Currently they are the hottest boxing commodities, but their characters and fighting styles are utterly at variance with each other. Their literal fight may not happen at all, but Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr. are actually having a fight for history.
Cebu City, Philippines – The name of the game is hit and don’t get hit, and Floyd Mayweather Jr., the immediate predecessor of Manny Pacquiao as the pound-for-pound king, is without any cloud of doubt ranks among the greatest practitioners of the traditional hit and run fighting plot. Except for a fight against Zab Judah, Mayweather does and carries his art very well that any hardcore fan of the sport who pursue his every fight will be having hard time remembering one instance in which Mayweather was hit with a tough and clean blow on the face. Not even the great Oscar dela Hoya was able to do it. Juan Manuel Marquez did manage to place a couple of significant hits on the face, but neither was sufficiently strong; at the conclusion of the fight, not a trace of swelling was evident on the face of the flamboyant American champion. So he came to be called the “Pretty Boy” for his triumphant efforts to maintain his face unblemished in most of his fights. He is undefeated in 40 fights, but both the casual and hardcore boxing fans are getting bored with his fighting approach.
In antipodal contrast, Manny Pacquiao, the fighting pride of the Philippines and the current occupant of the coveted pound – for – pound throne, does his thing with awful display of gallantry by defying traditional boxing; instead he puts up real fights once he is atop the squared ring. Unlike Mayweather he does not run from his attacking opponents, but protects himself by hauling volumes of powerful punches of his own, which are launched at incredible speeds like the torpedoes of England that helped toppled down Germany to end the Second World War. Albeit at times, Pacquiao would end up paying a parcel of the prize of his all-outwar approach of the game by finding himself a recipient of some of the retaliatory attacks from his adversaries. Against the equally great Eric Morales in their first fight, Pacquiao was horribly bloodied but unbowed a lesser being would have given up the fight that could go down in history as one of the most intense skirmishes that ever happened in the ringed battlefield. The Mexican legend went on to win, but in the two subsequent meetings, Pacquiao employing his exciting and electric style avenged his only loss so far in American soil by knocking out Morales for good. Since then Pacquiao has been wrecking havoc as he ascent across divisions, making him a boxing icon across the world. He has no penchant at cherry – picking his opponents; he fights who ever is put across him in the ring. However, inside the colored ropes, Pacquiao is a fighting demon, yet he is as meek as an innocent member of a church choir outside the ring. No wonder, many Mexicans are enamored by Pacquiao despite his fame being at the expense of the Mexican legends who fell and receded to obscurity after crossing paths with Pacquiao.
Now being unquestionably the two most popular fighters around the world, they were initially scheduled for a March 13 clash – of gargantuan magnitude, but as we all know it all went awry due to the unusual and unpopular demand of Mayweather to subject Pacquiao to the Olympic style of random blood testing which is unprecedented in professional boxing history. Pacquiao in response cried harassment, and being oriental, he maintains a belief – albeit without scientific basis – that drawing blood from his body days very close to the fight saps his energy. Nevertheless, he agreed to have his blood taken and tested thirty days before the fight and right after the fight in his locker room. But Mayweather heatedly declined Pacquiao’s counterproposal; thus depriving the mainstream fans of the sport for the fight they most wanted to see. A cloud of divided opinion followed, with a sizeable faction now casting doubts on the previous ring achievements of Pacquiao. But what’s the mark difference between blood testing a day before the fight and minutes after the fight? And aside from that, Mayweather was in no complete possession to dictate the conditions of the fight; he simply appeared to be throwing stinging jabs on the face of the Nevada State Athletic Commission, the body professionally tasks to ensure each fighter is clean from any performance – enhancing drugs such as steroid which Mayweather claims to be in Pacquiao’s possession. But his intrinsic talent and natural ability set aside, Pacquiao is an embodiment of hard work when it comes to training – it is well documented – of which the Mayweather camp should have pondered upon before attributing without basis Pacquiao’s grand ascent to the divisions of bigger men on steroids that Pacquiao claims to have no idea at all, how it looks.
With the conflict staying unresolved, the two current boxing giants detoured paths, off collisions course. Each of them was supposed to receive forty million dollars ($ 40,000,000.00) in a fight that could have been the most lucrative in prize fighting history. Moving on, Pacquiao is now headed for a clash against the competent opponent in Joshua Clottey of Ghana on March 13, while Mayweather is set to lock horns with fellow American Shane Mosley. In the current boxing landscape, it can be taken as self-evident truth that any Pacquiao fight irregardless of who stands opposite him in the ring will be decidedly a great night of pugilistic entertainment for the thousands in attendance and for the millions watching around the world on their television sets. On one hand, only a handful of boxing conservatives take delight at Mayweather does his hitting and running as if the ring is an oval running track; but the great majority finds themselves dozy watching the former pound -for – pound champion befuddles his adversary with his dry and dull fighting style. Yes, to reiterate, the name of the game is hit and don’t get hit, but the great majority of the paying fans are now becoming inclined to hold repugnance over that classic technique of Mayweather.
Now hard in their respective trainings for their respective fights, Mayweather remains active with his anti-Pacquiao campaign. What’s really at the back of his mind? Is it some kind of deep-seated envy over Pacquiao’s phenomenal and paramount boxing achievements or he is sincere after all with his assumed campaign of cleaning up the sport, but one thing for sure in the decade – long fighting stint of Pacquiao in America, he was never found nor suspected to be on drugs, so what in the world is Mayweather up to with his baseless accusations against Pacquiao?
Well, Mayweather just recently issued a statement claiming that he is into boxing in order to make himself happy first before the paying public. Indeed, it is exactly what he has been doing, choosing opponents with which he is sure of winning, depriving the fans of the thrill and excitement they pay for. He even cheated the smaller guy Marquez in an effort to ensure victory and to preserve his zero loss. But being undefeated is no great at all in the pugilistic world if it is achieved at the expense of unknown and cherry-picked opponents and to some extent, cheating. Pacquiao in contrast, claims he performs his fights for the greater delight of his fans than of himself, thereby treating them with a performance commensurate to their hard-earned money. Perhaps it’s unquestionably kind of hard to counter that assertion of Pacquiao? Sure he holds three losses in his resume, but what matters most is how great he was in getting up from each defeat, which transformed him in the process to become the most exciting and hottest fighter on the planet today. He is a great crowd-drawer. In his advent to the sport, many people who were formerly indifferent to boxing became avid supporters of the sport because of the thrill Pacquiao offers when he fights. Now, it is perhaps clearer as to who will linger most in the memories of the fans when Mayweather and Pacquiao eventually hanged up their gloves for good.
