Mayweather-Pacquiao: It’s All About Time

By Boxing News - 11/27/2014 - Comments

mayweather2Time and tide wait for no man. -Geoffrey Chaucer

By Kevin Pasquale – Here we go again.

Roughly 840 nights ago, in the closing seconds of the sixth round of a furiously fought fourth matchup between a suddenly shredded & muscle-bound Juan Manuel Marquez and Manny Pacquiao at the MGM Grand, things ended with a resounding thud. The boxing world had come to a halt. Pacquaio, smelling blood in the water after throttling Marquez throughout the round, got sloppy, and stutter-stepped himself into a brutal short right hand from Marquez that would plant him face-first into the canvas, unconscious. Fight over. That right hand spelled the end of all the relentless talk surrounding a potential Pacquiao-Mayweather matchup. I remember immediately texting a good friend of mine, saying, “well, there goes the mayweather-pac fight. Manny is done”. Well, not quite.

Before the night of Pacquio-Marquez 4, Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao had managed to find every way possible to NOT get in the ring together for several years, (beginning roughly in 2009) even though everyone in the boxing community was clamoring—heck, begging for it to happen. (A lot of frustration for this non-fight was directed at Mayweather, who seemed to be artfully dodging PacMan at every turn, even though he continually claimed to do nothing but give fight fans want they wanted. But that story’s for another day). Pacquiao had been on a rampage that had started gathering steam in June of 2008, with the destruction of a withered Oscar De La Hoya. Meanwhile, Floyd was, well, being Floyd. He “retired” from the sport after KO’ing Ricky Hatton in August of 2007, only to return two years later and begin his P4P reign again by easily dismantling a then much smaller, and outgunned, Juan Manuel Marquez.

Time went on, the two fighters fought other guys, until the human cannonball that was Pacquiao finally started to slow down and show rust, starting with his third fight with Marquez in December 2011, and then, most notably, against Timothy Bradley in his next fight. This was inevitable. Pacquiao had been in a litany of brutal battles in the ring as a younger, smaller man before his epic run through the weight classes beginning in ‘08. (Manny’s first fight with the Mexican legend, Eric Morales, in 2005, was as a super featherweight–129.5 pounds). Pacquiao had been a human highlight film, a whirling dervish, throwing thunderous bombs from all angles, in a blazing quick, unorthodox way that left his outgunned opponent clueless about what was coming next, and from where. But, unlike Mayweather, whose defense was, and still is, utterly impeccable, Manny was leaving himself open to get hit in many of these wars he was waging, and the accumulation of eating too many shots was catching up to him. He was a little guy who dished out punishment on a grand scale, but at the cost of getting hit in return. (A prime example of this: after Pacquiao brutally defeated Miguel Cotto by TKO in the 12th round in December of 2009, he left the ring all smiles, but with a heavily marked and bruised face. By just looking at his face post-fight, you might have thought he was the beaten fighter. But you should have seen the other guy).

A fourth fight with Marquez in 2012 seemed to be overkill. We had seen three epic battles between the two fighters previously, with Marquez coming up on the short end in the last 2 fights, although in very questionable fashion. Floyd was coming off of a hard-fought victory over a game Miguel Cotto at 154 pounds in May of that year, and Pacquiao fought Timothy Bradley one month later. After Pacquiao’s hotly debated split-decision loss, Floyd had attained his get-out-of-jail-free card. Manny did not look that sharp against Bradley, and was a relative shell of the ferocious fighter we had seen before. He did not go for the proverbial kill, and was content to win on the cards, and he paid for it. Some shine had come from the Money-Manny matchup.

So, with Floyd deciding to take another year off before fighting again (his next opponent would be an overmatched Robert Guerrero), the obligation was on Pacquiao to step back in the ring, and Marquez was chosen for the December date. Ho-hum.

But it was anything but. The six rounds were scintillating, with Marquez gaining the ultimate redemption, and seemingly putting the final nail in the coffin of Pacquiao’s illustrious career.

But just like life, boxing is renowned for giving second chances.

There are far too many examples of this to go into, so let’s go back to Cotto. After his brutal, “too-difficult-to watch” defeat at the hands of a corrupt Antonio Margarito in July of 2008, and culminating with his very similar beat down at the hands of Pacquaio 16 months later, did ANYONE think he would be in the ring with Floyd Mayweather two and a half years after that, earning the biggest payday of his career? (reported at roughly $8 million before PPV proceeds. Not bad.)

So, when Pacquiao finally regained consciousness, he went back to the lab. He started with an easy 12-round decision over a smaller Brandon Rios, and then Bradley came calling again. Bradley clearly thought Manny was a shot fighter at this point, coming in with the announced game plan that he would go for the KO. Bad decision. Pacquiao was sharp this time, and maneuvered his way around too many sloppy home run shots from Bradley, for an easy decision win, and then moved on, selecting the feisty, but smaller, Chris Algieri as his next opponent. Pacquiao throttled Algieri, dropping him a ridiculous six times, showing vestiges of the Tasmanian devil he once was, and the Mayweather chatter had come back from the dead.

Meanwhile, Floyd Mayweather is coming from back-to-back wins over Marcos Maidana, neither of which were big pay-per-view draws. And, he has only 2 fights left on his monstrous six-fight deal with Showtime. Mayweather will be 38 years old in February. Manny Pacquiao will turn 36 in 3 weeks.

And, wouldn’t you know: there seems to finally be a parting of the clouds in the stormy relationship between Golden Boy Promotions (Mayweather) and Top Rank (Pacquiao). Oscar De La Hoya and Bob Arum are openly speaking about looking to end their longtime feud, by doing business together. Reportedly, Freddie Roach has begun watching tape of Mayweather. And Arum is projecting that a Floyd-Manny fight would still generate upwards of $200 million. And, oh yeah, Floyd would reportedly rake in close to $80 million. Even now. After the seeming eons of time that have elapsed since the Mayweather-Pacquiao discussion first began.

As I write this, Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao are getting older. And the Earth continues to rotate around the sun. And the world still wants Mayweather-Pacquiao. We’re sick and tired of talking about the fight that never was, but that could still be. A fight that, as I write this, is a myth, a fight that has still not yet been born.

Time has become a very real and imposing factor now. There is not enough of it left to hold out hope for this matchup any longer. All parties involved seem to finally recognize that they have squandered too much of it, and that it truly is now or never.

Time will have the final word. It always does.



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