By Giancarlo Malinconico: Rather than face Manny Pacquiao in the biggest bout in boxing history later this year, Floyd Mayweather has decided to follow the old ninja motto: never take a battle unless you know you can win. In fact, I have written several articles on suspicion that Mayweather never truly intended to face the Pac Man. Upon his return to the sport of boxing in 2009, instead of waiting one more day for the Pacquiao and Rick Hatton match to occur, Mayweather announced his return against the much smaller Juan Manuel Marquez, who apparently “called him out,” and who was fighting two divisions from Mayweather’s weight class down at the lightweight limit.
After Pacquiao’s destruction of Hatton, and Miguel Cotto in November 2009, Mayweather would find another excuse to avoid facing the Filipino icon: the unprecedented request for random blood testing. The Mayweathers, including Floyd Jr., his father, Floyd Sr., and his uncle, Roger Mayweather (who has recently been charged with the alleged assault of a female professional boxer, but ironically wants the public to believe he is innocent until proven guilty) have accused Pacquiao of using performing-enhancing drugs without a shred of evidence. Moreover, Pacquiao has never tested positive for an illegal substance in his career.
After negotiations for a bout in early 2010 fell through, Mayweather would face the 38-year-old Shane Mosley who was coming off a more than one-year layoff since his knockout win over Antonio Margarito. Pacquiao would go on to dominate Joshua Clottey over 12 rounds. Some in the media believed that Mayweather was merely delaying the bout until he felt the ring rust was gone from his brief hiatus from the sport of boxing during all of 2008 and much of 2009.
I, on the other hand, had previously written articles accusing Mayweather of ducking Pacquiao. Now I believe that if the latest reports that Floyd wants to take a “year or two off” from the sport are true, then Mayweather has finally ducked a bout with Pacquiao for good. The first excuse Mayweather had for not facing Pacquiao was a 14-day cutoff point before fight night. Manny has recently agreed, but Floyd changed that proposal to random testing up to the day of the fight. Moreover, Mayweather had demanded a 60-40 purse split in his favor. Two conditions that would ensure the bout would never take place.
If the biggest bout in boxing history does not happen between Mayweather and Pacquiao, many fans and pundits will defend Floyd, but will “Money” be able to defend his decision of not facing the Pac Man to the majority of the public even after Manny had agreed to all of his conditions during the first round of negotiations in early 2010. Floyd can retire, but the memory of avoiding the other great fighter of his era, who agreed to his original terms without compromise, will haunt Mayweather for the rest of his life. When you turn down a fight with the pound-for-pound best fighter in the world, and the Fighter-of-the-Decade award winner, it is difficult to justify to the hardcore and informed sector of the boxing public that you belong anywhere near a list of the greatest boxers of all-time.
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