Sifting Through the Pacquiao-Mayweather Wreckage

When seven-time champion Manny Pacquiao finalized a deal to fight Joshua Clottey on March 13, his multimillion-dollar super-fight with Floyd Mayweather went from must-see TV to won’t-see TV. What was sure to be the biggest prize fight in history is now dead, and if you’re a fight fan, you’ve probably spent the better half of the past few weeks trying to figure out where it all went wrong. Maybe we were foolish to expect smooth dealings for a fight so mountainous. The devil always seems to be in the details. When the negotiations for the $40 million payday began, traditional hurdles like glove and ring size were quickly settled upon between the two camps. Even an official fighting weight of 147 pounds was a non-issue. But after Mayweather came in two pounds over the agreed-upon catchweight in his fight with Juan Manuel Marquez last September, Pacquiao’s camp decided they weren’t taking any chances. The Arum-headed Top Rank presented Mayweather and Golden Boy Promotions with a binding clause that said the former five-time champ would be penalized $10 million for every pound he was over the welterweight limit should he hit the scales the heavy – a steep price to pay for a few less reps in the gym. Still, Mayweather agreed to Pacquiao’s costly demands without batting an eye. But that’s where things got sticky. Mayweather and his reps countered Team Pacquiao with a demand of their own, insisting upon Olympic-style drug testing, which includes random urine and blood samples for both fighters in the months leading up to the bout. After some back and forth, Pacquiao’s camp agreed to submit a blood test 24 days before the March 13 fight date as well as a blood sample immediately after the bout. Published reports maintain that when Pacquiao’s final proposal was placed before Mayweather, the former champ rejected it. Mayweather’s camp rebuked such claims, saying that the two fighters still had time to reach an agreement before the “business deadline.” Whether offended by the dodgy dealings or otherwise, Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum pulled the plug on the event. Now Pacquiao and his handlers are suing Mayweather for defamation, and fans are left twiddling their thumbs. If you’re looking for someone to blame for the botched deal, Mayweather’s an easy target. His demand for random Olympic-style drug testing was as untimely as it was accusatory. Not once in 40 professional fights has the former pound-for-pound king made such demands of other opponents. Pacquiao agreed to the testing, he just did it on his terms. Granted, we’re in a sports era where PEDs are as popular as tic-tacs, so it’s not far-fetched for a competitor like Mayweather to question Pacquiao’s Henry Armstrong-esque success. (Seven world titles in seven different weight classes is pretty amazing stuff.) But why risk derailing the biggest fight in modern history for a few blood and urine samples? We’re not just talking boatloads of cash here. We’re talking about the two best pound-for-pound prize fighters meeting in their primes with multiple titles at stake. Not to mention one of the best clashes of styles the sport has seen in years. Not since the days of Leonard-Hearns has a bout of such magnitude been available to fans. So why would boxing’s two brightest stars not fight when the time is perfect? If you believe Arum, Floyd never wanted anything to do with Manny for fear of damaging his unblemished record – the one thing that separates Mayweather from the majority of his counterparts. Floyd's a perfect 40-0; Manny has three professional losses. If you're the Pretty Boy, the debate for who's the better champion ends there. If the idea sounds asinine, you don’t know Floyd Mayweather Jr. His talent aside, it’s no secret that Mayweather bills his legacy around the fact that he’s one of few champions to hold a perfect professional record. Just look at his past. In 2006, Mayweather notoriously turned down an $8 million payday against Antonio Margarito and opted to fight the far less dangerous Carlos Baldomir. The same can be said for Mayweather’s unwillingness to fight other top-tier fighters in “Sugar” Shane Mosley and Paul Williams. Mosley’s speed and power posed a threat to Floyd just as Williams’ height, reach and busy style made him a tough fight. Yet here we are, several years removed from those days when Mayweather was systematically picking off fighters and Pacquiao was still making a name for himself south of the welterweight division. Forty million dollars and the title of best pound-for-pound fighter was there for the taking, sitting in a ring at the MGM Grand. But Money May was reluctant to put his legacy on the line versus the man considered the world’s best pound-for-pound boxer. All because of the gutless strategy that underlines his career: If you’re a serious threat to beat Mayweather Jr., he isn’t fighting you. Period. This may be 2010, but the rope-a-dope Pretty Boy of ’06 is still running the show. If he weren’t, we’d all be gearing up for Pacquiao-Mayweather, not Pacquiao-Clottey, this March. http://www.comcast.net/sports/writethatdown/3157/siftingthroughthepacquiaomayweatherwreckage/?CID=Net_Sportsmain