We are where we were 20 months ago. Floyd Mayweather knows he can beat Many Pacquiao, doesn?t understand why the rest of us don?t, and wants every detail just so before he?ll agree to do it. Pacquiao, when he thinks about boxing at all, fears Mayweather less than he feared a half-dozen previous opponents. Promoter Bob Arum wants no part of a Mayweather match. Boxing fans are polarized. Everyone else has moved on.
In frustrating and disillusioning moments such as these, it can be a valuable exercise to imagine the future, 30 years along, and ask yourself if any of this will truly matter.
If Mayweather and Pacquiao never fight, none of this will matter even a little. That?s worth remembering as you look back on two years of Mayweather and Pacquiao fights and imagine two more years of Mayweather and Pacquiao fights.
Probability says neither man will retire. Probability also says they will not fight each other. There will always be something. If the drug-test hurdle is surmounted, it will be a matter of what gloves to use. If there?s a treaty on the gloves, it will be a question of who enters the ring first. And all of this assumes ? assumes ridiculously, by the way ? that a revenue-sharing agreement could ever be reached between Mayweather Promotions, Top Rank and HBO.
HBO, after all, is more responsible for Mayweather?s ascension in pop culture than even Mayweather is. It has also put its weight behind making a Mayweather-Pacquiao fight before. Forget not: It was an HBO executive who told the MGM Grand media center immediately after 2009?s Pacquiao-Miguel Cotto fight that a Golden Boy Promotions rep had just called and promised negotiations with Top Rank to begin Monday. That was 23 months ago.
