Dear Floyd Mayweather:
There is a passage towards the end of ?The Great Gatsby?. Jay Gatsby, who worked meticulously to create his character and accumulate his vast wealth sees all he worked for begin to slip away.
?You can?t repeat the past,? narrator Nick Carraway tells Gatsby.
?Can?t repeat the past?,? Gatsby cried incredulously. ?Of course you can!?
Mr. Mayweather, you have been given the opportunity to once again repeat the past, to secure your legacy and complete your great American story.
In July, the deadline imposed on you by Top Rank Promotions to sign a contract to fight Manny Pacquiao passed. Just as quickly as the sand drained through the hourglass though, the hourglass has been flipped and the clock has been set back.
Once again and possibly for the last time you have been given the chance to validate your career and record. As it currently stands 41-0 is as good as 41 and no, as in no Pacquiao.
It is being speculated now that Pacquiao may have reached the point in his storied career where he no longer needs you. In handily reconfiguring the face of Antonio Margarito, a fighter who outweighed him by 17 pounds, out reached him by 5 1/2″ and towered over him by 4 1/2″, Pacquiao looked less like Pacman and more like Little Mac.
Did you watch the fight last night Floyd?
For the first two rounds Margarito was game and looked to be too large for Pacquiao. Emanuel Steward, usually spot on in dissecting a fight, opined that Pacquiao might finally have chosen an opponent that was too tall, that Pacquiao?s punches aimed at an upward angle would not affect Margarito the way they had others before him.
In the fourth round, Pacquiao gashed Margarito?s eye with an uppercut, by the twelfth you couldn?t see Margarito?s eyes.
Margarito was a proud warrior, too proud to quit while being battered.
In a possible career ending beating, he would join Oscar De La Hoya and Ricky Hatton as the third champion Pacquiao has retired in his last five fights.
Put in a line-up after their respective bouts with Pacquiao would be truly macabre.
Only two years ago Margarito was known as the most feared fighter in the sport and was waiting to fight you Floyd, now he is waiting for the swelling on his face to subside so surgery can be performed to repair a fractured orbital bone.
Two years ago, you were accused of ducking Margarito as you are being accused of with Pacquiao today.
Now you are once again given the chance to repeat the past.
As you well know Floyd you are different than Miguel Cotto, De La Hoya, Hatton and Margarito.
Where they were and are fighters more than willing to walk into the Pacquiao windmill, you have the counter punch, possibly the best in history, definitely the best in the era. You would wait for Pacquiao to attack, coiled, then, like a cobra, you would strike. It would be harder for Pacquiao to pull off a vaunted five-punch-combination when he is shoulder rolled and stung with the first counter.
That could be you Floyd, the game changer.
Max Kellerman, after the extermination of Margarito, compared you and Pacquiao to Sugar Ray Leonard and Marvin Hagler. Leonard was seen as ducking Hagler for years and Hagler was seen as an offensive beast. In 1985, Hagler, in three rounds, had beaten Tommy Hearns so bad Hearns had to be carried out of the ring. Kellerman speculated that, like your situation with Pacquiao, Leonard was waiting for Hagler to slow down, become a bit vulnerable before he decided to fight Hagler. In 1987, Leonard would finally accept Hagler?s invitation to fight him.
Leonard won by split decision.
There are some significant differences between Leonard-Hagler and Pacquiao-Mayweather though.
Leonard had the speed advantage on Hagler, I would say that Pacquiao would have the speed advantage in your contest.
Hagler was a 3-1 favorite to beat Leonard, the odds on your fight with Pacquiao would be close to even.
Leonard was coming out of a three-year retirement to fight, if fought in the spring, your layoff would be less than a year.
The similarity between the two fights is that Leonard saw beating Hagler as validating his legacy, the world sees beating Pacquiao as validating yours.
Surely you must feel the same.
Fighting Pacquiao, seen as one of the most potentially lucrative events in contemporary sports, would also validate your moniker as ?Money?.
It would be the most money you, Pacquiao or any other boxer has ever seen for one fight.
It would surely mark a new, hard-to-reach record in Pay-Per-View buys, the kind of record you routinely boast about.
Cowboys Stadium and five others of similar capacity could be filled to watch the event.
No Mayweather-Pacquiao, no ?Money?
You would not only give the boxing world and beyond what they want, by fighting and beating Pacquiao you would be given bragging rights for life.
Just when you thought the opportunity was gone, the contract is right where you left it, to be speculated and pontificated on until you sign it.
Can?t repeat the past? Of course you can!
Sincerely,
Boxing Dispatch
