o what if Pacquiao vs. Mayweather Jr. never occurs? Who will get hit the hardest in the legacy department if the Godzilla fight of them all doesn?t go down? Well, allow me to break it down for you. Pacquiao?s legacy in short would be just fine if the clash does not go down. Mayweather?s legacy however would take a big hit. Mayweather Jr. must understand that him calling himself the greatest of all time holds little weight right now. I mean Floyd can walk away from the sport today and say that he is the best ever because he never lost a single fight, but thing is that Rocky Marciano and Joe Calzaghe can claim the same.
For Floyd?s words of being the best ever to carry massive weight, Floyd must separate himself from Rocky and Joe and a victory over Pacquiao does just that. Right now, Pacquiao ranks somewhere in my top ten list of greatest fighters ever. Mayweather Jr. ranks somewhere in the top 30. Now if Floyd were to take the fight and lose against Pacquiao in a close fight, Floyd will then be somewhere in the top 25 for simply challenging himself. Here is where things turn pretty, if Floyd takes the Pacquiao fight and if Floyd were to beat Pacquiao, a win over Pacquiao for Floyd would most likely then place Floyd somewhere in the top 5 in the greatest fighter of all time list.
Now if only Floyd Mayweather Jr. understood just this, if only Floyd could only see the painting that?s being painted.
Pacquiao wants the fight to happen, and Mayweather needs the fight to happen. Big difference. 8 titles in 8 different weight classes outweighs an undefeated ledger. Sure go on and try to point out that catch weights are not true weight classes, go on and fool yourself. Thing is that just because Clottey, Oscar, Cotto, and Tony made 147,147,145, and 150 pounds, does not mean that they are really the weight in which they weighed in at. Clottey, Oscar, Cotto, and Tony all walk around 160-170 pounds, and Manny who weighed in at 144 pounds after eating 4 times a day for a fight that took place at 150 pound weigh in, should tell you all that you need to know. No matter how you slice up the pie, Manny is not only beating down naturally bigger men, Manny is destroying them.
I?m not going to sit here and tell you that this fight needs to happen, the fight is in full demand and the universe can hardly wait. We all already know this, we all already know that Pacquiao is a fighting machine like no other. Pacquiao is Meldrick Taylor, Thomas Hearns, and Roberto Duran all rolled up into one fighter.Pacquiao has the hand speed of a Meldrick Taylor, the amazing power of a Thomas Hearns, and the intensity of Roberto Duran. So it?s going to take someone special to derail this man, color has nothing to do whether or not you have that certain thing to possibly beat this beast.
I guess you could say that I am somewhat getting peeved to hear fighters and fans out there say that Manny needs to fight an African-American fighter to really see how good he really is. Man, I?m going to say this once and one time only,color does not win fights. Skills, heart, and will wins fights.I would much rather have them say that they want to see Pacquiao face a true pure boxer, Because truth be told Andre Berto and Shane Mosley are African/American but they are not in the true pure boxer category. Maybe Pacquiao vs. Berto needs to happen so when Pacquiao crushes Berto the very same people that are making all that noise about Pacquiao needing to face an African/American fighter can then re-word their statements.
While we are on the subject, I recently wrote in a previous piece that I would love to see Pacquiao face the Alexander/Bradley winner, Sergio Martinez, or Amir Khan next, assuming Floyd takes the bypass. Well, after giving it some thought, I would now like to remove Alexander and Bradley from my list. I?m removing Alexander and Bradley from the Pacquiao sweepstakes because they are smaller men coming up and well Pacquiao now makes his bread and butter by facing and beating bigger men. That is where the real intrigue lies. Khan remains in the mix even though he fights at 140 because Khan?s height and body type make Khan the bigger man. As far as Maravilla goes, Sergio Martinez is a pure boxer who is slick and fast enough to counter you to pieces, so removing Martinez from the Pacquiao sweepstakes would be foolish.
Sergio Martinez after Floyd would be Pacquiao?s biggest threat. Martinez, like Pacquiao has recently also been facing bigger men and performs like a true star against them. Martinez blitzed the much bigger Kelly Pavlik a few months back, and a year ago he went toe to toe against the naturally bigger Paul Williams in a close fight which many felt that Martinez won. Tonight, Martinez will face Paul Williams in their much anticipated rematch. Will Williams prevail yet again? Or will the slick pure boxer from Argentina get revenge and make a big statement in the process? Great fighters come in all different colors, shapes, and sizes. A real fighter fights on when his back is against the wall surviving and defeating the storm. They say many truths are said in lies, but the storm that lies ahead is the true lie detector test. It?s gonna be what it?s gonna be.
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