By Klaas Mabetlela: Right from the beginning, I thought March 13th was too early to effectively prepare, maximize marketing value and suck every penny available out of a mega super fight between Floyd Mayweather and World Boxing Organization welterweight champion Manny Pacquaio. I checked previous fights of this magnitude and something seemed odd right from the beginning.
It is tempting for me to say that the whole shenanigans going on are just part of the plan by both teams. It is almost impossible to plan the twists and turns we have experienced up to now, but I believe the fight was never really meant for March 13th right from the onset. The date was the beginning of the myriads of activities that surpassed even the biggest soap opera imaginable. What I will say without a shadow of the doubt is that the fight will take place sometimes in 2009.
It is a well known fact that Bob Arum and Floyd Mayweather are not hugging buddies, in fact they are purported to be genuine, mortal enemies. Mayweather wants to make Arum sweat for what is going to be his biggest promotional purse of his career, but he also knows that his side ego clash with Arum only make the fight even more intriguing. Team Mayweather also knows that Arum will use all ammunition to fight them and in so doing, expose himself to be sucker punched. The decision to jump into taking legal action when Mayweather first murmured about drugs is pure Bob Arum. Manny always projected an image of a warrior who is always talking more in the ring than anywhere else. The question is whether Arum is really fighting his fighter’s war or his own in this soap opera. There is always collateral damage when big egos are ruffled.
Arum’s own history with Floyd and some clever poking are leaving Arum exposed. Oscar De La Hoya is also in the drift to show Arum that the guard has changed and boxing business is run by new landlords. Arum on the other hand, wants to show that he cannot easily capitulate and still wants his weight to be felt. The only victim in this whole ego-war is Manny Pacquiao. He has left his career too much on the hands of others and now he is being reduced to a spectator. But do not undermine Manny’s savvy too; fighting someone like Paulie Malignaggi is not as bad as it looks. Paulie may not be remotely close to Mayweather in terms of boxing ability, but he will be the first ‘pure’ boxer for Manny to fight in years. Malignaggi is not a bad preparation under the circumstances because it gives Manny an opportunity to fight a boxer, does not provide enough risk to jeopardize the mega superfight and keeps him sharp.
Team Floyd knows that by rejecting Arum’s offer, the fans will go into an overdrive. Those who hate Floyd will increase their ammunition tenfold and hate him even more. He is being called all names as expected even the fans are starting to get rattled. On the other side, they are creating a doubt over Manny’s mystique by making this drug testing such a big deal. More fans will hate Mayweather even more for that, but there will be more interest and scrutiny into Manny’s affairs too. People are starting to wonder and it can only get worse from now onwards.
All these are excellent recipe of even a bigger fight than it already is. I personally feel that this is too much even for marketing purposes and I find it distasteful in a way. But who said that business and boxing business for that matter are for sissies?
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