By Jake Donovan

Once upon a time, Golden Boy CEO Richard Schaefer boasted a reputation for producing the big fight, or at least the big event. He never hesitated to offer this self-congratulatory boast, but as the old saying goes, “It ain’t bragging if you can back it up.”

A quick glance at recent big events and their numbers provide plenty of support. It was just two years ago when Golden Boy promoted the richest event in the history of the sport; that same year ended with their earning more pay-per-view revenue than any other promoter in a single 12-month period.

That was then; this is now. While Golden Boy’s thumbprint can still be found on several of the biggest events the sport has to offer today, the California-based promotional outfit has taken a major hit in 2009.

For the moment, nothing tops their part in the recent fumbling of the only super fight that matters for the moment, the proposed March 13 event between Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr.

Rather than discussing what should be the pre-fight buildup to what could become the most lucrative event in boxing history, the latest theme in the news story that has dominated the closing stretch of 2009 have centered around who deserves the most blame for what will inevitably be labeled “yet another black eye for boxing.”

The most common question asked has been, “Why can’t Pacquiao just take the damn tests?”

Given recent track records for consistently delivering on the big fight, a better question to ask is, “Why can’t Golden Boy and Mayweather just make the damn fight?”

Recent quotes offered to ESPN.com by the man who calls the shots for Golden Boy lends the suggestion that his side is doing everything in their power to salvage a fight that never had any business falling apart in the first place.

What he and his business associates – namely the company’s most notable figurehead, Oscar de la Hoya – fail to realize as of late is that their own words have repeatedly come back to haunt them.

Schaefer’s take on the situation is that his side (Golden Boy is representing Mayweather in negotiations) is working feverishly to make the fight happen, and suggests that the blame should fall at the feet of Pacquiao and his promoter, Bob Arum should the fight fall apart, which for the moment appears to be inevitable.

What he – and everyone else who have wondered aloud, “Why won’t Pacquiao just take the damn tests” – fails to acknowledge the guilt-by-association factor that has been levied the moment the request was made for an alternate means to drug testing than what has always been offered by the state commission presiding over any given event.

The most obvious question has been, “Why hasn’t this ever been requested for any of Mayweather’s previous 40 fights?”, though one that continues to be deflected by Golden Boy brass. The politically correct response they offer is that this fight has the potential to serve as boxing’s equivalent of the Super Bowl.

If that was the case, then why weren’t any precautions taken prior to Mayweather-de la Hoya?

There would’ve actually been precedence for making such a request. It was revealed prior to his failed middleweight title bid against Bernard Hopkins in 2004 that de la Hoya took Lidocaine, a pain killer deemed illegal by Nevada State Athletic Commission standards, to speed up the healing process for a cut suffered on his hand. Hopkins appeared visibly upset when informed of the news prior to their fight, but didn’t seem too bothered by it after stopping him in the ninth round, or joining up with Golden Boy Promotions a few weeks later.

Granted, such an injection is small potatoes compared to the steroid problems that continue to plague today’s sports world. Still, in tallying up the count of usages of banned substances – de la Hoya leads Pacquiao, 1-0.

Pacquiao has also been linked to one fewer steroid scandal than Shane Mosley, a current partner in Golden Boy Promotions.

It’s been discussed ad nauseum by now of Golden Boy Promotions standing on the opposite side of the random blood testing argument when it was requested of Mosley by Zab Judah prior to their May 2008 pay-per-view fight that never was.

But once again, there stood genuine cause for concern to question the current drug testing process when one of its participants admitted to having previously used a banned substance, yet having never ever tested positive before or after a fight.

Apparently the good of the sport was of little concern to Schaefer, who stated at the time, “Whatever tests they [the NSAC] want them to take, Shane will submit to that. We are not going to do other tests than the Nevada commission requires. The fact is Shane is not a cheater and he does not need to be treated like one."

Only, the fact was that Shane was a cheater (even if only once). Whether or not he deserved to be treated like one afterward is open to debate. Given his good standing with most in the boxing community, coupled with his never failing a drug test, it was widely assumed that he wouldn’t be foolish enough to tempt fate and revert to sampling questionable products.

But for whatever reason, the same logic cannot be applied to Pacquiao, whose only link to steroid use is from the unfounded claims of Floyd Mayweather, Sr.

The good of the sport was never taken into consideration by the Golden Boy/Mayweather side when shopping for a venue for this event. The overwhelming response by the boxing world when asked about where they’d like to see this fight take place was, “Anywhere but Vegas.”

So came the proposals from major venues throughout the country. Most notable among them was the $25 million offer made by Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones to bring the event to his renovated, state-of-the-art Cowboys Stadium.

