Why Mayweather needs to beat Pacquiao to salvage his legacy

Why Mayweather needs to beat Pacquiao to salvage his legacy April 24, 3:45 AMFilipino Sports ExaminerDennis "dSource" Guillermo No disrespect. Floyd Mayweather Jr. is a great boxer. He is. If you look back at all my articles about him, even the ones that were critical towards the guy, you can read and see how much respect I have for his skills inside the boxing ring. Most of the things I question him for are mainly the stuff he says outside the ring. But as a fighter, I can only think of one guy better. At one point he was even the clear cut best boxer of this era- well, that might be a stretch, but you can say at least the first decade of this century. Mayweather dominated the earlier parts of this decade and was considered to be the best- until Manny Pacquiao turned into King Kong and transformed the sport of boxing into Banana Republic- bananas as in crazy. Pacquiao made sense to what people thought was senseless. Pacquiao, thanks to hard work and a guy named Freddie Roach, truly found his greatness from within. He defied logic and climbed weight classes like a monkey hurdling trees and absolutely obliterated some of the best it had to offer. He made what seemed improbable -- like beating the much bigger Oscar Dela Hoya -- into a spectacle in his favor. He has achieved what none before him did and that's to win world championship belts in seven different weight classes. See, unlike some other ring legends, Pacquiao was not born into the sport of boxing. You can say he was a late bloomer. He initially used boxing as a means to eat. People back from where he's from hardly have time to pursue hobbies. Naturally, the end product took a little bit more time to perfect. Actually, it might not even be done yet. When Money cashed out his chips and left the sport of boxing a couple of years ago, Pacquiao stepped in and did not only inherit the throne as the pound for pound king and the best fighter in boxing, he stole that chair, took it back to General Santos City and ran with it- all the way to Congress he hopes. It's quite ironic really that a quote that Floyd himself uttered during his 24/7 series with Marquez would sum things up best. Floyd said, "While you're sleeping, I've been grinding. Any when you're grinding, guess what? I'm still grinding." True to his word, Mayweather is one of the hardest workers in the sport. His work ethic is second to none. The only thing is, sometimes being on top can make a fighter dull. And when Mayweather lost reason to prove anything in the ring, he walked away and left the doors open for another hungry and hardworking boxing great to take over. But now, Money has reason to work again. He can say all he wants, deep down inside I know he knows he needs to beat Pacquiao for him to go down as the best of his time. Why do you think he's so conscious about Pacquiao in the first place, bashing him left and right when the guy doesn't even talk back? He instigated this whole feud with Pacquiao but I see it as partially gamesmanship as well. Only problem is, Money can take it a little bit too far at times. At the end of the day though, Floyd can beat all the Mosleys and Marquezes he wants for the rest of his career. But without beating Pacquiao, he will be remembered as a footnote to the real Fighter of the Decade. Pacquiao has the records, the accolades and the awards to prove his claim. If not for some feat he accomplished back when he was the clear cut best, what does Mayweather really have over Pacquiao? A-Side meth? Hype? Yea right. It takes more than that to go down as the best and even if he claims he only fights for checks, Mayweather wants to go down in history as the undisputed best. Well, if you want to be the best, you got to beat the best. Last time I checked, nobody has beaten Pacquiao either after he got all his tools together.