By Chris Williams: After an earlier report by TMZ about boxing great Muhammad Ali giving support to Team Pacquiao for Manny Pacquiao’s fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr on May 2nd, Ali’s publicist is saying that it’s absolutely false. Ali isn’t giving a preference either way for the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight.
Many of Pacquiao’s fans were quite pleased when TMZ broke the story about Ali’s daughter Rashedi saying that Ali is “Team Pacquiao all the way.”
Ali’s daughter Rashedi told TMZ.com this week “My Dad is Team Pacquiao all the way. He knows Manny’s a great fighter … but it’s more about what he does outside the ring. He’s such a charitable person. My Dad stood for things. Mayweather … I don’t think there’s a comparison.”
It was kind surprising to hear that the great Ali was “Team Pacquiao all the way,” because Ali is someone that stays on the fence with his picks of fights. He likes to see great fights between tough competitors.
Ali’s publicist said this about the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight via Yahoo Sports:
“Earlier this week it was reported that Muhammad Ali picked a favorite in the upcoming Mayweather/Pacquiao fight on May 2. Muhammad Ali would like to wish both Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao well in their upcoming fight. Muhammad never offered to anyone his prediction and information that was published earlier this week and picked up by other media is either a misquote or someone else’s personal opinion. The stories saying that Muhammad Ali has chosen a favorite in the fight are false. Muhammad has the utmost respect for both fighters who will undoubtedly give boxing fans an incredible match. He believes the significance of this fight will rival other historic matches. Muhammad Ali will join the rest of the world on May 2 to watch this match-up.”
This has got to be a real buzz-kill for Pacquiao’s fans, because they were seeing Muhammad Ali as yet another huge celebrity that was backing Pacquiao to beat Mayweather. For them now to find out that Ali isn’t backing Pacquiao, it takes away that positive.
At the end of the day it really doesn’t matter which stars back Pacquiao or Mayweahter. If they can’t get the job done in the ring then they’re going to be taking a lot of heat from the boxing fans. Guys like Pacquiao can have a massive amount of stars lending their support for him in this fight, but if he goes out and gets beaten up by Mayweather on May 2nd, then the support will ring hollow. For it to mean anything it’s got to be backed up with an actual win.
As of now, Mayweather is still a 2 to 1 favorite to beat Pacquiao. That tells you that the bettors still see Mayweather as the top dog in this fight, and that means a lot. It tells you that Pacquiao is going to need to do something special for him to win on May 2nd, because fighting like he always does with his jumping in style of fighting is probably going to lead to him getting dominated by Mayweather.
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