By John F. McKenna (McJack): Former World Boxing Association (WBA) light middleweight champion Miguel Cotto (37-3-30 KO’s) is indeed a very good fighter. According to undefeated superstar and new WBA light middleweight champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. (43-0, 26 KO’s), Cotto is the toughest opponent he had ever faced. Floyd won a decisive unanimous decision over Miguel on May 5 in a competitive fight.
It was a fight that “Money” May suggested that on occasions he went toe to toe with Cotto so that fans would be provided a more entertaining fight. You would have to take Mayweather at his word in that respect.
Putting on a good show for his fans is more money in the bank for future Mayweather fights. Famed promoter Tex Rickard, who promoted heavyweight champion Jack Dempsey’s heavyweight brawls asked the “Manassa Mauler” prior to his epic fight with Luis Angel Firpo if he couldn’t just lighten up a bit and let the fight go a little while longer so that the paying customers would get their moneys worth. Rickard was fearful that his cash cow would KO Firpo in the first round. Dempsey, never one to be badgered by either managers or promoters told Rickard to “Go to Hell!” Rickard’s fears that the fight would be an abbreviated one were justified. Dempsey KO’d Firpo early in the 2nd round. But the fight wound up being possibly the greatest fight of all time and the boxing fans who were present did not complain.
Miguel Cotto is a very good fighter, but he is not a great fighter. And while his fight with Mayweather was a competitive one, Cotto did not push Mayweather to his limit. It is this writers opinion that the only fighter capable of pushing “Pretty Boy” to his limit is the fighter he most likely will never fight, WBC welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao (54-3-2, 38 KO’s).
Floyd Mayweather Jr. is in fact a great fighter, perhaps the greatest fighter of his generation and unquestionably one of the greatest defensive geniuses ever to set foot in the ring. But at this point in his career Floyd seems to be obsessed with protecting his “0”, and to do that he will not risk losing it by engaging Manny Pacquiao in the squared circle.
There is enough blame to go around for the fight between “Pretty Boy” and “Pacman” not happening. Presently though it seems as if the Mayweather camp is coming up with excuse after excuse to prevent the mega fight from happening. God bless Floyd for pushing for drug testing in boxing, but with regard to him fighting Manny it has been a non issue for months. Manny has agreed to the drug testing Floyd has called for. Still Mayweather bests Pacquiao over the head with the drug testing club as if it were still a viable issue.
Not willing to accept to a 50/50 cut of the revenues is another phony issue that even supposedly seasoned boxing observers appear to grapple with. The idea that a fighter who has won world championships in eight different weight divisions in addition to being named Fighter of the Year three times and Fighter of the Decade by boxing writers somehow is not worthy of a 50/50 split is ludicrous. It is amazing how many boxing pundits have bought into that nonsense.
They reason also that Floyd’s Pay Per View (PPV) numbers have been higher than Manny’s. Those who claim that are grasping at straws. The PPV numbers for the Mayweather – Cotto fight have come out at 1.5 million. It’s miraculous how the numbers came out in just a week, whereas the numbers for the Mayweather – Ortiz fight in September were delayed again and again. It also goes without saying that the fight with Cotto drew large PPV numbers because it was a double header with Saul Alvarez and Shane Mosley appearing on the undercard.
Prior to Mayweather’s fight with Cotto, Pacquiao had in fact outsold Floyd in PPV sales on average for their last threes fights. In addition, Pacquiao’s fights routinely outsell Mayweather’s live gate numbers. The argument therefore that Mayweather deserves a higher cut of the take just doesn’t hold water.
Another argument that is being bandied around by people who should know better is that if Pacquiao would just drop his defamation lawsuit against Mayweather the fight could be made. The Mayweather camp has been strongly insinuating for a number of years that Pacquiao is on “the juice”. Unfortunately for Floyd he has no evidence that Manny has ever used Performance Enhancing Drugs (PEDS). Pacquiao has never tested positive for PEDS. And while insisting that Manny drop the lawsuit, the Mayweather camp continues to make the assertion that Manny is on “the juice”.
Pacquiao retained a high profile and very expensive attorney to pursue the defamation lawsuit against Mayweather. More than likely the costs to Manny have already run into the millions of dollars. Being the good guy he reportedly is I suppose it is the position of Team Mayweather that Pacquiao should just drop the case and eat the costs himself. As good a guy as Manny is, that is not the way it works in the real world.
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