By Ibrar Arshaid: So ladies and gentlemen here we go, 12 rounds of intense, furious, high octane, brutal and passionate boxing coming from the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. It is about time a fight of this magnitude is to take place. Let’s leave the excuses at the door, our opinions to ourselves because we are going to witness history regardless of what is going to happen. I haven’t felt such a buzz since the whole…Lewis v Tyson IS ON.
The catchphrase for this mammoth of a fight is ‘Firepower’, which all in all packs the perfect punch to the audience. I mean we got Manny Pacquiao who on his way here has stopped all his last three fighters, and we have the heavy handed Miguel Cotto who has faced the best of the best triumphing against all on comers (apart from his controversial loss to Margarito).
Now as a boxing fan I have come to realize that no matter what the outcome of a fight, fight fans always have some sort of excuse. No matter who wins in which fight, excuses are inevitable. Sometimes even the fighter who has lost will have no excuse but still the fans tend to have an excuse. Floyd Mayweather beats Marquez, but Marquez was too small to be in the ring with Floyd. Yet Pacquiao who slipped a win against Marquez is seen to be the perfect fighter for Floyd if he gets past Miguel Cotto. Pacquiao beats De La Hoya but Oscar was weight drained so let’s take a little bit of respect from Manny. Pacquiao beats Hatton by knocking him out brutally, but Ricky was not even a good fighter, he never had been. Miguel Cotto beats Mosley but Shane was past it then he was coming to the end of his career. Cotto loses to Margarito but by some divine miracle someone was able to build a time machine, travel back into time to Margarito’s dressing room on the night of his fight against Cotto and clearly seen Margarito’s trainer put illegal plaster ‘of paris’ into his gloves. Cotto goes on to beat Jenning and then Clottey but some fight fans believe that Clottey should have won. For God’s sake Muhammad Ali beat George Foreman in Zaire and people think that Ali loosened the ropes before the fight as a way of helping him lean back against the ropes and let Foreman tire himself out. The list is endless.
Now I’m not saying that these excuses are all false, but what I am trying to point out is that there always are excuses. If Cotto beats Manny I can already see it… Manny went one fighter too far and was beaten because he was too small and Cotto was too big. Now if Manny wins I can also see it… Cotto was never the same fight after Margarito nearly ‘killed’ him with his unproven plaster loaded in his gloves. You know what all excuses are made for? It’s because a person cannot accept a truth so he/she decides to think up a logical reason to justify this error which occurred in one’s own righteous mind. It’s as simple as that. When a fighter beats another fighter all it proves is that he was better on the night. Even when Pacquiao knocked out Marquez, that just shown that he was the better fighter on the night. When Floyd beat Oscar, he was better than him on the night. When Cotto beat Mosley, he was better than him on the night. If Oscar gets back into the ring with Floyd and beats him then that will prove the same that the second time they met Oscar was better on the night and since Oscar hasn’t beaten Floyd that means there are no excuses. History will tell us that when Floyd and Oscar fought Floyd won the fight. And I believe that goes for all fights. A decision should always be standing. Marco Antonio Barrera beat Erik Morales two time out of three. Does that mean he is the best fighter? He had the better career? He will always be above him? No because the measure of who is the better fighter out of the two does not be resolved by 36mins or in the Barrera/ Morales case 108mins. It is determined by what a fighter does in his career, what he has achieved. Since both these Mexican greats achieved almost the same feats in their career both being three time world champions in three different weights I’d like to think their just as good as each other and they should be mentioned in the same breath.
So please fight fans lets change this excuse building habit we have because it just ruins everything. If Manny loses people will straight away rubbish his career and yes I mean that, that’s what fans will do. But does one loss against Cotto really take away what Pacman has achieved? Pacman has achieved more than Cotto probably ever will in his career? I mean look at what weight Cotto started of at and look at what weight Manny started at. How many world titles has Manny held and in how many different divisions? How many legendary fighters, great fighters has Manny beaten to get to this point and how many has Cotto defeated. Don’t get me wrong I am not beating Cotto down you can only fight what’s put in front of you.
So let’s not let excuses come in the way of this great fight on the 14th of November. So I leave you with the words of some unknown great, great man……”Let the Best Man Win!”
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