The Failure to Negotiate (Mayweather-Pacquiao): A tragedy for boxing or the beginning of something great?

By Kevin Fleck: March 13th 2010, the atmosphere thick with expectation, the crowd packed with the now familiar celebrity faces, the grand boxers of yesteryear and the rapturous crowd; all drowning in a concoction of pre-fight nerves, and noise not heard since the great Rumble in the Jungle, nearly half a century ago.

Maybe that’s why when Bob Arum said ‘It’s off!’ there was such disbelief. This is just more hype, there’s too much money involved for this not to happen, right? We can look at this two ways; either the people involved have failed the fans who spend their increasingly scarce money on watching these superstars, hoping for them, the pound for pound champs to battle it out for supremacy. But what if in the long term that failure to negotiate meant boxing was on the cusp of an era of greatness once again – an era to match the likes of Ali, Frazier, Foreman etc, or that which belonged to Leonard, Hearns and Duran.

Maybe when people talk of boxing 20 years from now they’ll talk of Mayweather, Pacquaio and

Mosley, just maybe.

I’d imagine most boxing fans felt a great disappointment when the realisation kicked in that we wouldn’t all be treated to the eagerly anticipated bout, between the universally recognised Pound for Pound number 1 and 2 fighters respectively, Manny Pacquaio and Floyd Mayweather Jr. However, ever since Pacquiao had all but annihilated Miguel Cotto back in November of 2009 and the talk of a Pacquiao-Mayweather fight had become inevitable; there was a lingering thought of ‘what next’ which made the fight increasingly special and rare. It’s this rarity which maybe prolongs boxing, why, although not as popular as forty or even twenty years ago, the great sport still holds a place among many hearts, young and old.

I thought, well regardless of whom wins between Mayweather and Pacquaio; who does the victor fight next, most obviously the answer would have the winner of the expected Shane Mosley vs Andre Berto fight. And then what do the two losers from the bouts do – face each other in a 3rd/4th place playoff! Well that hardly seems any good for boxing, when we have three fighters considered to be pound for pound the best, fighting in the same weightclass. On the other hand I couldn’t or maybe just didn’t want to pick a winner between Mayweather and Pacquaio and maybe the judges would feel the same. The fight would more than likely be close, (unless of course a knockout decided the match up) and so a possible rematch would be on the cards. But my main concern was that we wanted the main prize too soon. In essence the saying that we are ‘trying to run before we can walk’ applies, in that we need to build up to the pinnacle, not to rush it before its time.

I know that’s what boxing is generally all about; you have a winner and a loser. Losing isn’t necessarily the end for a boxer either; otherwise we’d not have many boxers. Pacquiao has 3 losses and Mosley 5 on his record and look at their relevance right now. But this is different, because when you reach the pinnacle you can only go down.

Arguably this is, some believe the reason why the two didn’t want to fight each other, the fear of losing and so began the blame game. If you’re a Mayweather or a Pacquaio fan, you will probably have apportioned the blame to one of the fighters. I read it all, Mayweather’s ducking another big fight, he’s nothing without his unbeaten record and therefore, if a fight is dangerous he’ll make excuses and or demands to the point where a negotiation is impossible. But boxing is dangerous, all it takes is one mistake, one lucky shot and you’re out of there so isn’t every fight dangerous? I can see the point that Mayweather is riding his ‘0’ for all its worth and to an extent I would probably have done the same up to a point. But now Mayweather is wanted by the best fighters, and he has the money, the cars etc the security, and now it is time to make a lasting legacy. Leonard Ellerbe remarked during the HBO 24/7 series that, ‘Money makes sense, if a fight don’t make money then it don’t make sense’. It’s why Mayweather does want this fight because it makes sense, but it’s all in the detail and the timing could be the most important detail in the making of this superfight.

Pacquiao has also had his critics, branded a cheat for his failure to accept the proposed random blood testing up until to the fight. I really don’t think Pacquiao is a cheat unless, there is a great conspiracy to hide drug use in boxing, because although Manny became more relevant after Mayweathers brief retirement , the guy is unbeaten in 11 straight fights, what did he just decide heck I’m gonna start taking some steroids, after his defeat to Erik Morales in 2005, doubtful.

Recently Freddie Roach said of Amir Khan’s possible defence against Maidana that boxing is a business and other options maybe more sensible. You’ve got to ask, can there be a more sensible fight, a fight with such relevance and a fight which makes so much business sense at the same time as a Mayweather-Paquiao fight.

I know a lot of people in boxing hold Shane Mosley in the highest regard and the number of referrals back to his destruction of Antonio Margarito in January 2009, is not without justification – but at the same time his numbers aren’t nearly as good as Pacquiao’s or Mayweather’s and although a fight between Mosley and either of those would be riveting viewing; it doesn’t seem to have the same degree of anticipation with which a Mayweather-Pacquiao bout is met.

Nevertheless, Mosley can still play his part in our wait for the fight, which I consider to be at the pinnacle. Deals are apparently being thrashed out for a Mayweather-Mosley fight and as we know Pacquaio has a fight scheduled against Joshua Clottey for March 13th. I accept its risky to a point in that Pacquiao or Mayweather could lose their proposed bouts and all of this will seem irrelevant, it’s all a lot of if’s and buts for now – only time will truly decide, as well as increase the anticipation of possibly the greatest super fight of them all. Mayweather said the idea of America is based on two things, money and controversy. Whether you agree with that or not, in boxing that theory is almost certainly true and the failings in negotiations were definitely controversial, but doesn’t it just hype it up another level, a rare fight that will be worth the wait.

Although upon first reading it might seem silly and naive to consider this fight too rare to be rushed and fought out as we the public so demanded, the ‘bite-size culture’ with which the world has become so acclimatised to, occasionally needs to take a step back, so that on occasions we may all appreciate what is great and good in an all too often negative environment. I don’t want to start comparing the sport to a ‘great whisky’ or wine, that takes years to mature into a great, but you get the idea – the wait for the bout only further whets the appetite, even if it’s killing us all to wait, for boxing this may well be the best thing that could have happened, as the world awaits the grandest bout of them all.

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