By Robert Brown: Floyd “Maywearther” is currently preparing to face vicious “Victor Ortiz” on September 17th at the MGM Grand Arena. When the boxing world heard this news a sudden wave of optimism passed through the entire community in anticipation of a possible $100 million dollar plus mega bout between “Manny Pacquiao” and “Floyd Mayweather”, however, as I may be encouraged by “Floyd Mayweather’s” recent choice of opponent, I urge everybody in the boxing community to remain cautious.
Major road blocks may still prevent this fight from occurring. “Floyd Mayweather,” and Top Rank are still having an extremely frosty relationship which is still a huge barrier towards successfully negotiating this Bout. Drug testing issues, both the frequency and the style of the drug testing, may still need to be resolved, and the amount in terms of who gets more of the gate needs to be resolved between the two fighters Floyd may be undefeated but Manny is probably the bigger draw. So as I stated, even though “Mayweather” is fighting “Ortiz” which is to be considered an encouraging sign by the boxing community, there are still major hurdles that must be overcome before this fight can even be properly considered.
As far back as I can remember every other generation has had a major marquee fight. Some have had more than one. For example “Jeffries / Johnson”, “Dempsey / Tunney”, “Louis / Schmeling”, “Robertson / La Motta”, “Leonard / Hearns”, “Leonard / Hagler”, and “Holyfield / Bowe trilogy”.
If the fight between “Mayweather and Pacquiao” does not occur, in my opinion this generation will be cheated out of its signature fight, and the fact that this fight would almost undoubtedly gross over $100 million ,for this fight not to take place, would be one of boxing’s major unspeakable tragedies. It
would show the rest of the world that the boxing world does not have the ability to negotiate its biggest and richest events. As a result of the enormous scrutiny that would come down on the boxing world in the eyes of the public, I have faith that everyone will see the common sense in organizing this event and come together for the sake and future health of boxing.
As for the two fighters, in terms of who needs the fight more than the other, it is my belief that “Pacquiao” despite all the talk, needs this fight more than “Mayweather”. You can discuss the validity of some of “Mayweather’s” opponents as much as you like, but the simple fact of the matter is this, “Mayweather” has an undefeated record, “Pacquiao” does not. Just on that alone “Mayweather” in my opinion has more leverage, than “Pacquiao” and my evidence to support that theory is this – some people consider “Rocky Marciano” the best fighter of all time and a lot of people have him in the top three, despite him fighting in one of the weakest periods in the heavyweight divisions history. This proves as much as people may not like it, the undefeated record counts for something. This is why “Pacquiao” needs this fight to prove that he is a better fighter, not the other way around.
For those of you holding on to the fact that the third installment of the “Marquez / Pacquiao” fight may be this generations Marquee event, I can almost guarantee you it will not be, because even though “Marquez” is a brilliant balanced technical fighter, in the fight against “Mayweather” he looked bloated and sluggish above 140 lbs and struggled to carry the excess weight. I believe it will be the same case this time, and “Marquez” will be knocked out in the middle to late rounds, verifying the fact that this fight cannot possibly be this generation’s bookmark in boxing history.
So in conclusion if “Mayweather / Pacquiao” cannot be signed – dealed and delivered the “Y” generation will miss out on its defining fight and be relegated to the back pages of boxing history. So let’s hope that the “Mayweather / Pacquiao” fight can be finalized for boxing’s sake.