Boxing needs Pacquiao-Mayweather showdown

Boxing needs Pacquiao-Mayweather showdown By Kevin Iole y****! Sports With each man likely to be paid as if he were a Wall Street CEO, money shouldn’t be a factor in preventing a bout between Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr. sometime in the spring of 2010 in the ultimate boxing showdown. The fight will undoubtedly be the largest-grossing bout in history and might be the most anticipated since Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier met for the first time at New York’s Madison Square Garden on March 8, 1971. If a fight against each other is not the next bout for Mayweather and Pacquiao, each ought to retire. The public and media outrage will be enormous and the very credibility of the sport will be threatened. Rarely does the public have an appetite for a bout like it does this one. You have two men in the same division, each with a stake to the mythical status as boxing’s best fighter while each is in his prime. They’re both also at the height of their earning powers and will make so much money they’ll make Alex Rodriguez envious. The repercussions will be enormous if the bout is not made. Boxing will look like a second-rate sport – and deservedly so – if the biggest fight and the one the fans most want to see is not made. “Consolation” bouts like ones pitting Mayweather against Shane Mosley or Pacquiao against Juan Manuel Marquez, simply won’t cut it. Mayweather, in particular, will be crucified if a deal isn’t reached. Fairly or unfairly (depending upon whom you speak to), Mayweather has been ridiculed for avoiding tough competition since 2003. Mayweather moved up to lightweight in 2002 and instantly took on Jose Luis Castillo, who at the time was regarded as the world’s best 135-pounder. Mayweather defeated Castillo in controversial fashion in their first bout that year, then beat him clearly in their second. Since then, however, Mayweather has been questioned about his choice of opponents. He’s fought 11 times since 2003 and Marquez, whom he routed in September, is the only one of those who was widely regarded as one of the world’s 10 best pound-for-pound fighters. There was, though, a problem with that. Even though Marquez was ranked No. 2 by many polls, including Yahoo! Sports, going into the Mayweather fight, he was moving up from lightweight to face Mayweather at welterweight. Thus the win didn’t carry the same significance for many that it would have had he beaten a legitimate, world-class welterweight like Pacquiao did with Cotto. If promoters Bob Arum of Top Rank and Richard Schaefer of Golden Boy are unable to come to terms for a Pacquiao-Mayweather bout, the brunt of the blame, whether it’s deserved or not, will fall on Mayweather’s shoulders. He’ll look like he’s running again. But Pacquiao needs to fight Mayweather, too. He’s had to deal with questions about each of his past four opponents, as he’s made his march up from the super featherweight division. He needs to defeat an in-his-prime star like Mayweather to end all doubts. Bottom line, each needs the other and boxing needs the fight.