COMMENTARY | Usually, Christmas is a time of peace, love, and understanding. Even in the rough and tough world of professional boxing, hearts tend to grow warm and grudges get temporarily put aside during the holiday season.
However, this year, at least for Team Mayweather, there seems to be no momentary, warm and fuzzy truce for the season.
Mayweather and his crew are still actively hunting for Mayweather’s May 3 opponent and would probably like to come up with a bankable, competitively viable foe and begin the promotional process by the first week of January.
While this search for the perfect opponent is going on, Mayweather is still being bombarded with talk of Manny Pacquiao and the possibility of ever staging that mega-fight.
On Thursday morning, less than a full day after Christmas festivities, Mayweather (or someone in his close circle of associates) took to social media and let out a less-than-festive comment about his Filipino arch-nemesis.
“Juan Marquez ate Timothy Bradley’s leftovers,” Mayweather said via his verified, personal Twitter account. “Now you’re telling me I got to eat Juan Marquez’s leftovers? Let me talk to the IRS about this?”
The tweet was accompanied by a photoshopped depiction of Mayweather landing a strong left jab flush on Pacquiao’s face.
Of course, because he is who he is and went after who he went after, the Mayweather tweets take on an exaggerated importance in the boxing world, especially in what is traditionally considered to be a slow news cycle for the sport.
By now, we all know about the difficulties in putting together the Mayweather-Pacquiao clash and, also by now, we’ve all formed our opinions as to who is ultimately responsible for the no-fight fiasco. But, whatever the case, Mayweather appears to truly feel that Pacquiao is well beneath him at this point and is, therefore, simply not worth the effort involved in trying to make a deal with hated former promoter (and Pacquiao’s current hype man), Bob Arum.
It should come as no surprise, then, that Mayweather would choose to lash back at the endless Pacquiao chatter with derisive remarks and a dismissive attitude.
In the grand scheme of things, two little tweets mean nothing in the everlasting Mayweather-Pacquiao debate. Think of the social media banter as merely an effort from Team Mayweather to rally the troops for support before making a tough, sure to be criticized matchmaking decision for his upcoming bout.
Shortly before the Pacquiao tweets, Mayweather also made comments about two of the likely candidates in the “Mayweather Sweepstakes” on May 3 and also accompanied the harsh words with photoshopped depictions of Mayweather schooling them:
“Just imagine what Amir ‘Con Artist’ will get if his name gets picked in the Mayweather sweepstakes…”
“Can I please order a one-piece with a biscuit? No sides. (Said in reference to Marcos Maidana).”
Boxing fans shouldn’t be surprised to find that even a feel-good Christmas holiday can’t ease the tensions between Mayweather and Pacquiao. And forget about any “positivity” seeing the light of day, at least until Mayweather wins his next fight on May 3.
Until then, fight fans will just have to deal with the silliness that often comes along with big-time boxing promotion.
Paul Magno was a licensed official in the state of Michoacan, Mexico and is the author of Notes from the Boxing Underground. His work can also be found on Fox Sports and as Editor-in-Chief of The Boxing Tribune. In the past, Paul has done work for Inside Fights, The Queensberry Rules and Eastside Boxing. For breaking news, additional analysis, and assorted crazy commentary, follow him on Facebook, @TheBoxingTribune or on Twitter, @BoxingBTBC.
