Society of North American Sports Historians & Researchers HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA -May 12, 2013 – Some boxers? names are inextricably linked because of the ferocity and intensity of their battles against each other. Think Muhammad Ali-Joe Frazier. Think Arturo Gatti-Micky Ward. Think Sugar Ray Robinson-Jake LaMotta. Think Jack Dempsey-Gene Tunney.
There is another pair of pugilists whose names ? as it seems now, anyway ? will be forever associated because they didn?t fight each other when they should have.
Think Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr.
It?s hard to believe that only three years ago, these two were essentially tied for the top spot in the pound-for-pound rankings and on the verge of an encounter in the ring. Because they both fought in the 140-to-147-pound weight range, a showdown for supremacy was a natural. And for a while there, it looked as though a fight that would have been the biggest money-maker in the history of the sport was going to come off.
It didn?t, though. The supposed cause for the fighters? failure to connect was a dispute over pre-fight testing for performance-enhancing drugs. Mayweather insisted on random, Olympic-style testing. Pacquiao was willing to be tested, but not under the conditions the Mayweather camp demanded. Of course, there were other factors involved, mostly egotism and gamesmanship on both sides.
When it became clear that the fight all boxing fans wanted to see was not going to be made, Pacquiao and Mayweather moved on in different directions in the subsequent years. Pacquiao suffered back-to-back defeats in 2012: a bitterly-disputed points loss to Timothy Bradley and a shocking knockout at the hands of archrival Juan Manuel Marquez in their fourth encounter.
Mayweather?s road last year was rocky in a different way. A past-his-prime Miguel Cotto gave Mayweather all he could handle, pressing Floyd and bloodying the face of the erstwhile ?Pretty Boy.? Mayweather won the decision, but he seemed to be showing signs of slippage. After the fight, he served a brief jail sentence that resulted from a conviction on domestic-violence charges.
It looked as though both Floyd and Manny were headed downhill at the end of 2012. The question for this year was whether either or both of them can reverse that direction, and salvage a possible Pacquiao-Mayweather bout.
Mayweather was first up. Earlier this month, he erased all doubts concerning the current state of his game by thoroughly dominating a young, capable Robert Guerrero over 12 rounds.
On November 23, it will be Pacquiao?s turn to step up when he meets Brandon Rios in Macau. Although Rios is coming off a loss in a rematch with Mike Alvarado, he will still provide a good test for the Pacman. After all, Rios-Alvarado II was a Fight of the Year candidate, and Rios is an action fighter, as is Pacquiao.
Speaking of tests ? Pacquiao and Rios will both be undergoing random drug testing that will be administered by the Voluntary Anti-Doping Agency.
Note the word ?random?
Think full circle.
Think irony.
