Arm twisting Mayweather into a fight with Pacquiao

By Boxing News - 10/04/2011 - Comments

Image: Arm twisting Mayweather into a fight with PacquiaoBy Babatis Banda: It is clear that there are serious attempts to arm-twist Floyd Mayweather into fighting Pacquiao. In the first place, there is a cult like following of Manny Pacquiao that either truly believes, or is dumb enough to believe that Floyd is scared of fighting Manny Pacquiao. There are a number of people who also believe that Floyd is too obsessed with keeping the ‘O’ intact.

These views are supported with the idea that Manny Pacquiao has done a better job than Floyd on the ‘like’ fighters they have fought. The argument by fans of Pacquiao has been centred on the idea that Mayweather senior will not let his son fight Packman because of what happened to his fighter, Ricky Hatton who apparently, could not follow important instructions on the fight night.

If you closely look at all the arguments, you will realize that they do not hold water. First of all, you will notice that Manny fought the same fighters Floyd fought a year or so later and in some cases, not at the same weight. This is exactly the same reason why the one sided Marquez Vs Floyd is not the yard stick of who wins between Floyd and Manny. All fights are different, because for sure, styles make the fight. Manny is not the first fighter that has damaged his opponents, we have watched too many fights were boxers are literally split open. We have also watched wicked knock-outs too many times to mention, and so, there is indeed nothing new about what Manny does for Floyd to dread him.

The real issue has been that Manny should submit to drug tests. While I agree that Floyd is not one of the most coherent individuals, the issue remains that there is no reason why Manny should refuse to take these tests and the rest of how it is done should be the subject of the discussions in the contracts and not through the press. There are a lot of press statements, some true and some false, some are actually half-truths and they only help fan the arguments further. We all agree that there should be no problem for drug testing, it is only morally right to do so to dispel any cheating rumours and so, the rest of how it is done will be in the negotiations of the contract.

It is only fair that Floyd should not be arm-twisted into fighting Manny without the full compliance to drug tests of both parties, after all, this will be the biggest of them all, the mother of all fights. Don’t have illusions about what Floyd did to Marquez, or what Manny did to Ricky Hatton, each fight is different, it will boil down to who is better equipped in areas that really matter and who is the better boxer. Let them agree on the drug testing and discuss in the negotiations about how it will be done to dispel the anxieties of both camps. Both Floyd and Manny did not rise to the top by avoiding other fighters, they had to defeat champions to be at the top and so, they are the last two standing champions. Only the fight will separate the two and for now, we can only talk all we want.



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