No matter how much past their prime they are, the prospect of putting Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr. in the same boxing ring finally is still the best prospect a lot of boxing fans have going for them. Unfortunately, despite the increased teasing between the two, it’s not really close to happening.
Right now, Mayweather is closer to selecting Amir Khan as his next opponent, the fifth in the six-fight deal he has with Showtime, in which he has thought Robert Guerrero, Saul Alvarez and Marcos Maidana twice. Pacquiao? Coming off his second fight in Macau, easily beating Chris Algieri, there’s the unattractive prospect of going up against Juan Manuel Marquez for a fifth time, which is a really unwise thing to do.
Mayweather recently made a very arrogant (it’s hard to find anything about him that’s not arrogant) request from Pacquiao, as if there’s just one small thing standing between them and the fight: Leave Bob Arum. That’s it. But because Pacquiao is still signed with Arum’s promotional company, it means he is afraid of Mayweahter. That, of course, is Mayweather logic, a man who has made up every possible excuse and condition to try and delay the fight most of the boxing world still wants to see, five years after it would have been at its best.
Every time it seems that both fighters have run out of opponents the possibility of it finally happening comes up. Pacquiao makes his comments through twitter and other media outlets, Mayweather always retaliates in a much more vicious, taunting, insulting way. That’s the man. A legendary fighter, but a human being that has some very dark moments in his past, including very recently, and is very hard to like. It’s hard to find someone so successful but so easily hated, but whether Mayweather’s exposed personality is just an act to make him more attractive to PPV buyers or it might simply be him, in all of his ugliness.
Mayweather is right in only one thing: He deserves the bigger share of the pie. He’s the bigger PPV attraction by all accounts, even if a lot of the people paying top dollar to see his fights are doing it only to watch him lose, disappointed at the end every time. A 65-35 split or whatever number the money-men come up with does make sense, but Mayweather probably won’t be pleased even if they ever come to an agreement on money as well.
Boxing is a sport hindered by it’s complicated structure, corrupt past and an inability to put the best fights possible together because of the interests of a powerful few. These two have been on a collision course for quite some time, only to keep avoiding each other, on purpose. Maybe when they’re older and more desperate it’ll happen. Pacquiao will always regret not getting his shot at fighting Mayweather. Mayweather won’t, knowing it meant a better chance of remaining at 0 losses.