Manny Pacquiao agreed to drug testing all the way to the fight

By Boxing News - 07/14/2010 - Comments

By Simon Sheppard: The generosity of Manny Pacquiao can not manifests itself better than in this light. He could have turned away and rejected Floyd Mayweather’s demands on the testing using the NSAC as his point of argument. But no, he conceded to the demand.

Bob Arum told Dan Rafael of ESPN that Pacquiao accepted the terms of the random drug testing, blood and urine, leading up to the fight. He wasn’t forthcoming on the details, but Michael Koncz, the advisor of Pacquiao, said that there was also no argument regarding the 50/50 purse split.

Manny Pacquiao seemed to have got tired of all the nonsense. Like ok, whatever you want, let’s just fight. Knowing it’s the fight everybody wants to see, he did everything on his part to make it happen. Going against his principles to please all the boxing fans. Wanting to leave a lasting legacy. Wanting to answer the big question, once and for all, inside that squared circle.

However the negotiations turn out, Pacquiao will still fight on November 13th . What is still undecided is if it’s going to be against Miguel Cotto or Antonio Margarito. Whomever he faces of the two, Pacquiao is gunning for another record, an 8th weight class, the Junior Middleweight 154 title. Against Miguel Cotto it’s for the WBA belt. And against Margarito for the WBC version, which Sergio Martinez vacated.

Now it’s up to Floyd whether the fight gets made or not.

Floyd can forget the fans.
He can forget the legacy, of which he doesn’t care anyway.
Floyd can do it even just for the money.
We would understand perfectly, even applaud him for it.

Like Arum said “It’s Friday, and it’s 11:00 pm, if Floyd says we have a deal, we have a deal.”
But if Floyd wants to fight next year, they even gave him that option.
Both fights, Cotto and Margarito, would be a hard sell to most fans.

Cotto was dominated by Pacquiao in their previous fight, while Margarito lost a lot of his fans after the handwrap incident.

It is very rare in an era, or in a generation, that two prime fighters at their peaks get to face each other. Many questions will be answered with this fight. Questions like who will prevail – slugger vs. the pure boxer? Offense vs. defense? Who will be faster?
And the biggest question of all – who is truly the Pound for Pound King in this generation?

It’s all up to Floyd now to have the chance to answer all those questions.



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