By John F. McKenna (McJack)
The almost nauseating saga of whether WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao (54-3-2, 38 KO’s) will ever fight undefeated WBC welterweight champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. (42-0, 26 KO’s) goes on and on, with seemingly no end in sight.
Within days of Pacquiao’s controversial win over WBO/WBA lightweight champion Juan Manuel Marquez (53-6-1, 39 KO’s) on November 12 the rumors started to fly that a breakthrough was imminent and that the super fight at long last was going to come to fruition. The Mayweather camp had already reserved the MGM Grand in Las Vegas for May the 5th supposedly for Floyd’s next fight. It was not clear at the time who his opponent would be but when Mayweather’s adviser Leonard Ellerbe said that “Money” wanted the “little fella” next it was a clear hint that the “little fella” was Manny Pacquiao.
Then when Manny pulled out the close victory against Marquez there was a flurry of activity that Floyd was now anxious to fight Manny. The reasoning is simple. Pacquiao struggled against an opponent who Mayweather had defeated with ease. In fact Floyd pitched a near shutout against Marquez when they fought in 2009. All the hype that the new and improved, bigger stronger and now two handed Pacquiao did not translate as expected in the ring. Many boxing observers saw this as an opportunity for Floyd to take on his long time nemesis.
Not so fast. The much ballyhooed meeting between Pacquiao adviser Michael Koncz and Floyd Mayweather is now in dispute. Mayweather is now denying that any talks ever took place with regard to a possible Pacquiao – Mayweather fight. He went as far as to call the reports that negotiations have taken place as lies.
Manny Pacquiao himself said at one point that most of the major details in putting the super fight together had been worked out. Now Manny is saying that there are other possibilities. The names of Marquez and Timothy Bradley sometime come up when a possible future opponent for Pacquiao is discussed.
It is clear that there is still work to be done in arranging what would be by far the hugest Mega Bucks fight in history. But there is no guarantee that some as now unknown event won’t creep in to prevent the fight from happening.
Putting together a fight that both Pacquiao and Mayweather supposedly want can’t be all that complicated. And it’s too easy to blame it all on the promoters. The promoters after all will reap a huge financial reward as well if and when the fight takes place. I would suggest that both fighters participate to some extent in getting the process started. If the fight does not happen the fighters themselves must share the bulk of the blame.
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