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Scott Heritage
Pittsburgh Fight Sports Examiner
February 4, 2010
Floyd Mayweather and Shane Mosley have both signed on the dotted line and will meet on May 1st in Las Vegas.
From there the fight that makes the most sense in the division at the moment is to have the winner face the winner of Manny Pacquiao vs. Joshua Clottey, which takes place in Dallas on March 13th.
In fact Freddie Roach went on the record with BoxingScene today to say just that, although it being the fight that needs to happen and it actually happening are two different things.
The problem with the winners of the two fights meeting it that Mayweather is still insisting on extra testing on all his future opponents and that Pacquiao will no doubt refuse to give in to his demands. Effectively keeping the two best fighters in the world from ever meeting. It's unlikely that Bob Arum and Top Rank would allow one of their fighters to be subjected to extra testing either if they are happy for Pacquiao not to want it.
There is an outside chance that Mosley or Clottey could win, but they are both decent underdogs, and outside of wishful thinking from the Mayweather haters and the people of Ghana respectively, not many give either much of a chance.
David Ellis, Bradford PA: "Because of two fighters, one stubborn about blood and the other with his demands, Top Rank and Golden Boy are going to lose millions of dollars, not just with their fight, but with every other fight that might have happened if not for them"
Sure there are two sides to every story, but it's Mayweather who wants the extra testing that the commission doesn't require. Any other fighter is happy to fight without these extra testing, and most wouldn't push for them to the point of canceling a $40 million dollar fight.
As his acting promotional agents, Golden Boy are required to back Mayweather and whatever stipulations he wants added to his fight contracts, but the wider implications could prove damaging to them rather than Mayweather.
After the fallout of the Pacquiao vs. Mayweather negotiations, Golden Boy backed their fighter and said that in the future, Pacquiao would require extra testing to fight any Golden Boy fighter.
More recently Mayweather was missing in action when Golden Boy wanted the Mosley fight signed and ready to start promoting. Most other fighters would be reprimanded for keeping a promoter of this size waiting, but Mayweather, publicly at least was not. There was also the rather embarrassing tirade from Roger Mayweather where he accused Pacquiao of being on 'A-side Meth'.
Obviously this could potentially cost both companies a lot of money, but worse than that, it would leave one of the biggest rivalries in the history of the sport unfinished. As usual the fans were vocal about Mayweather and where he will be after the Mosley fight.
Danny Wallis, Harrisburg PA: "Mayweather thinks he can take the place of the commission and make up his own rules as he goes along, that's why he gets so much hate around here"
Freddie Maynard, Pittsburgh PA: "Mayweather has signed to fight Mosley, which you and others said he wouldn't, he's still undefeated and he's the biggest fighter in the sport. Anyone who doubts him needs their heads examined"
Sweetpea, USA: "Manny's been exposed. After May 1 Mayweather will once again be the undisputed p4p champ. Of course Manny will never fight Floyd; he will never fight Mosley either. Mosley already offered to fight at 143 and give Manny a 60/40 split, but Manny "balked" at fighting Mosley. That is a fact. No one even cares about March 13, while the whole sports world is eagerly awaiting May 1. Mayweather is giving the fans the fights they want to see, and Manny is ducking all boxers and all top welterweights. Mayweather, Mosley, and Williams are the only credible opponents for Manny and he won't fight any of them, because he knows he doesn't have a chance!"
While May 1st will do a lot for Mayweather's ranking, this won't put him back into the number one pound for pound spot. Sure Mosley is a better opponent than Clottey, but Pacquiao is coming off a win over Cotto, while Mayweather is coming off a win over Marquez. Also to be fair to Manny, when he was looking for an opponent, Mosley was still scheduled to fight Andre Berto, so he wasn't an option at the time anyway.
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