While the fight that will not die continues to stir the hopes of scores of boxing fans, others have the attitude of; ?Forget it. I?m sick of hearing about it. It?ll never happen.?
I?ll be honest. I can?t help it. I?m one whose heart skips a beat every time a glimmer of hope for the making of the mega-fight reappears. How could any true boxing fan not want to see this fight? For the time-being, we have the consolation prize of Pacquiao vs. Margarito to look forward to.
Recent happenings continue to keep the hope of a future clash between the world’s top two pugilists alive. Two, particular developments are Pacquiao’s boldness in calling Mayweather out, as reported by Ryan Macalua on 8countnews.com, and the possibility of Mayweather signing with Don King as reported by Peter Cyzmbor.
I recently had a lengthy discussion with a long-time boxing insider who asked not to be identified. He informed me of what he says are the reasons that Floyd Mayweather Jr. didn’t accept the fight terms for the November 13 match.
“Here are the reasons why that [Floyd] wasn’t taking the fight. Everybody thinks it’s the drug testing. There’s other reasons. There’s Roger’s trial, number one, the uncertainty of that, and [Floyd] maybe having to go along without him. I mean, the trial was being moved to October, and he was supposed to fight on November 13th. That would be the first thing. Ok, the second thing is; tax reasons. He wasn’t going to fight this year because of taxes. Third; he hates Arum, and he didn’t like the idea of being told about a deadline, like Arum’s in charge. He was really pissed off about that.”
While these particular possibilities have been tossed around repeatedly, the last reason the source mentioned is one that is bound to be more controversial.
“And the last reason is; he’s afraid of getting robbed by the judges. Al Haymon and Golden Boy can’t compete with Arum, and [Floyd] knows it. He needs a Don King to compete because, if you remember, in close fights in the past in Vegas… Didn’t Trinidad beat De La Hoya? I could go on and on and on. Floyd’s not a dummy. He’s never been accused of stupidity. My opinion is all of those reasons. Some of them I know for a fact, some of them are just my opinion. There was the uncertainty, there was the tax reasons, there was Arum imposing a deadline and everything else like that.”
Floyd Mayweather Jr. (Photo/Getty Images)
He went on to elaborate on the reasons that he feels that Mayweather should sign with Don King.
“He should sign with King. King will protect him, as far as the officiating goes… the judging and the officiating, King will protect him. Ok? King knows. The other guys don’t. They don’t have the power. And King will make the fight much bigger than De La Hoya and Haymon can make it, and Bob [Arum] knows it. You can ask Bob. Don can raise the pay-per-view [buys] 10 percent.
Let me tell you something about Don. Don has pros and cons just like most human beings do, but Don’s got some really strong pros. He knows how to do business and get things done. He’s done it forever, and it’s going to be very tough for those clowns to compete with Don as far as brain-power goes. I don’t mean Arum. I’m talking about Haymon and Golden Boy. That’s what it’s all about. [Floyd] wants to be on equal footing with Pacquiao with the judging and the officiating, and he can’t be on equal footing with those clowns, and he knows it. And Arum knows that with Don involved, the value of the promotion goes up. He can sell PPV numbers.”
When asked about his opinion on the likelihood of the fight being made in 2011, he expressed tremendous optimism.
“Don’t forget one thing; it’s not the easiest fight in the world to make. There’s a lot of reasons for that. It’s just so big… I mean this is huge! You’re looking at the biggest sporting event in the world’s history. But it’s going to happen. It’ll happen. There’s just too much money for it not to happen.”
