By TFF: WBA/WBC welterweight champion Floyd Mayweather Jr (47-0, 26 KOs) may not like Bob Arum, the promoter for WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao (56-5-2, 38 KOs), and have no desire to do business with the man but wouldn’t that dislike be null and void if doing business with the man would net you more than twice the payday that he could acquire on his own merit/popularity? By that I mean a Pacquiao fight obviously.
In fact, it was posted a little over a week ago that Mayweather Jr has made roughly $400 million in his entire career. That’s impressive indeed but it pales in comparison to the possibility that Mayweather could net close to $300 million in a Pacquiao fight and a Pacquiao rematch for his last 2 fights.
Yes, the numbers are just speculations but they are based on predicted numbers off a worldwide desire for that fight to happen, and those numbers could go even higher with now China more active with pay-per-view buys.
What Mayweather does realize or just doesn’t want to realize is the fact that this Mega Payday fight only happens with Pacquiao added to the equation. Floyd fighting for $30 million per fight is chump change when he can make give or take $150 million with a single Pacquiao fight.
Mayweather fans are real quick to say Pacquiao got knocked out by Juan Manuel Marquez and Floyd totally dominated Marquez. So what’s the point? People who make comments like that know zero, zip and nada about the sweet science.
Pacquiao gives away his natural huge speed advantage when he fights Marquez because he is the stronger of the 2 and usually gets the better from exchanges by landing more punches on Marquez due to speed. Fighting Marquez this way helps him keep his aggression up. It’s the only boxer who Pacquiao’s chosen to fight this way and paid the ultimate price for it in their last encounter via devastating KO.
Tim Bradley easily out-boxed Marquez by using speed and movement and then Pacquiao turns around and out-boxes Bradley by using his speed and movement, so that’s just the way boxing is. It’s a rock paper scissor type of game when matching styles.
You can survive the Ebola virus but still be killed off by a common cold and by that I mean a much weaker opponent. We are tired of Mayweather’s prepared lines that he likes to interject, like for instance “He’s chosen his career path, and I’ve chosen mine but I wish him nothing but the best at what he does.” If that sounds familiar it’s because that comment or a variation of it is in every other Mayweather interview when Pacquiao’s name is mentioned. Now he calls himself TBE “The Best Ever” and in reality one of the funniest things this writer has ever heard in regards to Boxing.
I was a teenager in the 80s and was privileged to witness the Salvador Sanchez vs. Azuma Nelson fight, Sugar Ray Leonard vs. Benitez, Leonard vs. Roberto Duran, Leonard vs. Tommy Hearns, Marvin Hagler vs. Duran, Hearns vs. Hagler and finally Hagler vs. Leonard and they all took place within the span of less than a decade.
You may have noticed 4 recurring names there which are the reason my username is “The Fabulous Four” as a tribute to Sugar Ray Leonard, Roberto “Hands of Stone” Duran, Thomas “Hitman” Hearns and Marvelous Marvin Hagler, a testament to what a true boxing warrior spirit should be, they each reaffirmed how great they were trial by fire like true gladiators do. You think you’re better than me then we’ll settle it in the ring.
To be TBE as Floyd so eloquently puts, there is only one proven method in assessing your skills. Your greatness has to be measured by the strength of your opposition. As Obama likes to say occasionally “Period, Full Stop.” That’s it there is no other way. Now it’s not all Mayweather’s fault, he just happens to be in a boxing era where there isn’t a whole lot of strong opposition. But what is hurting his legacy the most is the fact that he’s avoided fighting the one and only great opponent from his era in Pacquiao that could better assess Mayweather’s greatness but instead he chooses to blog and speculate how much he would dominate Pacquiao and pull the masses to side with his opinion rather than fight him.
Pacquiao has more than proven his credibility with Erik Morales & Marco Antonio Barrera, 2 elite names that don’t exist on Mayweather’s resume. Pacquiao’s boxing style is more of the hands on ground troop soldier variety while Floyd’s is more of the sniper variety. So you can see why it’s harder to determine if he’s great. Jose Luis Castillo was good but not elite and Castillo was robbed in their 1st fight he out-pointed Mayweather by a large margin. It wasn’t even close. You could hear one HBO commentator say at the sound of the 12th round bell “Floyd needs a KO to win.”
People are also quick to point out that Floyd legitimately beat Corrales in the rematch so who cares and lets’ move on, but it’s very significant in that it’s Mayweather’s mantra 40+ have tried and all have failed. So in Mayweather’s case it makes matters worse because his zero should have been gone many, many years ago, and the fact that Mayweather fought the elites in his list which including Oscar De La Hoya and Shane Mosley were way past their prime when they fought Mayweather.
In fact, had Mayweather fought an already past his prime Shane Mosley just a year earlier, he probably would of lost by KO. Mayweather needs to stop coming up with excuses and just fight Pacquiao. In reality it’s the only redeeming factor for Mayweather at this point. Win or lose it doesn’t really matter other than making that fight happen.
By now the truth is out most already know Pacquiao agreed almost immediately to the drug testing but Mayweaher was quick to change directions at the first sign of objection to his requests and in fact it was Arum who initially said no to the unconventional drug testing at the time when Pacquiao was the main draw. Bob said no due to the accusatory way it was presented in the conditions of the fight.
In ending there should be no doubt from this point on who is responsible for making the fight happen. Pacquiao, Golden Boy Promotions, Top Rank, and from the sound of it HBO & Showtime are in some kind initial talks. Even the WBC has publicly announced that they are backing 100% this fight because it’s the fights the boxing fans wants on a worldwide level. So whether Mayweather wants that fight for himself, his boxing legacy, his fans or the boxing world is yet to be determined. A simple yes or no will suffice but Mayweather’s excuses have officially ran out
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