By Dezzie Lightbulb: Now that much of the dust has settled from the recent blow-up between Pacquiao and Mayweather, we can take the time to discuss what it was really all about. Mayweather said at the time that all he wanted was a level playing field, and hence the need for Olympic style blood testing to be carried out by the USADA. This, he claimed, would ensure that neither boxer would have any opportunity to use steroids, EPOs, PEDs, or HGH. The actual scientific validity of this claim is still open to very heated debate. Nevertheless this demand turned out to be the sticking point which eventually scuttled the March 13th super-bout.
In this article I do not wish to get into any sort of debate or argument as to who is hiding what, or whether this demand has been used as an excuse by either or both boxers to wriggle out of the fight. Here I want to step well away from the bitter, venomous, back-and-forth word wars that which been raging between Top Rank and Golden Boy Promotions, partisan journalists, and the fans of both boxers. I feel we all need to take a look at the bigger picture. Perhaps the easiest way to do this is to project our minds forwards to some point in the future, and look back. This point needs to be far from today`s overcharged atmosphere of anger and deception, far from the distortion that is so often caused by being caught up right in the middle of situation, and far from the myriad of nitty-gritty details which can often confuse us more than they help us find reason.
Future boxing historians will almost certainly describe a pre Pacquiao Mayweather negotiations period, and the corresponding post negotiations period. A portrait of Floyd Mayweather Jr. will be pretty much the same in both the pre and post periods. The portrait of Manny Pacquiao will however be quite different from one period to the other. In the pre negotiations period he will be simply seen as the pound for pound number 1 in boxing, who was riding the crest of a huge wave. In the post negotiations period he may well have an asterisk by his name, carrying the mention `suspected illegal drug user`. It is possible that this doubt will hang over Pacquiao`s head for the rest of his life.
Hopefully our future boxing historians will be wise enough to understand that Pacquiao has fallen victim to something which has been known to scientists for centuries. So long in fact that even the Romans had a name for it; argumentum ad ignorantiam, “appeal to ignorance”. This is a logical fallacy in which it is claimed that something is true because it has not been proven false. A competent scientist will of course reject such an argument out of hand simply because; 1. These arguments just do not hold water, 2. They can never be disproved, but prove nothing, and 3. They have been repeatedly used by every crackpot in the history of science, while never producing one single positive result.
In the boxing world however this is a fairly new tactic, and many have been taken in by it. As a result Pacquiao now finds himself in a cruel `catch 22` situation. Believe it or not, even if Pacquiao had agreed to the Olympic style blood tests, he would still not be proven innocent. There would surely be a number of writers and self-proclaimed scientists who would point out the blood tests were insufficient, and did not test for such-and-such drug. And we would be back to square one. Pacquiao finds himself in a situation where he just can`t win. There is a very good reason why in the legal world the burden of proof lies with the prosecution. The fact is that proving one`s innocence is often quite simply impossible.
While the use by Mayweather of the infamous “appeal to ignorance” argument does not prove Pacquiao`s innocence, I hope that boxing fans are intelligent enough to see it for what it is; its purpose is to set up a doubt which can never be disproved, and today we can witness just how successful it has been.
Now what has all this to do with Mayweather levelling the playing field? For that we need to go back to (or should I say forward to?) our future boxing historians. We have already seen how Pacquiao`s name may well have an asterisk beside it from now on. Mayweather`s name already had an asterisk beside it in the pre negotiations period, and will, now probably more than ever, always have one, sporting the mention `possible cherry-picking ducker`.
One asterisk all.
Comments are closed.