by James Slater – Pound-for-Pound king Manny “Pac-Man” Pacquiao says he is sure the man nearly all of boxing wants to see him fight, Floyd Mayweather Junior, will never actually do so. Currently getting ready for his next fight, the eagerly anticipated November 14th showdown with the mighty Miguel Cotto, the 30-year-old southpaw dynamo has spoken about the chances of him facing the unbeaten 32-year-old master in the future. And Pacquiao is “sure” it won’t happen..
A few weeks or so back, Manny’s trainer, Freddie Roach, spoke words to the same effect about the possibility of a Pacquiao-Mayweather fight never materialising, and now, depressingly for fight fans, Manny himself has said he doesn’t think the must-see fight will ever be seen.
“I don’t think it’s going to happen,” Pacquiao said of the Mayweather fight. “I’m sure he doesn’t want to fight. Boxing for him is like a business. He doesn’t care about the people around him watching. He doesn’t care if the fight is boring, as long as the fight is finished and he gets (plenty of) money. I want people to be happy.
“You have a big responsibility as a boxer.”
Though Floyd, if he even reads what Manny has had to say about him, will surely disagree, most fans would agree that “Pac-Man” is correct when he suggests he is the far more exciting fighter of the two men. But that doesn’t make him the better fighter. The only way that argument would be settled would be for the two greats to meet in the ring, but, as a growing number of people now fear – Pacquiao among them – this will never happen.
But then again, in the past, a seemingly innocuous comment given by another fighter has served to annoy “Money” to the point where, all of a sudden, he is willing to fight the man who said what he said. Ricky Hatton, who had tried and failed to get Mayweather to fight him, came out with the less than earth shattering comment about how he felt his winning fight with Jose Luis Castillo had been more exciting that Floyd’s entire career.
Suddenly, though other fighters had said far worse things about him, Mayweather wanted the fight with Hatton. It was apparent Ricky had pushed the right buttons. Does Mayweather not take kindly to be referred to as a boring fighter? If so, who knows; maybe he will react to Pacquiao’s comments the way he reacted to Hatton’s.
As far as the vast number of fans who want to see what could be an absolute classic of a fight go, it’s a case of fingers crossed!