By Simon Sheppard: With the countdown timer, set by Bob Arum, ticking away, Manny Pacquiao, Freddie Roach, Miguel Cotto, Antonio Margarito and probably every fan of the sports is awaiting Floyd Mayweather’s reply. Nobody can really blame Floyd. It is just in keeping with his character. The “face”” of boxing. The “cash-cow”. Every celebrity is entitled to his capricious whims once in a while. It just shows how “big” a star Floyd is. Making the sport wait for him.
Maybe we should really blame Pacquiao for insisting on fighting him, for wanting to leave a lasting legacy for his fans and for the sports. Blame Arum for trying so hard to set up the fight with him. Blame Roach for wanting this fight so bad. And blame every boxing fan for wanting this fight to happen more than anything else.
But let’s not all dwell on the blame game anymore. Maybe we should all just resign ourselves that there’s a zero chance of this fight happening at all. And if that’s what it should be, if the fight doesn’t happen, I ask, who stands to lose more?
Pacquiao has already cemented his legacy. His name in the history books will list all his accolades and accomplishments. After his name will be written – “Three time Ring Magazine Fighter of the Year”, “Three time BWAA Fighter of the Year”, “Awarded the BWAA Fighter of the Decade”, “The Only Champion Winning 7 World Titles in 7 Weight Divisions”, “One time ESPY Best Fighter Award”, “The Bible of Boxing Pound for Pound King”, “The Number 1 Best Pound for Pound by Sports Illustrated and NBC Sports”, “The 52nd Most Influential Celebrity in the World,” “Was featured on the cover of Time Magazine”, “The First and Only Boxer to win the Lineal Championships in 4 Different weight classes”… Whew, that sure was one heck of a long list. I have a fair idea of how Michael Buffer will feel introducing Pacquiao in the ring. Next will be the written the words, “A Former Congressman”, maybe “A former Senator”, heck, he might even end up being the president of his country. He’s going to need multiple pages in the history books to list all his accomplishments.
If this fight doesn’t happen, Manny Pacquiao’s place in (the) history is already etched in gold. This fight will just be the icing on the cake. It has a significance, but not much of vital importance. All the PED accusations and nonsense will all be forgotten because of the simple fact that they are just that – nonsense. Coming from the mouth of a bitter old man, who cannot face the fact the fighter he trained was blown away by Pacquiao. Notice that I refrained from writing all the championships belts he won and all the insignificant details. I just listed his record-breaking accomplishments, those that really set him apart from the pack.
Floyd Mayweather, on the other hand, will always have that question mark with his name. The name of Pacquiao will always be there to haunt him and follow his name.
In the history books, these are the words that will follow Floyd Mayweather’s name – “A former Number 1 Pound for Pound”, “Won Nine Titles in Five Weight Divisions”, “One time BWAA Fighter of the Year”, ” Two-time ESPY Best Fighter Award”, “Retired undefeated at 41 and 0” and,….well………that’s it.
I know, compared to the list of accomplishments of Pacquiao, it’s a very short list. But is there anything else? Like I did with Pacquiao’s list, I refrained from writing all the non-significant details, to “level the playing field”, so to speak.
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So now, everyone in the boxing world is awaiting his response.
And if Floyd doesn’t want this fight to happen then there are three major reasons why.
Floyd Mayweather perched himself so high on the pedestal he created himself..
Facing Pacquiao he faces the risk of losing, and losing badly, so he faces getting hurt, faces humiliation in front of the world after proclaiming his greatness, and he faces losing the only thing precious to him – his undefeated record.
And from that height he sat himself upon, with a loss to Pacquiao, the crash will be tremendous.
So, in summary, if this fight is not done, it will not have an enormous impact on Pacquiao’s legacy.
But with Floyd’s, it does and it will. Floyd Mayweather Jr. stands more to lose on this one
But I’m sure he doesn’t really care.
After all “legacy don’t pay no bills”, right?
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