Mayweather vs Pacquiao

[luvmysuper]

Have we all forgotten that it was Paquiao who wouldn't agree to drug testing, not Mayweather? If he agreed to it, the fight would have happened. But to Paquiao, drug testing was the deal breaker. Manny using HGH is the reason that fight didn't happen, not Floyd protecting his undefeated record. For $40 mil, Floyd would risk losing any noght, as long as the check cleared.

Pacquiao agreed to random blood tests up to 3 weeks before the fight, and agreed to any blood tests immediately following the fight.
When he previously gave blood right before a fight, he lost, and he had a superstitious fear that the blood test was at fault.
Mayweather knew this, it was part of the deal that the two teams had negotiated on, but Mayweather played it off like it was Pacquiao refusing testing at all.

[ouch]

If you ever get a chance to see it, there's a marvelous documentary about Freddie Roach with some terrific behind the scenes footage of Pacquiao.

[Mspec]

The fight will happen, and because they are getting towards the ends of their boxing careers ( early/mid thirties) I suspect we will see some retirement shortly after. Go PACMAN!!

[oakeshott]

And this is why a shaving site has a thread on MMA with 2800 posts while boxing is dying. Quick- name the middleweight, light heavyweight, and lightweight champs. Years ago I could have answered that in two seconds.

Ouch,
Although boxing often appears as if it's dead and given the reckless malfeasance of the promoters, the judges, the trainers and some of the boxers, perhaps it should be, the sport continues to prosper in a niche way. I try to go to as many of the matches as my time and wallet will allow and the prices commanded for the best seats are the highest in sport (with the possible exception of the superbowl) and PPV numbers mostly appear to remain strong if not overwhelming. The fan base here in the states has waned, but there is a strong niche following. In other countries, however, it is much more widespread. Mexico is a premier example of this, but one can also cite Puerto Rico, Germany, Philippines and Canada (particularly Montreal) as places where matches are routinely sold out and covered widely in the press. Montreal may be one of the great boxing cities, btw, judging by the excitement at every Lucien Bute match.

We can now watch boxing not only on HBO and Showtime, but on ESPN, NBC Sports, Viacom's new Epix channel, the Military channel and, of course, TV Azteca and a couple of other spanish language stations. This is in the absence of any great rivalries or stars in the Heavyweight division and profound corruption, stupidity and cupidity amongst all the sanctioning bodies. What is remarkable is not that boxing continues to survive, but that it has survived the gross deprecations of those entrusted to keeping it alive (are you listening Jose Sulaiman?).

Of course, you may still be right and this is the twilight of the sport.

oake

[ouch]

Of course, you may still be right and this is the twilight of the sport.

oake

It's been in its twilight since the 50's, but somehow manages to survive. Every now an then an Ali shows up, or a Tyson, but overall the fan can now expect to count the same number of "fights of the decade" as there were once "fights of the year".

[oakeshott]

It's been in its twilight since the 50's, but somehow manages to survive. Every now an then an Ali shows up, or a Tyson, but overall the fan can now expect to count the same number of "fights of the decade" as there were once "fights of the year".

You are correct, sir

[ouch]

What I miss most is the great rivalries in all the divisions. The light heavyweight division was flush with talent, there were killer lightweights, we had Leonard, Hearns, Benitez, and Duran duking it out, Hagler was a beast, Ali to Holmes to Tyson was a great run of heavies- it just went on and on. Pryor vs. Arguello was legendary, and Cornelius Boza-Edwards vs. Bobby Chacon was the best fight I ever saw.

[Walter Sobchak]

Floyd's afraid of Manny and it's too bad. He HAS been ducking him and to an extent he's been padding his record just like Roy Jones Jr. did in his prime. I was surprised Mayweather took on Cotto TBH, as Cotto seemed to be a good matchup against Mayweather's skills. I'm glad they fought.

Just because Pacman doesn't want to submit to extra-stringent drug testing doesn't automatically mean he's juicing. There are several valid reasons he would deny such a demand. First of all, (and this is the BIG fleecing by Mayweather on this point), Floyd wants Anti-Doping policy drug testing but he only wants it when the fighters are in camp before the fight. So he only wants it during the two and a half months prior to a fight. While it's certainly more stringent than a local boxing commission's test, it's a pretty narrow window and doesn't show anything about what's happening when the fighters are "off the clock". Manny's camp has essentially stated the same thing. Secondly, we cannot dismiss the egos of champion boxers. Pacman has an ego like every other great fighter and he doesn't want to be dictated to by Mayweather's camp. Another admittedly lesser reason is that Pacman is a superstitious creature of habit and he doesn't want any changes in his pre-fight training camp.

