By Mr. Pennington: IF Floyd Mayweather Jr. wins so does Pacquiao, why you ask? It’s as easy as your high school economics class, supply and demand. There will always be a sector of fight fans that will hold the fight not happening between Mayweather and Pacquiao against Mayweather no matter what evidence is revealed.
Even if Mayweather goes on to defeat the undefeated, bigger, stronger, younger, Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, there will still be those who say Mayweather ducked Pacquiao out of fear. One school of thought would be “why would he be afraid of Pac, when he’s fighting a much bigger guy”, but that conversations for another day.
It’s safe to assume that Bob Arum hasn’t been much a Mayweather fan over the years, but in the case of the fight coming September 14th, my money says that Bob is pulling for Mayweather for the first time.
Pacquiao is still a superstar in the sport of boxing, there is no questioning that. But no matter how we cut it, when you get knocked out cold, even a star can lose its shine a bit. Pacquiao now is struggling to retain superstar status as anyone else would after being knocked out. In recent history, champions are able retain their star status even after being knocked out. Oscar Dela Hoya comes to mind after being dropped by Bernard Hopkins.
Muhammad Ali after being destroyed by the left hook of the undisputed champion Joe Frazier. But there was always an intangible those fighters had that Manny may not. For Ali there were many contenders to sort through, he was also coming off three years out of the sport. Oscar was reaching, everyone knew Bernard was too big for Oscar, but Oscars self believe always pushed him into the hard fights.
In my estimation Oscar was never satisfied being the pay per view king, his drive was to always be recognized as the number one boxer in the sport. After beating Felix Trinidad, he thought the praise of him being the pound for pound champ would be all his, but it was never to be. Fans never gave Oscar his credit for the win; many never forgave him for being on his bike in the late rounds.
So Oscar, still in search of redemption, and the praise from the fight community, figured if he beat the man that blow Trinidad away, he could finally get his recognition. In the end Hopkins put Oscar away with a body shot that folded Oscar like a lawn chair. Oscar was still able to comeback for one more shot at redemption versus Mayweather, but again came up short. This is why now Oscar holds such a grudge against Mayweather, because he was never to attain the status in the world of boxing that Mayweather has. Again, that’s a conversation for another day, back to the story.
With a Mayweather victory, it seems he would have just about run the gambit of opponents that have a chance to beat him. A win versus Alvarez would go a long way for his legacy, and to some degree erasing the stain for the Pacquiao fight never happening. But a Mayweather victory also does wonders for Pacquiao himself.
With a win versus Alvarez for Mayweather, fans will immediately start looking for the next guy to fight Mayweather. We have Lucas Mattysee, Danny Garcia, then who else, Amir Khan, Tim Bradley, really, does anyone think any of those guys have a chance?, I don’t. But there will always be one man who has a chance in the mind of many, even if the chance of that man winning has decreased a bit, there is still a chance. And in the event that Pacquiao returns to spectacular form versus Rios, rest assured the talks of the match that was never to be will be in full swing once again.
Mayweather winning is a win win for both Floyd and Manny, and oddly for us the fans too. No matter what’s been said about either fighter over the years, the two together are a lightning rod for the sport and keep us engaged in boxing, I happen to enjoy that. I wonder what Arum’s thinking, my money says he’s pulling for Floyd in this one.
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