Sports illustrated had no solid basis to demote pacquiao

SPORTS ILLUSTRATED HAD NO SOLID BASIS TO DEMOTE PACQUIAO By Ronnie Nathanielsz PhilBoxing.com Sat, 19 Nov 2011 Sports Illustrated has demoted Manny Pacquiao to No. 2 in its pound for pound rankings while moving Floyd Mayweather Jr from No. 2 to the top spot. Their decision was in stark contrast to the acknowledged “Bible” of Boxing Ring Magazine, whose advisory board voted unanimously to keep Pacquiao as the king but served notice his hugely controversial and disappointing majority decision win over Juan Manuel Marquez was an eye opener and that he remains on top by virtually the skin of his mouth-guard which he actually lost for a moment late in the Marquez fight. To borrow the words of the eminent boxing writer Michael Rosenthal of Ring the knee-jerk reaction was that Pacquiao should pay a price for his sub-par performance and yield the top spot to Mayweather especially since more people than ever believe that Floyd would beat Manny should they face each other. But that is pure conjecture just as the claim that Mayweather whipped Marquez while Pacquiao had a hard time, should influence the decision. Those who peddle this argument fail to remember two things. One is that while Mayweather edged Oscar De La Hoya in a fight where many thought De La Hoya deserved to win, Pacquiao pulverized De La Hoya so badly he disfigured his handsome face after seven rounds. In the case of Ricky “The Hitman” Hatton, Mayweather took ten rounds to get him out while Pacquiao annihilated him in two and sent both De La Hoya and Hatton into retirement and regrettably, drugs. . Beyond that, while we among others thought that Marquez won, the undeniable fact is that two of the three judges appointed to score the fight had Pacquiao the winner while the third, Robert Hoyle, scored the fight a draw which meant that even if all three judges scored the fight a draw, Manny would have retained his title. Eventually, respect for authority should prevail and rather than belabor the issue to death, let us all accept the decision and move forward, fervently hoping that Pacquiao and his close advisers would evaluate what went wrong and make the necessary adjustments both in preparing in the gym for his next fight and moderating his activities and priorities outside the ring. The Ring Magazine editors and its Ratings Advisory Panel should be commended for their stance that retaining Pacquiao as pound for pound king was the right thing to do. The Ring is owned by Oscar De La Hoya and they represented Mayweather. They stood fair and firm, not in the style of referee Joe Cortez of course, and deserve the respect and commendation of fight fans. While Pacquiao may not have looked anywhere near the fighter we are used to watching, Mayweather was no big deal either when he relied on a cheap shot to knock out an unsuspecting Victor Ortiz in a fight that also resulted in a major controversy. Sports Illustrated failed to look at the rankings with any sense of fairness and logic. How could a fighter who is No.2 lose his title when he wins the fight especially when his avowed challenger, Mayweather, resorted to a tactic that reflected the actions of a sneak, to win his last fight. As Rosenthal so correctly pointed out a great fighter (Pacquiao) shouldn’t necessarily be demoted because another great fighter (Marquez) has his number. The world didn’t think any less of Muhammad Ali because he had problems against Ken Norton three times with the same applying to Willie Pep and Sandy Saddler in their series. As Ring pointed out in telling fashion, a fighter shouldn’t necessarily be demoted for what many considered an off-night, referring to current No. 3 Sergio Martinez who looked anything but great against Darren Barker but where nobody clamored for Martinez to be demoted. The clincher most surely is the argument that Manny has clearly accomplished much more than Floyd in recent years. He has won 9 fights and lost none against vaunted opponents since 2008 while Mayweather is just 3-0 in the same period including a dominating win over Marquez where he refused to shed two pounds and comply with the stipulated weight and instead paid a fine of $600,000. For whatever ulterior motive, SI has effectively placed a filthy-mouthed cheat ahead of the “Fighter of the Decade” and an epitome of fair-play and humility. Unbelievable.