By Lyle Fitzsimmons
Let’s begin by dispensing with a few formalities.
To those who haven’t yet grasped it, I’m a columnist. I get paid by the person who runs this website to write pieces that are often based on my opinion. That gives me a responsibility to be aware of facts surrounding the themes I write about, but it also gives me the freedom to call things as I see them.
So to all who’ve read my pieces in the past and suggested I’m “racist” or “biased” or being “paid off” by one person or another simply because my views are not in lockstep with yours; have someone read that previous paragraph to you a couple more times until it’s really understood.
It’ll save your mom, your girlfriend or your parole officer the trouble of having to type up your ridiculously illiterate responding emails, and it’ll save me the hassle of deleting them.
OK, now that that’s been taken care of, we can get on with some other Tuesday business.
When it comes to the would-be Mayweather-Pacquiao showdown that everyone seems to want to talk about again these days, it may not surprise you to hear I’ve got some opinions, too.
First off, I won’t believe the fight is going to happen until I see the two guys gloved and trunked in the center of a ring, with Kenny Bayless (or whomever else) giving final instructions. Second off, though some insist too much of their peak time has passed for it to still be a relevant competition, I believe that it’s still the best fight out there to be made, and I do truly hope it happens sometime in 2015.
And third off, if the waters part and it really does take place, I think Mayweather flat-out dominates.
Still, until it arrives, it seems “PacMan” has at least pulled back ahead in the PR battle.
For much of the time after his devastating KO loss to Juan Manuel Marquez two years ago, Pacquiao had been relegated to the backseat when it came to lingering comparisons with his arch social media nemesis. The defeat to a four-time foe exposed weaknesses, people said, and for a while it seemed as if the super-fight that never was wouldn’t actually still be necessary.
A glorified spar session with Brandon Rios did little to change that perception last November, and Mayweather – having easily disposed of Robert Guerrero and Canelo Alvarez to kick off a Showtime deal – certainly entered 2014 with the upper hand in both present perception and future possibilities.
But now that we’re at the doorstep of yet another new year, it feels like things have changed.
While Mayweather was as impressive as needed while dispatching rugged Marcos Maidana in a pair of bruising appearances at the MGM Grand, Pacquiao returned to legitimate prominence with a clear win over the guy many had begun portraying as next in line at welterweight, Timothy Bradley.
And though a trip to China to blow through under-qualified 140-pounder Chris Algieri wasn’t exactly by popular demand, it seems the Filipino exited that match with at least a handful of intriguing matches on the horizon – which could force Mayweather to once again up the ante to pull even.
Reports claim Bob Arum and Oscar De La Hoya have at least kicked the tires on the idea of Pacquiao meeting true 140-pound champion Danny Garcia, assuming complicated back-room negotiations on behalf of Garcia – who’s promoted by Golden Boy, but handled by Al Haymon – can be successful.
He’s also got an emerging new possibility in the form of lightweight champion Terence Crawford, who confirmed Saturday what everyone already knew, that he was abandoning 135 pounds in favor of the more lucrative environment one ladder rung to the north after dispatching No. 1 contender Ray Beltran.
If Arum can make either of those fights, he’s got himself a compelling showcase for Pacquiao.
Meanwhile, Mayweather is suffering from his own perceived invincibility at 147 pounds.
Because he’s beaten Maidana twice and barely lost a round while winning the fights with Guerrero and Alvarez, it’s getting more and more difficult to imagine foes for him that would provide little other than the talk tough/plod forward/get hit a lot/sit down routine he’s faced for the last four appearances.
And thanks to that monotony, it’s going to take something significant to re-level the playing field.
Amir Khan could provide an overseas outlet if he gets by Devon Alexander in a couple weeks, and he’d be a difficult test because the only glaring weakness in his game – his chin – won’t be as significant issue with a guy with Mayweather’s lack of one-shot power. When it comes to hand speed, movement and all-around athletic ability, in fact, he’s probably as dangerous a match as “Money” has seen in years.
In terms of name recognition, there’s not much else there at welterweight just yet.
Kell Brook is good, but has one win on a big stage. Keith Thurman is also good, but he probably needs to beat a guy on the Brook/Shawn Porter level before he reaches the short list. No one with two eyes wants to see Mayweather-Marquez again, and a fight with Bradley would be difficult to construct for at least two of the same reasons – read: Arum/Mayweather – that have long prevented a Pacquiao match.
In other words, if Mayweather wants to retain the same competitive relevance that Pacquiao can get by facing the cadre of young lions at 140, he’s got to make a ladder move of his own… to middleweight.
Fortunately for him, the “man who beat the man” title at 160 pounds rests in the hands of the same guy he toppled to win a crown at 154 pounds a few years back – Miguel Cotto.
Making a Cotto match and winning the lineal middleweight title would not only trump any permutation of possible opponents for Pacquiao at 140 pounds, but it’d also cement a six-weight championship claim that’d at least equal (and realistically surpass) the seven-division feat PacMan has managed.
While media members and ring announcers kowtow to Top Rank’s claim that Pacquiao is an eight-division titleholder, the numbers don’t agree. The evil sanctioning bodies have given him glory at seven weights – 112, 122, 130, 135, 140, 147 and 154 – while biblical heroes at The Ring have deemed him worthy at just three (126, 130 and 140), and none where Mayweather was simultaneously competing.
A middleweight win would give Mayweather sanctioning belts in six divisions (130, 135, 140, 147, 154 and 160) to go along with previous Ring jewelry from 135, 147 (two reigns) and 154. And though my calculator confirms that six is indeed one less than seven, many would concede that Money’s superior status in two of the common divisions – 135 and 154, where he won and defended; as opposed to Pacquiao, who won and vacated – is enough to flip the perception needle back to Team Mayweather.
Sure, it’d be better if everyone quit the baloney and just signed the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight. But if the absence of an agreement together at least compels them to make decent matches apart, we can at least cut the losses and enjoy the next year or two before they’re both gone for good.
It’s not quite as good as a big-screen TV under the tree.
But it sure as heck beats tube socks.
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This week’s title-fight schedule:
No fights scheduled.
Last week's picks: 2-0 (WIN: Gradovich, Crawford)
2014 picks record: 86-27 (76.1 percent)
Overall picks record: 631-221 (74.1 percent)
NOTE: Fights previewed are only those involving a sanctioning body's full-fledged title-holder – no interim, diamond, silver, etc. Fights for WBA "world championships" are only included if no "super champion" exists in the weight class.
Lyle Fitzsimmons has covered professional boxing since 1995 and written a weekly column for Boxing Scene since 2008. He is a full voting member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. Reach him at fitzbitz@msn.com or follow him on Twitter – @fitzbitz.
