HUMAN history is replete with tales of events that everybody wanted to happen or stories that we would have wanted to be continued but somehow these never happened or ended soon enough. What would have if Eva Braun bore Adolf Hitler a son? Would he have been as evil as Hitler? Or what would have happened to America had John F. Kennedy lived to finish his presidency and was not assassinated? Would he have made America a greater nation?
What would have become of the Philippines had Ninoy Aquino not been murdered and became the country?s President? Would Cory and Noynoy have even entered politics?
Nobody will ever know the answer and yet even until today we still talk about the ?What ifs? of these stories and many other events that never came to fruition.
In boxing, one of the greatest match ups everybody wanted to see many years ago was the dream fight between World Heavyweight Champion Muhammad Ali and 3-time Olympic gold medalist Teofilo Stevenson.
Ali was at the height of his career and was considered the Greatest Heavyweight of all time when a taciturn and almost reclusive heavyweight amateur boxer from Fidel Castro?s Cuba made history as the only heavyweight fighter in the history of the Olympic Games to win three gold medals in three successive Olympics.
Stevenson demolished his opponent with a very simple and basic jab-straight combination while Ali humiliated his opponents by floating like a butterfly and stinging them like a bee.
And so, everybody in boxing then thought it was a great idea to match up the two sensational heavyweights and promoters like Don King tried to lure Stevenson to turn professional and fight Ali in America.
Offered $5-M to fight Ali after winning his second Olympic gold, Stevenson declined the offer saying: ?What is $5 million compared to the love of 8 million Cubans??
Which brings us now to the fight everybody is dreaming of watching but which will never happen?Manny Pacquiao versus Floyd Mayweather Jr.
Unlike the Ali vs. Stevenson match up which also had deep political undercurrents given the fact that America was at odds with Cuba and this could have adversely affected the planned fight, there is nothing political about the Pacquiao-Mayweather dream fight.
