Someone should have made a bet with me, going against my steadfast position that this mega-fight would ultimately take place on March 13.  No sensible, capitalist-minded fighter [1] could pass up a $50 million pay day.

Apparently, I was wrong: “Fight Off”

In the end, apparently egos >>> money, the sport, fans, history

How poetic how I still see “Money” as the one to blame in all of this.  This isn’t the first time Money May has been known to duck fighters: Mosley, Cotto, Margarito, Williams, etc.  Instead, recent history has shown him go for outclassed/overmatched opponents [2].  Now we see him making unfounded accusations of steroid and human growth hormone abuse because Pacquaio broke records unheard of in boxing.  Could these accusations simply come as a result of Pacman breaking Asian stereotypes?  Possibly.

An article, that I’ve been scouring the internet, quoted Arum discussing Manny’s jump in weight classes.  Unfortunately I can’t find the piece, but to summarize it: give a malnourished street kid food, and he’ll grow.

As much as I’m blaming Money May for being too shook to put a blemish on his perfect record, I still have to put some blame on Pacquiao’s team.  It is easy to call out Manny for not owning up to the accusations and just agreeing to blood tests, but in the psychological chess game that is involved in the sport of boxing, Floyd would have gotten a huge upper hand.  Not to mention possible sponsorship damage.  Top Rank, on the other hand, I hold no remorse.  Arum sipping daiquiris in Cabo during negotiations didn’t do much to illustrate intent on this fight taking place.  The shadiness and incompetence of boxing promoters have offered more fuel for the likes of Dana White to talk.

This fight isn’t just huge for both fighters but for boxing, which is probably the only other thing that beats Hip-Hop’s claim of impending or existing death.  Now because both side failed, we get to read more sports writers talk about boxing irrelevancy.

I’m still sticking to my bet that this fight will happen, regardless of whether it occurs on March 13.  This controversy is just added hype for a possible battle.  Let’s just hope Yuri Foreman and/or Matthew Hatton don’t destroy the potential for a card in late summer.

[1] I guess this point holds some optimism for those of us who’s guts wrenched when we hear about Pac entering politics.  Not sure about the validity, but I overheard he was running on a ticket that was pretty progressive.

[2] No diss to JMM.

*Update: Mayweather blames Team Pacquiao on collapse

-Ninoy Brown

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 7th, 2010 at 4:32 pm and is filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.