Floyd Mayweather yesterday defied a court order compelling him to give a deposition in fellow fighter Manny Pacquiao’s defamation case against him.
The reason that Mayweather’s legal team gave for wanting to postpone the hearing only days ago, which was evidently turned down, was that he needs to train for his upcoming fight against Victor Ortiz.
That fight takes place on September 17th, three months away less a day, and so interrupting training surely isn’t a real concern just yet.
Despite his year long layoff, Mayweather is known to stay in excellent shape at all times when out of the ring, and will likely have less work to do in terms of getting back into shape than most fighters have to in the early stages of a training camp.
As much disdain as Mayweather has for Pacquiao and his lawsuit then, the no-show seems fairly pointless.
Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao to finally face off, in court at least
Throughout his rivalry with Pacquiao, Mayweather has readily voiced his opinions on why he thinks the Filipino is taking performance enhancing drugs, and until now has never missed an opportunity to talk publicly about the issue of random blood testing.
Surely a high profile court case then would give him the perfect platform to tell the world why he believes what he claims to, and to expose the failings of the current testing system put in place by the various state athletic commissions.
The online legal dictionary defines defamation as:
Any intentional false communication, either written or spoken, that harms a person’s reputation; decreases the respect, regard, or confidence in which a person is held; or induces disparaging, hostile, or disagreeable opinions or feelings against a person.
By Pacquiao not having had his blood tested randomly, Mayweather could have claimed that his statements he made are not provably false, and perhaps started another debate on the testing issue.
Antonio Margarito medically cleared for Miguel Cotto rematch in December
Someone on a genuine crusade to raise the standards of drug testing in their sport might have done this, even at the cost of possibly losing the case.
Mayweather was a no-show.
Obviously despite whatever he and legions of his fans might believe, Mayweather also doesn’t actually have any proof that Pacquiao is anything other than above board when it comes to performance enhancing drugs.
While repeating his oft trotted out catchphrase ‘take the test’ into perpetuity might work with certain sections of the public, it won’t cut the mustard in a courtroom, especially not as proof that statements he made against Pacquiao were anything less than damaging to his character.
It isn’t out of the realms of possibility then that Mayweather defied the court order due to the fact that he knows that unlike when he steps into the ring, in the court he has little by way of defense.
While there is a certain amount of leeway for trash talking opponents, or in this case ever only a potential opponent, Pacquiao’s reputation and perhaps also earnings were negatively affected by the drug accusations.
After the testing debate began other fighters spoke up in favor of Mayweather’s insinuations, again without any sort of proof. Many fans now believe Pacquiao to have taken performance enhancing drugs, and will continue to do so, and all on the basis of Mayweather’s statements.
Perhaps even worse is that to some fighters baseless drug accusations have become a way of justifying losses, riling up opponents and otherwise casting aspersions over others without good reason.
Andre Berto for example recently insinuated that Victor Ortiz used something before their bout, only to quickly and rather unconvincingly backtrack when called out about it.
Similarly former light heavyweight champion Jean Pascal hinted that current champion Bernard Hopkins owed his longevity and success to P.E.D’s, shortly before losing to him.
Photos: Amir Khan begins sparring, continues war of words with Zab Judah
While he might have avoided giving testimony for the time being though, Mayweather can’t simply keep skipping court forever.
After yesterday he might face a fine, but eventually the court could award Pacquiao a default judgement, meaning essentially that he would win the case by virtue of Mayweather’s failure to defend.
Pacquiao and team haven’t released the exact amount that they are suing Mayweather for, but it’s sure to run into the millions.
Even with a lucrative fight in the near future, with IRS liens to contend with already, the last thing Mayweather needs is to lose huge amounts of money that he might not have at the moment.
Those either hoping or worrying that the case might be keeping Mayweather up at night or that it could be affecting his training needn’t overly concern themselves however.
This is far from his first experience with the court system and it surely won’t be his last, not even counting the several pending cases he has stacked against him already.
If he has begun training in earnest yet, which isn’t a certainty in itself this far out from the fight, he has plenty of time to make up for any lost giving depositions.
Frederick Walder, Pitt: “Mayweather should just apologize and settle, does he really need another law suit right now?”
