Los Angeles – While driving home this afternoon I stopped at a Filipino bakery to engage in a debate with a few of the Filipino and Filipino-American boxing fans present. The point of contention – who would win in a bout between Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Junior?
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Surprise, surprise, but most the patrons of the Pinoy establishment predicted Pacquiao would use his power punch to send Mayweather to the mat, once and for all.
I expect this sort of discussion to replay itself over and over for a long, long time.
Clottey vs. Pacquiao is on the mind of many, but on Monday night my mind strayed to the potential number of pay per views to be sold on Saturday night and last night I predicted how the fall-out of Pacquiao’s drawing power in relation to negotiating a future fight with Floyd Mayweather Junior.
Loyal readers, by now, you might have predicted my final hypothesis… it is unlikely that Mayweather and Pacquiao will ever grace the same ring in mutual, sanctioned combat.
Mike Tyson vs. Joe Frazier. Bernard Hopkins vs. Marvin Hagler. Sugar Ray Leonard vs. Sugar Ray Robinson. Muhammad Ali vs. Rocky Marciano. All mythical match-ups that never happened, but are debated by boxing buffs across the globe and it seems likely that Manny Pacquiao vs. Floyd Mayweather could be added to the list soon.
Both Pacquiao and Mayweather are great fighters, but in negotiations their greatness will full their egos, causing negotiations to be difficult, at best.
Pacquiao will be blamed by some for not bending over backwards to the testing demands of Mayweather and in the Filipino’s mind, rightfully so. Pacquiao has never been caught of doing anything illegal in regards to performance enhancing drugs. Team Mayweather and some other fringe boxers have kicked up the allegations by public, but baseless comments.
Others will say Mayweather sunk the bout for demanding an Olympic-style blood test and I predict, in a few months, demanding the majority of a purse against Pacquiao. While I can comprehend why Mayweather would want more money in a fight, if he sells more pay per views than Pacquiao in the first half of 2010, but his push for drug testing is unexplainable and leaves in question his true desire to tangle with Manny.
As fans, we will all lose, because the match-up between Mayweather vs. Pacquiao is as intriguing as it gets in boxing: one of the all-time in the ring boxing wizards against a hornet of speed and punching power.
Could Mayweather deflect Pacquiao’s attack and counter? Would Pacquiao be able to get to Mayweather and if he did, how would Floyd’s chin hold up?
For now enjoy Pacquiao’s performance against Clottey, it could be his last and prepare your arguments for why Manny would have defeated Floyd, or vice-versa, because the mythical match-up looks more likely than the real one.
