The right sound to describe the latest nonsense in the ongoing Pacquiao-Mayweather non-issue is: Ugh. That would be the right sound for exasperated disbelief, right?
According to various sources, all close to Pacquiao and sympathetic to Team Pacquiao’s financial bottom line, Manny Pacquiao has asked promoter Bob Arum to make a bout with Floyd Mayweather a priority.
Filipino writer, Ronnie Nathanielsz, has reported that Pacquiao issued the directive to Arum during a recent business meeting held to map out Pacquiao’s next moves.
“Obviously the one fight that he (Pacquiao) wants is Mayweather,” Arum told Nathanielsz. “That’s the guy he wants to fight.”
This latest piece of promotional propaganda is, quite possibly, the most insulting of all the misdirections and sleights of hand that have come from Team Pacquiao since a Mayweather bout became a possibility.
As we all know, Mayweather is in the middle of an 87-day jail sentence for domestic battery at the Clark County Detention Center in Las Vegas. So, really, talk of making any sort of bout with him is purely for show at this point. But, for those really following the Manny-Floyd drama over the years, this kind of hubris and fake bluster coming from Team Pacquiao is commonplace.
In the past, Manny balked at random blood testing and killed the bout in the arbitrator’s office, only to allegedly agree to it after the deal was off the table and nobody was negotiating anymore. Pacquiao was also vociferous about a willingness to take a lesser share of the fight purse– Until that lesser share was actually offered to him.
It seems like a pattern has been established that Team Pacquiao is only ready to fight when nobody’s actually trying to make the bout. But whenever the bout has a chance of happening, Team Pacquiao finds a way to hold things up.
So, really, Pacquiao calling out an incarcerated Mayweather fits right into the pattern of behavior.
But, still, isn’t all of this so insulting to the fans’ intelligence?
With Arum already making plans for a November rematch with Timothy Bradley and then a possible fourth fight with Juan Manuel Marquez, are fans supposed to believe that a Mayweather fight is on anyone’s agenda?
Even if Pacquiao really did want Mayweather, we all know by now that Pacquiao blindly does what Arum tells him to do. Despite being the one who actually pays Arum through his efforts, Manny does what he is told.
To his credit, Arum was somewhat forthcoming with Nathanielsz and said that Mayweather was, really, not in Pacquiao’s immediate plans.
Maybe next year. Or Maybe Not.
But, whatever the case, you can be assured that Team Pacquiao will never fail to resurrect the dying ghost of a mega-bout whenever a publicity boost is needed and whenever it isn’t a realistic possibility.
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Paul Magno was a licensed official in the state of Michoacan, Mexico and a close follower of the sport for more than thirty years. His work can also be found on Fox Sports and The Boxing Tribune. In the past, Paul has done work for Inside Fights, The Queensberry Rules and Eastside Boxing.
