UFC guru Dana White on whether or not he thinks Manny Pacquiao would have success in the octagon:
?He wouldn?t do well. I?m a huge, huge Manny Pacquiao fan. He is boxing right now. Floyd Mayweather, and Floyd and I go way back and I told Floyd to his face too, Floyd is one of the big problems with boxing. Holding out, not taking this fight with Manny Pacquiao, and doing what he?s doing. I think Manny Pacquiao is boxing. Everything about him is positive and I love the guy.?
Hard to disagree with the White Man, who was speaking to Boomer & Carton on the WFAN Radio morning yakker.
But I detect signs of a changing for the better Floyd Mayweather Jr. and I can easily envision in which “Money” delays or never even gets around to fighting Pinoy Idol all the while boxing is booming like the good, old days, the era before the UFC started taking money home in armored car carvans that look the afternoon rush on the 405 Frreeway in Los Angeles. Signs that Mayweather is starting to flip his tiresome script:
1. Thanking the media, even the people he dislikes (no, I’m not looking into the mirror) for keeping him “relevant” during his long periods of ring activity. Whilst we can easily detect some sarcasm therein, I think on the whole Mayweather realizes now he kept his superstar status because Pacquiao was the only ring hero who came along to (partially) fill the void.
2. Inviting people, media into his Vegas tent. Instead of pushing or having his bodyguards push the public and the media away, Floyd is amped with his 10,000 megawatt smile now that he’s got a product, namely the Sept. 17 Vicious Victor Ortiz HBO PPV bout. Ortiz has the potential and the burning ambition to make that night interesting.
3. Putting his appreciation for adoring United Kingdom fans into action. Mike Tyson gained a deeply-felt appreciation for English fight fans when he did that prison stint in Indiana. UK fans bombarded him with letters and cards in a way the American public did not. Tyson was really touched by that when he did time for raping the beauty queen from Rhode Island (I still wonder if he was guilty or not) and verbalizes the love he feels in return for British fans even today, well into his ring retirement.
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4. Mayweather’s support me because I’m an American rallying cries have fallen mainly on deaf ears but he can win back USA fans and make new ones in the runup to the Ortiz fight and with a more aggressive offensive performance against the younger man.
5. Mayweather will have a viable alternative or in addition to opponent, beyond Pacquiao, if England’s Amir Khan beats old pro Zab Judah like the oddmakers figure he will on Saturday night. With this wave of love coming his way from British shores, I do not think it’s totally out of the realm of possibility that the mercurial Mayweather would seriously consider fighting Kid Khan, who like Ortiz is a mere age 24, in London.
6. As far as Pacquiao, he would be sitting pretty awaiting in the fall of 2012 the winner of a Khan-Mayweather fight. Just think of it, Coach Freddie Roach getting two cracks at handing unbeaten Mayweather a defeat.
Mayweather knows the Vince McMahon wrestling scripts. He knows that the villains sometimes morph into either “good guys” or more likeable rasslers.
Maybe, just maybe, Mayweather wants to shed the permanent villain role.
His timing is impeccable if that is the case.
If it is, and if he does, then USA fight fans can thank L’il Floyd for making himself really relevant in a sport starving for heroes.
