Riding on the coattails of a much better than expected 2012 boxing season, where the boxing fan was treated to multiple Fight of the Year candidates and the annual and bi-annual appearances of top players Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao, what 2013 holds will be more than enough, and possibly even better than its predecessor as we head into the first full year of President Barack Obama?s second term.
While we once again logged another 365 days without a May-Pac showdown in 2012, and we can pretty much guarantee we are in for another 365 without the two pairing up, we will again see them in the ring at least once a piece (two if Mayweather?s two fight claim holds true in 2013) and we will see two compelling rematches in the ring as the big guns of Top Rank and Golden Boy Promotions gear up with at least two mega fights apiece in 2013.
Acting as a ?de facto? promoter for Mayweather since 2007, GBP will be showcasing the top fighter once in May, and if May has it his way, another fight in September which would see the Las Vegas native fight twice in the same year for the first time since 2007. Opponent rumors are Robert Guerrero in May and Saul ?Canelo? Alvarez in September in what would be two mega fight, pay-per-view affairs for Mayweather and Golden Boy Promotions.
GBP CEO Richard Schaefer has also discussed having a ?Knockout Kings 2? card mid-year, and will also showcase house fighters Bernard Hopkins and Amir Khan in the first quarter of 2013, as well as more fight cards from the Barclay?s Center in New York as part of a promotional deal with the venue.
Top Rank has formal plans to stage the rematch of a Fight of the Year candidate bout between Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. and Sergio Martinez, barring Martinez being successful against Martin Murray in April in a hometown defense of his WBC middleweight title in Argentina and things getting ironed out with JCCJ?s marijuana suspension.
TR also has reportedly tentatively set the fifth installment of the Manny Pacquiao/Juan Manuel Marquez fight for September, coming off the heels of the successful Fight of the Year fourth fight in December 2012, which many believe also produced round of the year, and was an absolute slam dunk for knockout of the year as Marquez leveled the Pac Man with a counter right hand to close out the six round after the top fighters had traded knockdowns earlier in the fight.
Also in their back pocket is a rematch of another FOTY candidate, the rock em? sock em? bout between undefeated fighters Brandon Rios and Mike Alvarado, which is also tentatively set for late March in Las Vegas.
The bottom line is that boxing is going to have a very strong year in 2013 and fans will be treated to more than enough action than one can handle in what will hopefully be consecutive positive years for the sport.
So don?t worry about another 365 without ?that fight?.
WHAT TO EXPECT FROM PAC & MAY
The Pac Man and Money simply have not been able to come to an agreement to meet in the ring, and may never at this point. It is a shame that fans were not treated to the No. 1 and No. 2 welterweights in the world fighting each other at the correct time, but the reality is what it is at this juncture, so we?re left with what we?re left with.
What we can expect from this point from the two fighters is where they take their separate careers in 2013 and how they end them.
Photo: Chris Farina / Top Rank
For Pacquiao, it will be the determination of if he can successfully resume his career after a shocking KO loss to Marquez.
The good thing is that the comeback blueprint has already been drawn numerous times throughout boxing history, most namely by Roberto Duran. Duran was knocked down with one solid shot and took a trip to the canvas in the same fashion as Pacquiao against Thomas Hearns in his 1984 title fight with Thomas Hearns.
While it can be argued that ?Manos de Peidra? was never the same after the loss, Duran still fought for another decade and a half and was able to nab another world title in the process. Duran is still known as one of the best, if not the best lightweights in boxing history.
Pacquiao made a remarkable run from the featherweight to the light middleweight division from 2007 to 2010 and made his mark as the only eight division champion in history and one of the greatest to ever glove up.
At this point, Pacquiao finally has reached his decline and it is incumbent on him to write the last chapter of his remarkable career, and that road leads through a rematch with his greatest rival and beyond, as we can expect the Pac Man to fight until at least 2014 as reportedly stipulated in his contract with Top Rank.
In looking at Mayweather, at this stage in his career, he has successfully kept in-tact his undefeated record and maintained a one-fight per year schedule into his mid-30?s, which has preserved the fighter well and could lead to him fighting well into his late 30?s.
With Mayweather so expertly choosing to fight veterans on the decline and talented yet tainted young and experienced fighters in the past few years, if he so chooses to keep with that game plan, Mayweather will risk getting knocked off by a fresher fighter or being one-upped by another experienced fighter.
In a strange twist, at this stage, as Mayweather only has a handful of matches left before he hangs them up, fans themselves will become as interested as Mayweather is to see if can cross the finish line undefeated and less interested in the quality of his opposition. The elusive ?0? mark will become more and more the prominent symbol that either gets erased or etched into history.
In either event, at this point, we must now change our thought process to not if/when/why/why not Mayweather and Pacquiao will ever fight, but rather how each of them will continue going into 2013? and beyond.
