By Robert Elmore: Manny Pacquiao was searching for his 8th title in an 8th different weight class. A fight between Top Rank fighter Yuri Foreman was talked about, but Yuri’s height of 5 ft 11’ inches, was cited why the fight could not get made. Sometime later, a fight between 5 ft, 11 inch Antonio Margarito-Pacquiao (the same height as Foreman) was arranged for the WBC 154 pound belt.
Pacquiao defeated Margarito and won the belt. Here are some interesting facts about Pacquiao’s actions. The WBC board of governors voted unanimously on declaring the title vacant. Bob Arum said Pacquiao sent a letter to the WBC telling them that he (Pacquiao) had no plans of defending the title or campaign at junior middle weight (http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/boxing/news/story?id=6103133).
But here is where it gets interesting. Manny returned to the welterweight division and was welcomed with open arms. There was no media pressure for Pac to defend his 154 pound title. In the eyes of his fans, he had won 8 titles in 8 different weight class. Here is another interesting fact. Guess who was next in line for WBC title? You’ve guess it; Saul Canelo Alvarez.
Talks of a rematch between Cotto and Pacquiao came up, but there was one problem; the weight. Cotto wanted the fight at 154, Pac wanted it at 147 so nothing came of it. Cotto caved in to Pac’s demand of the 145 catch weight at the welterweight division in 2009. On the second go round, Pac stood firm on stance as did Cotto, so the fight was never made. Pac probably felt like Cotto needed the fight more than him seeing that Cotto was the one who lost. The media quickly swept the story under the carpet and it went away.
In Floyd Mayweather’s case, the media is doing everything they can to keep the story alive. They refuse to let it die until with either Floyd gives in and fights Canelo or he is defeated. Floyd has journeyed to the 154 weight class twice. Once because Oscar De La Hoya was the man to beat so he called all the shots. Floyd had to concede to Oscar’s demands or no fight.
Floyd conceded. Floyd won. Floyd is now the man. In my opinion, the reason why Floyd went up to fight Cotto was out of sheer respect. Cotto didn’t need the fight or the recognition. He is a hall of famer, has a great resume, paid his dues in the catchweight department, is the 3rd biggest pay per view star in North America, and has accomplished a great deal. So to ask a man of Cotto’s status to come down would have been insulting.
The Floyd-Canelo fight deals with the same issue; weight. Floyd last fight was at 147, but the media and his haters are calling him a coward if he doesn’t fight Canelo at 154. Let’s states some facts. Canelo is a Mexican superstar, not a Mexican American super star. He’s fought nothing but blown up junior welter weights and welter weights until recently. He has yet to head line his own pay per view and needs the fight for more than Mayweather.
Canelo fan’s are quick to point out that there were 39,247 in the Alamo Dome, but leave out the fact that the most the cheapest ticket was 10 dollars while the most expensive was 300 dollars. That was Floyd’s lowest ticket against Robert Guerrero. If Golden Boy wanted to make it fan friendly, that was good, but that has nothing to do with Floyd. So you have two similar situations in Pac and Floyd.
Pac won’t go above 147 to fight anymore, had a title at junior middleweight and had no intentions of defending it, so how come he’s not a coward? Canelo won’t fight within his own division or move up to the 160 pound division or 168, because his fans claim he’s only 5’7’ and those guys (such as Andre Ward, Matthew Macklin, Sergio Martinez) are bigger than him. How come he’s not a coward? But Floyd won’t fight above 147, but he is a coward? Don’t just single out one fighter. All 3 fighters won’t fight above their weight class so what’s the difference, really?
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