Showtime President of Sports Stephen Espinoza doesn’t have a lot of faith than we’ll be seeing a fight between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao in he near future unless Pacquiao bites the bullet and chooses to leave Top Rank. Espinoza sees that as being the issue that is keeping the fight between Manny and Floyd from taking place. Espinoza has no doubts in his mind that Mayweather would take the fight with Pacquiao immediately.
Espinoza could be right. If Pacquiao was with Golden Boy Promotions are some other promotional company instead of Top Rank, he’d probably agree to take the fight with him in a heartbeat. After all, it’s a fight that would give Mayweather a huge payday if he could get it. We just saw in his last fight against Saul “Canelo” Alvarez that Mayweather isn’t afraid to take on a tough opponent, if it means that he’s going to get a big payday out of the fight.
While Manny Pacquiao’s close adviser Michael Koncz met with Top Rank promoter Bob Arum this past week to discuss the two names – Tim Bradley and Ruslan Provodnikov – that Arum has for Pacquiao’s next bout April 12th in Las Vegas, Nevada, Pacquiao is still very much interested in fighting Floyd Mayweather Jr. That’s his first choice of who he’d like to fight, but unfortunately Mayweather’s not on Arum’s list of opponents for him to fight. It’s going to be one of Arum’s Top Rank fighters that Pacquiao faces next.
Amir Khan’s trainer Virgil Hunter doesn’t see anything wrong with Khan’s ability to take hard shots at all. In fact, he credits him with the ability to get up from shots that would put other fights down and unable to get up from the knockdown. For this reason, Hunter thinks that Khan is a very good option for Floyd Mayweather Jr’s next fight on May 3rd. Hunter thinks Khan will get up from pretty much any knockdown because of his recuperative powers.
The issue is no longer between Pacquiao and Mayweather or between Top Rank and Golden Boy Promotions. It has come to a point that the “unbeaten” boxer has to contend with the entire boxing world excluding puppets.
Floyd Mayweather Jr.’s auxiliary goal in the sport of boxing, for over four years now, seems to have been to tear down the image of Manny Pacquiao in any way he can. Floyd can’t and/or won’t do it in the ring so he does it outside of the ring with racial and ethnic slurs, mocking insults, false and damaging accusations, and various other attempted belittlements. A mission of sorts, clearly Manny has been on Floyd’s mind more than Floyd has been on his.
After witnessing Floyd Mayweather Jr. make numerous posts poking fun at Manny Pacquiao as well as other possible opponents using his Twitter account, it is no secret that he is trying hard. But what is he trying to do?
If Marcos Maidana ends up being the one that faces Floyd Mayweather Jr. in his next pay-per-view bout on Showtime on May 3rd, Sergio Martinez sees Mayweather as having problems in trying to beat him. Sergio, a tough fighter from Argentina, thinks Maidana won’t be an easy out for Mayweather if he chooses to face him.
Toughness of mind and skill in facing toughest oppositions are equal to gallantry. It is the virtue most supreme and compatible to boxing as a combat sport. Thus beyond ring performances, gallantry should be topmost as criteria in choosing the Fighter (not “Fighter”) of the Year award.
Floyd Mayweather Jr. wants to rebuild little Mayweather [Adrien Broner] by keeping him away from Marcos Maidana, by moving him down to 140, and having him fight on his next pay-per-view card on May 3rd. Mayweather thinks Broner can be brought back to his former status as one of boxing’s youngest up and coming stars, but he feels that he needs to be in the right weight class. If Broner can win a world title at 140 against someone like IBF light welterweight champion Lamont Peterson, Broner would be a 4 division world champion.