By James Stillerman: Will Manny “Pac Man” Pacquiao (51-3, 38KOs) and Floyd “Pretty Boy” Mayweather (41-0, 25KOs) every face off against one another in the ring in what would be one of the biggest and most anticipated fights to happen in a long time? As of right now this fight willn`t happen this year because Pacquiao is going to fight Antonio Margarito on November 13 for the vacant WBC light middleweight title at a catch weight of 150 pounds while Mayweather appears content taking the rest of the year off. While Pacquiao adamantly wants to fight Mayweather, there is no indication from Mayweather that he really wants to make this fight possible for sometime next year, which for the time being, makes this fight less likely to happen.
Both pugilists` promoters tried to make this bout happen on two different occasions this year to no avail. The first attempt to have a fight between Pacquiao and Mayweather started in January of this year and it seemed at the onset of negotiations that this long awaited bout between two of the best boxers in the world would happen at last. Both parties quickly agreed on almost all the essential details of the fight, location, ring size, gloves, weight and money. However, things quickly unraveled out of control when Mayweather and his promotional company, Golden Boy Promotions accused Pacquiao of taking steroids, so for their fight they wanted him to undergo Olympic style drug testing. Pacquiao became irate over those accusations and sued Mayweather and Golden Boy Promotions in federal court in Nevada for defamation, (making false statements that are detrimental to his reputation). Pacquiao`s promoter Bob Arum of Top Rank tried to compromise the situation by letting the Nevada Boxing Commission decide for themselves what they believe should be the proper drug testing for this fight. Mayweather and Golden Boy Promotions wouldn`t agree to this compromise. The fight finally collapsed when both the Pacquiao and Mayweather parties were unable to agree to a compromise over the pre-fight drug testing, during their nine hour long mediation session with retired federal judge, Daniel Weinstein.
Pacquiao instead fought Joshua Clottey (35-3, 20KOs) on March 13th at Dallas Cowboys brand new one billion dollar state of the art stadium. Clottey was suppose to give Pacquiao his toughest test to date since he was a big welterweight, weighting in at 170 pounds on the day of the fight and in June of 2009 lost a controversial decision to Miguel Cotto where many ringsiders believed Clottey won that fight. Nevertheless, Pacquiao dominated Clottey who did nothing in the fight, prevailing on the scorecards, 119-109 twice and 120-108.
Mayweather did his part to keep this rivalry and potential fight with Pacquiao alive by destroying “Sugar” Shane Mosley over twelve rounds by scores of 120-108 and 119-109 twice, on May 1 at the MGM Grand Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. Mosley was also suppose to give Mayweather his most difficult fight to date since this was the best opponent Mayweather faced since moving up to the 140 pound division, especially since in Mosley`s last outing before the Mayweather bout, he defeated Antonio Margarito (best welterweight fighter at the time)by stopping him in the ninth round. Mosley landed a couple of powerful punches that hurt Mayweather in the second round but after that he was unable to do anything else.
With both boxers looking so dominating in their last outing it once again stirred up the desire for these two pound for pound boxing megastars to face off against one another at the year`s end. In July, Pacquiao said he wanted to fight Mayweather so badly that he was willing to give into Mayweather`s demand of having blood test leading up to the fight. However, Mayweather never publicly responded to that challenge. It is also unclear what went on with the negotiations that happened with HBO, Arum and Golden Boy Promotions and whether Mayweather was ever apart of these discussions. Mayweather`s closest advisor, Leonard Ellerbe said he was never a part of these conservations. By the end of July these talks between the fighters` camps went nowhere and Pacquiao decided to fight Margarito instead of wait for Mayweather`s camp to respond to their request for a fight.
Most likely despite this fight not happening on two occasions this year and Mayweather not appearing to be interest in a fight with Pacquiao; this fight will happen sometime next year because there is too much on the line for this fight not to happen. This bout is a win win for everyone. Boxing wins because this fight has the potential to be the biggest paper view fight ever, even more than the Mayweather versus Oscar De La Hoya bout which garnered 2.44 million buyers. This blockbuster fight will allow boxing to obtain the much needed media exposure it deserves but doesn`t receive. The fighters win since they obtain the opportunity to prove they are the best boxer in the world, enhance their legacy by moving up the all time boxing rankings, and receive close to 40 million dollars, which is a lot of money to turn down. The fans also emerge victorious because they get to see what should be an instant classic fight of two of the best fighters in the world with different fighting styles squaring off against one another.
This fight will also happen since both fighters want to settle once and for all the controversy they have between one another as to who is the best fighter in the world. Mayweather held that mythically pound for pound title in large part because he has never lost a fight or many rounds for that matter, before he retired for sixteen months from 2008 to mid 2009. During Mayweather`s retirement, Pacquiao over took the reigns as the best fighter in the world with significant victories over Juan Manual Marquez, David Diaz, De La Hoya, Ricky Hatton and Cotto. Mayweather came out of retirement in September of 2009 and dominated Marquez over twelve one sided rounds to rekindle the debate as to who is the better fighter.
The Mayweather versus Pacquiao matchup is such an intriguing bout which is another reason why everyone wants this fight to happen. It would square off the speed and defensive skills of Mayweather against an ever so slightly more offensive skilled and more powerful puncher, Pacquiao in a battle of “Pac Man” going on the attack with “Pretty Boy” retreating and using his counter attack and defensive prowlers to contain Pacquiao. Pacquiao faced the much better opposition since moving up to the 140 division while Mayweather unlike Pacquiao is undefeated and has lost very few rounds in his professional career. Both pugilists faced three common opponents in their careers and Pacquiao fared better than Mayweather against Hatton and De La Hoya, although he fought both fighters after Mayweather did. Mayweather did better against Marquez than Pacquiao did but fought Marquez two weight classes above what he normally fights at.
This fight would be extremely difficult bout to determine who would emerge victorious because both men seem so even matched. Hopefully this fight takes place next year, however until it does let the controversy and debate roll on as to who is the better fighter.