Although he first has a third fight with long time rival Juan Manuel Marquez to contend with, WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao still appears to believe that his much debated and twice attempted fight with Floyd Mayweather will materialize at some point.
In a recent interview with ABS/CBN news, Pacquiao, asked about Mayweather choosing Victor Ortiz as his next opponent said:
“Maybe he’s preparing for me because he chose to fight a southpaw”
Despite Pacquiao’s optimism though, most fans don’t appear to be convinced by his theory.
The alternative and more likely explanation is simply that Ortiz is a winnable fight that will make Mayweather a lot of money, get him back into the pound for pound stakes and capture him a title. And only one of those is something Mayweather actually cares about.
Ortiz being a southpaw is a coincidence, but two important points fail to support the idea that Mayweather is using him as a tune up for Pacquiaio.
Firstly despite having taken the odd easy fight in the past Mayweather has never fought an opponent specifically to prepare for another.
Floyd’s great strength is adapting to his opponents in the ring and it’s unlikely he would begin a new pattern of opponent selection at this stage. And although he has had trouble with southpaws in the past, he has still fought several of them and won.
Also aside from being a southpaw, it isn’t even as if Ortiz and Pacquiao are really anything alike in the ring.
Even if Mayweather wanted a tune-up to prepare him for the Filipino then, Ortiz would be a poor choice.
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Mayweather makes no secret of the fact that he fights for the money these days, and as such a showdown with Pacquiao would appear to be an attractive option.
Then there are, from Mayweather’s point of view, the downsides to such a bout.
Firstly having to deal with former promoter Bob Arum, with whom he had a less than acrimonious split several years ago.
Clearly Mayweather likes to give the impression that he’s running the show, which promotional partners Golden Boy are happy to go along with even if in reality they are doing all the leg work. Bob Arum similarly likes to remain in control when it comes to putting together an event, and during previous negotiations this clash of personalities became a problem. Advertisement
More presciently are the difficulties that the two sides have had trying to negotiate in the past.
Pacquiao and Mayweather went in as the best and second best fighter in the world, regardless of how you ranked them.
They came out with damaged reputations, a still ongoing lawsuit, and most importantly no fight. Roughly half of the fans now believe Pacquiao to be a drug cheat. The other half deplore Mayweather for the accusatory and often offensive remarks he has continuously made.
The fact that Mayweather was a no-show at a court ordered deposition appearance in connection to Pacquiao’s defamation suit against him last week is another fairly obvious barrier to the two ever meeting.
Perhaps as importantly though, Mayweather and Pacquiao have other options than attempting to negotiate with each other.
Amir Khan for example is gunning for Mayweather already, and after a couple more fights will have a following big enough to guarantee big pay per view sales.
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Pacquiao conversely may soon have Tim Bradley as a promotional stablemate if Bob Arum has his way, and recent Top Rank signing Kermit Cintron is another potential option if he gets a big win or two.
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