So, no Pacquiao v Mayweather then?
There I was booking a giant plasma screen TV to arrive on November 13th, ordering the pizza’s four months in advance just in case, and even splashing out £20,000 to produce my own “super-fight special brew beer” to mark the occasion. With all preparations sorted, there’s just time to check the TV guide, see what time this momentous occasion kicks off.
Oh dear. It’s not on.
The deadline has passed, nothing was signed and everybody loses out. Cheers Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao.
Boxing is a sport that rarely does itself any favours and by not doing everything in its power to make the Pacquiao v Mayweather fight happen the sport has been discredited and the fans let down again.
It doesn’t matter who was to blame really. Pacquiao’s team laid all the blame at Mayweather’s door while “Money May” and his camp have been largely silent on the whole matter. So without insider knowledge it is impossible to know who was responsible, it’s just very disappointing.
Don’t fret though, Pacquiao has said he will fill the Mayweather-shaped-hole with either Miguel Cotto (again) or disgraced “plaster-gloves” Antonio Margarito. Those are two mouth-watering options. Would you rather see “Pacman” destroy Cotto like he did a few months ago, or would you rather see him fight someone who should really be a pariah of the sport after cheating in the most detestable way?
How does Margarito get to fight a pound-for-pound king so soon after being shamefully suspended for having been found with plaster in his gloves? Oh right, he is signed to Top Rank Promotions as well. That seems fair.
Where is Mayweather? Really where is he, what’s he doing right now? Diving into a bath of gold coins like Scrooge McDuck? He’s not signing a contract that’s for sure. Is it mind games? Does he want to wait until his uncle Roger Mayweather has sorted out his legal problems? Or does he just not want to fight? Surely fans deserve a proper answer.
You cannot begrudge anyone the decision not to face someone else for any reason in the boxing ring. It’s a tough sport and you need to want to do it a hundred per cent, be a hundred per cent confident and be a hundred per cent fit. These two have shown no indication they are none of these things and so there should be no reason why this fight hasn’t happened.
You can almost hear bored boxing fans defecting to MMA by the cage load. At least in that sport they only have one champion per weight division, a clear indicator as to who is the best so there is none of this rigmarole.
There was the blood-testing, problems with the money and the venue and all administrative things that surely could have been sorted out by an independent third party to ensure fairness. Both fighters said they wanted it, so someone should have invigilated the negotiations to produce a fair deal.
It’s all so shabbily organised nowadays at the top level. David Haye v the Klitschkos now this; at the top level a structure should be put into place to make the big fights happen.
They got it right with the super-six tournaments in the super-middles and word is they are looking at one for the light-welterweights, but the one-off championship matches at elite level, between fighters head and shoulders above the rest should be made to happen or it’s just going to destroy boxing as a sport. It must have lost a lot of face from this debacle alone.
Perhaps they should introduce some sort of league system where fighters can only fighter other boxers ranked within their league to ensure the calibre between the best is always there.
Therefore fighters can move up and down the leagues based on their ability and then we would have a clearer picture of who should be fighting who. This would work because the ranking system has been shot to pieces, for instance the Klitschkos don’t even rank in the top ten heavyweights as they don’t compete for their titles.
Whatever plans they come up with they need to look at some sort of fresh approach because the current system doesn’t work.
The biggest fight this century is off. It was a chance for two fighters to secure their legacy, get boxing back into main stream consciousness, excite the world and make everybody a h**l of a lot of money. Instead Pacquiao will continue to coast his way through Bob Arum’s stable and Mayweather will cherry pick another easy match-up and we can go through all this again next year.
Makes you wonder why you bother doesn’t it.
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