Following Floyd Mayweather’s dismantling of Shane Mosley over the weekend, talk once again turned towards a possible fight between the two top pound for pound fighters in the world.
I’m talking of course about the much anticipated and talked about fight between Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao, which was once scuppered due to differences in drug testing beliefs.
Mayweather wanted completely random testing up until the fight, Pacquiao has had bad experiences with blood taking in the past close to a big fight and insisted on a cut off date.
The matter is more complex than that and now involves law suits, accusations from both sides and on many occasions an infuriated Bob Arum. But for the sake of simplicity that was the basic problem.
As the fight talks broke down, Mayweather insisted on a cut off date of 14 days while Pacquiao was at 24 days
In a statement made on his official website, MPBoxing Pacquiao allegedly said:
“I AM WILLING TO TAKE BLOOD TESTS, JUST NOT THE DAY OF THE FIGHT.
I am willing to help the sport for the future of the sport. I do not want to see anyone cheat or cheat this sport. For that reason I am willing to consider taking blood as close as 14 days prior to the fight, as long as, my opponent does the same, and it is not a lot of blood, just enough to test. I do not want anyone having an unfair advantage where someone may get hurt. I am willing to do my part to help this sport out.”
Shortly after this story broke however, BoxingScene did a little investigating and contacted Pacquiao advisor Michael Koncz, who was quick to shoot down the report. Koncz reported:
? (Manny) never talked to anybody about boxing and his main concern is campaigning and winning the election on May 10. (Floyd) Mayweather is not even in our minds or in our thoughts.”
This is odd coming from Pacquiao’s supposed official site, who of all people should be able to get their facts straight. To make matters even more confusing, there is a video of Pacquiao in Philippine television making a very similar statement to the one above, however the all important 14 days is never mentioned.
Why did Mayweather insist on 14 days in the first place I hear you ask? The reason is simply that certain performance enhancing drugs can pass through the system of an athlete in as little as 14 days. While most can be detected for a lot longer than this, theoretically someone could take certain drugs and test clean for them a little over two weeks later.
Whether Mayweather will now accept any cut off, or whether he will insist on fully random testing is a matter for the negotiating table. Although if he accepted it before, hopefully it won’t be too difficult for the fighters to agree to terms this time around.
The last possible stumbling block would be Mayweather demanding a bigger purse than Pacquiao due to the fact that he sells more pay per views. Calculating a completely subjective view of which is actually the bigger draw is nearly impossible given all of the variables involved.
However Mayweather vs. Mosley looks to have done big business while Pacquiao vs. Clottey was a success, but not a huge seller. Obviously there is more to the situation, but Mayweather has a clear track record of being the bigger seller in the United States, even if only through opponent choice.
If Mayweather does demand a bigger share of the purse though, even his most ardent supporters will have a difficult time defending the man who claims to be better than Ali and Sugar Ray.
Leyton, Pittsburgh: “The fight is sure to happen now, unless Fraudweather can think of another excuse that is”
Stephen Ambrose, Pittsburgh: “Sounds like someone’s getting fired over at Manny’s ‘official’ site. If that really is his site, why would they make up stories about him?”
Jimmy Houghton, Philly: “Pac fans should be careful what they wish for, Mayweather will embarrass Pacquiao in every round”
