By Chris Williams: Manny Pacquiao is facing an older fighter way past his prime in 39-year-old Shane Mosley to fight on May 7th. Instead of taking on a younger more relevant opponent, Pacquiao is facing a guy that was picked out by his promoter for him to fight, get a good payday and hopefully look good against.
Pacquiao recently beat Antonio Margarito to briefly capture the WBC junior middleweight title to win his 8th world title, albeit at a 150 catchweight against fighter that had only fought at junior middleweight once in the past six years at the time that Pacquiao fought him. That’s kind of amusing but it will likely be forever overlooked when boxing fans in the future see the 8 world titles that Pacquiao has won.
Now Pacquiao is facing a guy that’s pushing 40, and doesn’t have much of any chance to win t fight. It’s so bad that Pacquiao’s fight with Mosley barely is being mentioned because it’s considered even more of a slaughter on paper than his last fight against Margarito. But if Pacquiao is looking to impress and keep his Ring magazine pound-for-pound status as the #1 fighter, he’s going to have to win and win big against Mosley.
The reason is Sergio Martinez, a fighter considered the best middleweight in the division, is facing the top guys at middleweight and junior middleweight. He’s not facing guys using a catchweight handicap and he’s not facing older fighters on their last legs or ones coming off of losses.
Martinez is kicking backside and doing it in style by knocking out his opponents in brutal fashion. Martinez would even like to get a fight against Pacquiao and would be happy to fight at one of his catchweights. However, Pacquiao isn’t chomping at the bit to make the fight and neither is his promoter Bob Arum.
Since Pacquiao won’t accept Martinez’s challenge and because Pacquiao facing guys that I would consider below the quality that Martinez is fighting, I think Pacquiao has to look superb against Mosley if he wants to keep his pound-for-pound #1 status. If he struggles, looks sloppy, gets knocked around a little and still wins, I think Martinez needs to be moved to the number #1 spot and Pacquiao downward to the #4 spot where Martinez currently resides.
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