When it came time to view the site and possibly hammer out a deal, Schaefer reneged on his part of the agreement, canceling at the last minute his own travel plans for a trek to Dallas.

It was at that moment when it became evident that his only interests lied in appeasing the needs of those with whom he frequently conducts business – namely the fine folks at MGM Mirage, which meant the inevitable announcement of yet another super fight being pigeon holed to the Vegas strip.

That’s IF there is a fight, which for the moment doesn’t appear to be the case.

A last ditch effort has been made by Golden-Mayweather, moving off of their hard line stance to have the US Anti-Doping Agency oversee the proposed random blood and urine tests that their side is demanding to take place in this fight. They are now open to another agency conducting the tests, so long as the two sides can agree on a cut-off date.

In the same breath, Schaefer also claims that the demand for these tests – which are beyond the normal requirements of the Nevada State Athletic Commission – shouldn’t be interpreted as anyone from Golden Boy Promotions or Mayweather Jr. himself directly accusing Pacquiao of steroid use, that the only open accusation has come from Floyd Mayweather Sr.

That would lead to the latest contradiction, which came in Oscar de la Hoya’s most recent blog entry on his website, RingTV.com (spare me the semantics; he owns the magazine, therefore the website is his as well).

In the events leading up to Pacquiao’s fights with Ricky Hatton and Miguel Cotto, de la Hoya went out of his way to claim that he was never impressed with the Filipino’s punching power. He’d previously chalked up his own loss to the current pound-for-pound king to simply growing old overnight.

Yet in separate passages in Friday’s blog entry, he offers the following:

“Now I have to wonder about him. I’m saying to myself, “Wow. Those Mosley punches, those Vargas punches and those Pacquiao punches all felt the same.” I’m not saying yes or no [about whether Pacquiao might be taking performance-enhancing drugs]; I’m just saying that now people have to wonder: “Why doesn’t he want to do this? Why is it such a big deal.”

And then ends that same blog with this zinger:

“We can paint ourselves as the cleanest sport by doing this test. Why don’t you want to do it? C’mon. It’s only a little bit of blood. If you have nothing to hide, then do the test.”

But the official statement from Golden Boy Promotions is that nobody is accusing Pacquiao of steroid use, that’s it’s merely to ensure a level playing field.

No level playing field was offered when Mayweather refused to make weight for his comeback fight this past September. It was bad enough that Golden Boy turned pound-for-pound entrant Juan Manuel Marquez into a sacrificial lamb, offering a $4 million prize to fatten up from lightweight to a proposed catchweight of 144 lb.

But when it came time to force Mayweather to work that much harder to shrink down to the agreed-upon limit, they instead accepted monetary compensation in exchange of modifying the original contract, which allowed Mayweather to avoid an additional fine from the Nevada State Athletic Commission.

It was that very fight that prompted the Pacquiao side to demand a $10 million fine be imposed for every pound either fighter turns up beyond the 147 lb. weight limit, a limit Mayweather wasn’t immediately receptive to but to which he eventually agreed.

Any reasonable observer will agree that the demand of a $10 million fine ranks anywhere from insane to unrealistic. Yet there exists precedence for concern that Mayweather will show up heavy. He did so in his most recent fight, and also entered these negotiations with the above the law mentality that he’d show up as heavy as he wants to for this fight.

There is also precedence of Mayweather avoiding the biggest fights immediately surrounding him. His next fight against a true welterweight will be his first since winning the division’s lineal crown three years ago against Carlos Baldomir. His lone defense of the title came 13 months later, when 140 lb. champion Ricky Hatton moved up in weight.

Surrounding him were fighters such as Miguel Cotto, Antonio Margarito, Paul Williams and Shane Mosley. Four fights exist between the aforementioned quartet; none of which involve Mayweather.

Unless negotiations take a dramatic turn for the better in the next few days, there runs the risk of one more name never gracing Mayweather’s resume, thus leaving him and Golden Boy without a feasible Plan B. If a series of random blood tests are being demanded by Mayweather for this fight, then surely he’ll ask the same should a fight with, say Shane Mosley, once again make its way to the negotiating table.

To Mayweather’s credit, having Golden Boy negotiate on his behalf for this event is proof that there existed at least a slight interest in securing the biggest fight the sport had to offer.

Had the fight been signed, sealed and delivered – or even if it somehow turns a corner and becomes a reality, then the folks at Golden Boy Promotions deserve to stand up and take a bow and pat themselves on the back.

Just so long as they’re also willing to accept their medicine if things completely fall apart, rather than attempt to absolve themselves of any blame, which has already become the case.

Jake Donovan is the Managing Editor of Boxingscene.com and an award-winning member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. Contact Jake at JakeNDaBox@gmail.com.