By Chris Williams: 33-year-old Manny Pacquiao (54-4-2, 38 KO’s) is setting a limit of 2013 for a mega fight against unbeaten Floyd Mayweather Jr. (43-0, 26 KO’s).
Pacquiao said to primerahora.com “It [Mayweather fight] will be in 2013 or never.”
Pacquiao shouldn’t even be talking about fighting Mayweather at all, period. Not with Pacquiao having a fight against Juan Manuel Marquez (54-6-1, 39 KO’s) on December 8th at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. If Pacquiao loses the fight to Marquez, then it’s academic at that point that a fight between him and Mayweather CAN’T take place. Pacquiao will have lost his last two fights – three if you count his controversial decision over Marquez last November. You can’t sell a Pacquiao-Mayweather fight with Pacquiao losing his last two fights, and besides that it couldn’t be put together because Pacquiao likely wouldn’t accept a really low money split that Mayweather would offer him after that.
Mayweather isn’t going to give a fighter that is losing over and over again a even split or even close to an even money split. Pacquiao would likely have to accept a figure much lower than 50-50. That’s why Pacquiao shouldn’t even be talking about Mayweather because his fight against Marquez next month is a do or die fight for Pacquiao. If he loses then the Mayweather fight will never happen.
What exactly so golden about the fight taking place in 2013 is unclear. Pacquiao is only 33, and it’s not as if he’s going to be retiring at the end of 2013. Don’t get me wrong. I’d love to see a fight between Pacquiao and Mayweather just like anyone else would in the boxing world. But it looks bad when Pacquiao draws a line in the sand with comments like that because it puts Mayweather in the position where he’ll look weak if he hurries to try and get a fight with Pacquiao just because he is creating an urgency with his comments. I think it’s pretty silly.
I know Pacquiao’s trainer Freddie Roach recently said something similar to that by saying if the fight between Pacquiao and Mayweather doesn’t happen by next year that he felt it would never happen. I think that’s wrong as well. Mayweather may be 35-years-old but he’s still fighting at a very high level and still has that ‘0’.
Maybe Pacquiao is worried about him losing own skills. I can understand that because he was beaten in his last fight by Tim Bradley last June and before that Pacquiao was given a questionable decision over Juan Manuel Marquez last year in November. The truth is Pacquiao is looking like he’s fading badly for some reason. He’s only 33, but he’s fighting more like someone around 38 or 39 in my estimation. He’s slipped a lot in a big way and I don’t think he’ll be a better fighter by the end of 2013.
Pacquiao is going to slip more especially with his promoter Bob Arum keeping him busy putting him in with his Top Rank stable fighters at a clip of three fights per year. There’s no rest and Pacquiao takes punishment in every fight. He’s not like Mayweather fighting only once a year and rarely getting hit.
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