By Jaime Ortega: Floyd Mayweather Jr 47-0, financially speaking might be the smartest boxer to have ever cashed out from the sport of Boxing. But his boxing legacy as far as his career entitles, is closer to have the following inscribed in the Hall of Fame: ‘49-0,’ with an inscription bellow his record that reads ‘He never fought Pacquiao.’
Everyday, Floyd is constantly bombarded over and over again by the same poisonous question that seems to never leave him and his family alone. “Floyd when are you fighting Pacquiao?”
Five years have past, and the question is just as predominantly strong as it was before. Sure the fight might hold less relevance compared to 2009, but presently the clash is still about as good as it gets.
Living in Vegas NV, every time Floyd holds an event, he gets attacked by folks who scream, “Fight Pacquiao…Don’t be afraid!” And in my opinion, negative public opinion is only going to further tumult his legacy by hearsay and reformat his career as the man who was afraid of fighting the best of his generation.
The Media is not pro Floyd. Outside of the US, The UK Guardian and the BBC, are constantly bombarding Floyd, redacting negative opinions for his lack of competitive appetite to fight Pacquiao and lie about ‘giving the fans what they want to see‘. Even suggesting, “Floyd might be afraid of fighting the Filipino.” Adding, “He likes to take pride on fighting slow fighters he knows he can beat.”
Yahoo Sports and CBS Sports have also shown pro Pacquiao support the past few months, talking negativity about Mayweather. Perhaps Yahoo Sports the most aggressive out the two networks on their approach, asking to boycott Mayweather’s next fights if he doesn’t fight Paquiao.
CBS Sport broke a story a few days ago that promoted Pacquiao’s latest rant against Floyd; the viewer ship ratings and social media shares, significantly dwarfed Floyd’s twitter response with a significant margin of numbers.
More impressively, US Today lately also joined the campaign against Floyd, by giving Pacquiao more leverage on the never ending question as an article a few weeks ago suggested by begging the question ‘Could Mayweather stop Pacquiao’s versatility?”
The Media is not pro Mayweather because of his recent accusations related with beating up his ex-wife, added with his inability to read proper English. The media tends to detach itself from sporting rode models who present themselves in a negative manner; On that regard, Pacquiao is viewed as the nicer guy without a visible ego, showing a humble attitude in front the cameras.
A long and strong supporter of Floyd, ESPN commentator Stephen A. Smith has also shown signs of frustrations towards Floyd, telling him on live TV with desperate voice, “Stop saying you give fans what they want, and give us Manny Pacquiao!”
He is going to lose the media war, giving Pacquiao the psychological win. There is little doubt that Pacquiao lost the financial battle against Floyd by not accepting the initial deal, which in my personal opinion was a good deal, but only for Floyd’s benefit. But on the other side of the horizon, Pacquiao has won the mental side and the media shown more support to him than to Floyd.
Pacquiao is not just any other fighter, he holds his own gravity, and is also a Hall of Fame. He cannot be put on the same bracket as Marquez, or Canelo. He has arguably beaten tougher opponents than Floyd, including opponents Floyd never fought which were popular at the time, like Antonio Barrera and Eric Morales. Two very tough opponents who based on their records beat good opposition.
From the fans perspective, its probably not a good idea to talk about leftovers because Floyd has also fought other boxers leftovers (just look at his record and their loses when he defeated them). Also Floyd on a few broadcasted interviews said he doesn’t want to fight Marquez Leftovers, (indirectly referring to Pacquiao), but has Maidana not being the leftovers of Amir Khan? So why all the babble?
Another possibility is that if Floyd does not fight two hard opponents before he ends his infallible contract with Showtime in 2015. Pacquiao could still realistically catch up with him and even surpass Floyd in terms of legacy. But how?
All Pacquiao would have to do, is fight a few of the following upcoming champions and win: These include the likes of Danny Garcia, Keith Thurman, Kell Brooks, Saul Canelo as doing so, he would clearly have fought the harder competition between the two and more props would be added to his record. So, he could still surpass Floyd’s Hall of Fame rankings despite Floyd’s unbeaten record by taking on the harder opponents later on his career.
Its who beats the hardest opposition what makes any legend stand out, not who ends up with an unbeaten record. That is something most Floyd fans seem not to understand.
Not fighting Pacquiao would set Floyd’s career on a strange tangent he would never recover from. People would always doubt him. It would hunt him as long as he is alive, and undoubtedly looking at present coverage from different networks the media would lean to Pacquiao and give him the edge.
The media is not Floyd’s friend, and one thing I promise you, is that he will lose the mental battle if he doesn’t fight Pacquiao.
He needs to step up because the title TBE, his legacy, and personal life will be affected by the little Filipino forever after, and it will result in the equivalent of a loss.
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