By Dominic Panaia: The great illusion promoters like Top Rank’s Bob Arum and the various media outlets aligned with Top Rank are spinning to the fans are something David Copperfield would be proud of.
Arum, the promoter for Manny Pacquiao, claims Floyd Mayweather Jr is scared of southpaws, then one by one people followed suit many people don’t see the illusion created when you read this “opinion journalism”. The “truth” is Mayweather has fought eight left hander fighters in his career with eight wins and four of them by way of knockout or TKO.
You have to go back nearly 6 years for Pacquiao’s last actual knock out which was Ricky Hatton at super lightweight. Yet, Arum and Pacquiao’s trainer Freddie Roach will paint the picture that Pacquiao will knock Mayweather out easily. The facts are people are in awe of the super lightweight Pacquiao and that was 6 years ago. Pacquiao has never been a force at Welterweight since 2009, not because he is washed up but because he is not a natural welterweight.
What is truth here is Pacquiao will be facing a man in Mayweather that has 10 fights at Welterweight, never been knocked down, never lost a fight and kept every fighter on average to a 17% connection rate and maintained 45% connection rate of his own.
Whilst many people condemn Mayweather for ducking opponents they never actually speak about Manny’s rise through the ranks the many catch weights and title shots from nowhere he has obtained without facing anyone in the division before getting the shot at the title. In 2003, Marco Antonio Barrera refused a fight with Erik Morales for the vacant WBC featherweight title and chose to defend the Ring Magazine featherweight title against Super Bantamweight Pacquiao and no one questioned this lunacy.
During the 2004 to 2006 period, Pacquiao was running out of quality names and a rift between Top Rank’s Arum and the number 1 pound-for-pound fighter in the world the undefeated Mayweather, a fighter that was not only undefeated but also the biggest pay-per-view fighter in the world would leave a space for Pacquiao to make his move. Arum would stop at no cost to find someone else to fill this void and between 2008 & 2009, Pacquiao won two more major division titles.
It’s an enlightening fact that Mayweather’s split in 2006 with Arum opened the door for Pacquiao as a pay-per-view star and the question should be asked had Mayweather remained with Top Rank would Manny have been promoted the same. Would Mayweather have won ‘Fighter of the decade?’ Mayweather leaving Top Rank meant a lot for Manny and whilst Mayweather made money. So in many ways Manny has Mayweather to thank for his rise.
Pacquiao’s greatest win at Welterweight would come against a tough fighter in Miguel Cotto and gave Manny his 7th Major Division Title the WBO Welterweight title and set him up in the same division as the undefeated PPV star and pound-for-pound champion in Mayweather. The only times Manny has been #1 P4P were the times Mayweather retired or went to jail this is fact.
The truth is Arum didn’t have any other fighter he could make a million PPVs with other than Manny and a loss to Mayweather would have changed the game considerably. Arum had nothing to gain by letting Pacquiao fight Mayweather in 2009 and everything to lose.
In many cases, Arum has magnified Mayweather’s misdemeanors by telling everyone that would listen that Mayweather didn’t want the Pacquiao fight.
So Floyd releases a 10 second video of him saying before we leave this sport we need to make this fight happen and more people say it’s a joke. However, no one from Pacquiao to Arum have responded to this video to say it’s wrong or misleading and the fans continue to believe the hype and the media don’t question this sudden silence why have they stopped questioning Mayweather’s desire to take the fight and saying sign the contract?
With not one defense in four divisions and one of the titles being the Ring Magazine title given by the ring magazine if 1, 2, or 3 fight each other things looks a little weird on paper for Pacquiao. One title is an unrecognized IBO title not part of the four major titles we know WBC, WBA, IBF & WBO and not to mention the 8th and final division title, a vacant title at 154lbs. A fight in which Pacquiao not recognized in the top ten of that division fought the #3 ranked challenger in Antonio Margarito for the championship belt, where Manny weighed outside the weight limits and bought Margarito to 150lbs and yet was allowed to fight for the 154lbs Super Welterweight title.
Many Commentators will get up and say even the greats lost so Mayweather is not great until he loses and he won’t lose unless he fights the best, however while they are great sports commentators they are also trying to persuade you of their opinion lets be real here anyone with a brain will know and be able to show you that the greats that lost fight’s weren’t usually against the best it was either that they fought way too long or made an unusual mistake which cost them a loss.
The problem we have today in convincing people of the truth in boxing is that we are here watching it and people are persuaded by commentary and Promoters or fighters themselves, in time to come there will only be a paper trail and the paper trail exposes the real Pacquiao and the real Mayweather as I have written here.
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