed with that style.
However, who among today?s crop SHOULD have Pacquiao faced? Should he have taken on Cory Spinks? Zab Judah? Who?
When Spinks and Judah were relevant, PacMan wasn?t near their weight class. Now that he is, the best days of Spinks and Judah are LONG gone.
You could argue Shane Mosley, but I would say Mosley seemed to be aiming for a shot at Floyd Mayweather ever since his big win over Antonio Margarito in Jan. ?09. Strangely enough, a Mosley-Pacquiao bout has picked up steam in the last month or so. And now I don?t really want to see it because I don?t think Mosley is in THAT class anymore.
A bad outing vs. Mayweather followed by a complete snoozer against Sergio Mora does not call out to me.
There is Paul Williams. He is awfully big, though. If he were to beat Sergio Martinez on Saturday, we?ll see if there is a groundswell effort get a bout with PacMan next.
I?m leaning toward Martinez in that one, and I get giddy over the prospects of a PacMan-Martinez bout.
The elephant in the room is Floyd Mayweather. Heck, we?re all still hoping for this bout to happen. Mayweather?s legal problems are throwing another wrench into things so we?ll have to see.
When Pacquiao was going through Erik Morales, Marco Antonio Barrera and Juan Manuel Marquez, who was he to fight? Derrick Gainer? I think not.
I have a hard time doggin? on someone (Pacquiao) who just fought a guy (Margarito) that weighed 17 more pounds than him at fight time.
Does Hopkins have a point, or no?
