When will the fans turn on Manny Pacquiao?

By @James_theGrad - 12/04/2013 - Comments

pac783By by James Le Blanc: The stage was set, the moment couldn’t be any more perfect, Manny Pacquiao had just given Brandon Rios the lesson of a life time which is ‘Boxer beats tough guy’ 99% of the time. HBO’s Max Kellerman had the microphone, and asked the probing question that every fighter gets once they dish out a beating, “and who are you looking forward to Manny, what are you looking forward to?” This is the part where Manny says ‘Bring on Floyd Mayweather, let’s give the fans what they want to see!!”

But that didn’t happen. Instead Manny deferred to his promoter Bob Arum once again who is already giving us a glimpse of the possibility of this fight by stating Manny would return in April knowing good and well Floyd has set his dates in May and September of 2014. We know the players; we know the rules to the game have changed and that it is very unlikely for Golden Boy to work with Top Rank. But at what point do we say these fighters; these exceptional boxers that have built an incredible legacy are above all this?

HBO clearly picked a side when they released their statement that they would no longer be working with Golden Boy; a move that I thought was very unprofessional.  But we forget that there was a time when the networks Showtime and HBO worked together. Arum brought this up a few weeks ago, I had only come to realize it a few months ago when I was watching old YouTube fights of Mike Tyson. When he fought Lennox Lewis in 2002 I noticed that Jimmy Lennon Jr. introduced Mike Tyson, and then Michael Buffer introduced Lennox Lewis.

Floyd Mayweather was extremely adamant about fighting Manny last year before he had to complete his jail sentence. His tweet calling out Manny Pacquiao is among the most re-tweeted tweets ever.  He even called and talked to Manny personally, stating that he would wire him half of 40million, the highest purse Manny has ever made, possibly the highest he ever could have made. Manny Pacquiao responded to Floyd as simple as ever, “50-50” and then he hung up in Floyd’s face.

Pacquiao would go on to lose his next two fights, one by a vicious KO, and with his return bout having come and gone against a foe I never would have imagined would be facing Top Ranks head honcho, we are at square one  wondering what can be done. Now Manny is willing to take the random blood and urine testing, and he did it in his most recent fight. Now Bob Arum is throwing Floyd’s name around as if he shouldn’t be paying Floyd money as he uses his name to continue promoting his own fighter.  Floyd just recently gained the highest guarantee in boxing history; while Manny made just a fraction of that will they still want 50-50? Does Manny think he deserves that as Floyd just broke his own PPV record earlier this year?

It’s being reported that Floyd is set to announce his next opponent within a couple of weeks, the front runner is Amir Khan, an opponent that has lost 2 out of his last 4 fights, and has not looked good in his recent wins. It’s hard for me to believe that’s the guy Floyd will fight next and I am a huge Amir Khan fan. When is Manny going to step up and be his own man instead of hiding behind his promoter that has absolutely no intentions of working with Floyd or Golden Boy? When is Manny going to be the boss of his own legacy, his own campaign to be the best of his era and demand Arum make this fight happen? The ball has always been in Manny’s court. When this fight was first mentioned years ago everything was agreed upon except random blood and urine testing. Now things have changed, but the possibilities of two of the best fighters in the welterweight division, fighting each other has not. It can happen; the ball has always been in Manny’s court.

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