Of all the silliness that gets passed around on message boards, chat rooms, and among boxing’s less than reputable scribes, there is nothing more patently ridiculous than the tired, old refrain of
“Mayweather is afraid of Pacquiao.”
It’s laughably dumb to have a group of overgrown adolescents telling a professional fighter that he’s a “chicken.” or a coward.
All fighters, especially at the elite, world class level, are gifted with nerves of steel and have been conditioned to walk into death-defying circumstance without thinking twice. To be a professional fighter, on any level, is a tough profession whose participants have been molded in battle to take all the risks involved in doing combat with another human being.
In Mayweather’s case, specifically, he has been fighting at a high level of proficiency since childhood and, throughout his career, with the exception of two fights as a pro, has walked into his contests as the significantly smaller fighter.
What people need to remember, is that Mayweather-Diego Corrales was a pick ’em fight among the media and the boxing odds-makers, as was Mayweather-Genaro Hernandez prior to that. As Mayweather moved up in weight, at one time or another, he was accused of ducking Judah, Baldomir, Hatton, and Mosley…until he beat them all handily and then, suddenly, these fighters who Mayweather was “running scared” from became pedestrian, weak, or old.
Fans and media alike need to understand the fact that boxing is a business and, sometimes, that business gets in the way of the action that most want to see.
Mayweather being a hated escapee of Arum’s Top Rank stable of fighters has created an atmosphere of animosity between the two that makes any and all dealings about as pleasant and easy as a root canal.
Arum, as a result, prefers to do business “in-house” and, also, has chosen to not include Mayweather in any plans he has regarding his fighters.
To say that someone who has been fighting at an elite level for almost as long as he could walk is afraid of the dangers of fighting one specific man, is a cartoonish way to see the world of boxing.
Fights fall apart all the time, fighters choose to avoid certain fights frequently. None of this means that one guy is afraid of the other. It just means that the time wasn’t right, the conditions weren’t perfect, for the fight to take place.
Surely, Manny Pacquiao wasn’t afraid of Nate Campbell when he chose to go after David Diaz’s title instead. Campbell was the recognized top lightweight at the time, but business and circumstance made the Diaz fight easier to sign.
Was Manny “afraid” of Andre Berto or Timothy Bradley since he chose to fight Shane Mosley and Ricky Hatton instead of them? Is Manny afraid of Paul Williams? Was Manny afraid of Floyd when he wouldn’t agree to random blood testing in the first set of negotiations?
Don’t kid yourselves, the fact of the matter is that all top fighters are looking for the easiest fight for the most money. Manny and Floyd are no different.
The only real difference between those two and the rest of the boxing world is that they can make massive amounts of money without having to fight one another…and both have opted to take that route for the time being.
Hopefully, the fans demand this one major fight, but as long as these two superstars sell a million pay per views against opponents who offer little risk, the Fight of the Millennium is not likely to happen.