A second major point of contention is that Mayweather indicates that he is a bigger PPV and Gate draw than Pacman and thus he should receive a much larger sum of the total purse. That's not entirely true. Mayweather is hugging the huge PPV draw he pulled against De La Hoya a long time ago. Pacman has outdrawn Mayweather consistently on PPV AND at the gate over the last couple of years. Not counting Floyd's bout vs Cotto (which I'm sure approached 2M buys...I haven't seen the official # yet), Pacman has had more PPV buys than Mayweather over their last three bouts; Pacquiao 3.86 million PPV purchases to Mayweather's 3.65 million. We have to take into consideration the caliber of opponents on each side, but they're close enough that it's within reason for Pacquiao to seek something closer to a 50/50 split. Even if Mayweather/Cotto broke 2M PPV buys, they're still similar draws. Mayweather will not negotiate on the payout, however. He wants a significantly higher payout than Pacman or he won't take the fight as he's repeatedly said.

I think Floyd would likely beat Pacquiao now. Floyd really has the the technical side of the sweet science in his pocket whereas Manny is a scrapper, IMO; a very good counterpuncher, but still a brawler. Floyd could really be a frustrating matchup for Manny. Age doesn't help scrappers who've never been textbook boxers. It seems to my eyes that Manny is about 80% of his former self in the ring. I'd have loved to see them fight when they were both in their prime, though. It would have been an amazing fight. It's a shame it didn't happen two years ago.

We'll all have to see what happens with Pacquiao in his fight against Bradley. Hopefully he comes off strong and sharp and we see a Mayweather/Pacman fight next winter. There's too much $$ on the table for this fight not to happen eventually.

[oakeshott]

[QUOTE
We'll all have to see what happens with Pacquiao in his fight against Bradley. Hopefully he comes off strong and sharp and we see a Mayweather/Pacman fight next winter. There's too much $$ on the table for this fight not to happen eventually.[/QUOTE]

Take a look at this article in the WSJ on Pacquiao:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...WORDS=pacquiao

Manny is hip deep in non-boxing activities which is fantastic for his life post-boxing and a very healthy thing indeed, but a grim harbinger of what will happen to him if he steps into the ring with Floyd or even with an eager, much younger and relatively skilled fighter like Bradley.

Will have to look up that edwards v chacon fight. Haven't heard of it.

What is nice, however, is to see that there are some boxing freaks on B&B. I often feel like i'm the only one in my zip code.

[Illadelphia]

[QUOTE=oakeshott;4106491]

Take a look at this article in the WSJ on Pacquiao:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...WORDS=pacquiao

Manny is hip deep in non-boxing activities which is fantastic for his life post-boxing and a very healthy thing indeed, but a grim harbinger of what will happen to him if he steps into the ring with Floyd or even with an eager, much younger and relatively skilled fighter like Bradley.

Will have to look up that edwards v chacon fight. Haven't heard of it.

What is nice, however, is to see that there are some boxing freaks on B&B. I often feel like i'm the only one in my zip code.

These two are about the last hope we have in boxing. It's become flavorless as the whole world now thinks they are an MMA fighter.

[Doc4]

And this is why a shaving site has a thread on MMA with 2800 posts while boxing is dying. Quick- name the middleweight, light heavyweight, and lightweight champs. Years ago I could have answered that in two seconds.

"All" boxing needs is a unified leadership that can tell these guys that they are fighting. Easier said than done, but if they had "their Dana White" who could simply say "Manny ... Floyd ... Vegas ... November!" and so forth, it'd be done and entertaining.

[Walter Sobchak]

http://espn.go.com/boxing/story/_/id...manny-pacquiao

Some interesting things about Pacman and his take on things. I like the genuine respect he pays to Marquez.

[duotone]

The fan base here in the states has waned, but there is a strong niche following. In other countries, however, it is much more widespread. Mexico is a premier example of this, but one can also cite Puerto Rico, Germany, Philippines and Canada (particularly Montreal) as places where matches are routinely sold out and covered widely in the press. Montreal may be one of the great boxing cities, btw, judging by the excitement at every Lucien Bute match.

oake

After seeing Butes name I had to mention if anyone saw the Bute V Froch fight this weekend?

As for Manny V Floyd I can see it happening further down the line, due to the huge money involved. To me in his last few fights Manny seems to be deteriorating, perhaps he is cutting his training camps short or they are not getting his full focus due to his political commitments.