If Pacquiao vs. Mayweather Never Gets Made, Manny Deserves Blame Too
Published: Jul 26 2010 by: Brandon Taylor
Pacquiao Never Meeting Mayweather Leaves a Hole in His Resume
It has become apparent that Manny Pacquiao will not fight Floyd Mayweather this year, and perhaps won’t ever. Mayweather could be idle for the rest of the year, while Pacquiao will fight in November. He’s going up to 154 lbs to attempt to win a historic 8th world title in 8 weight classes. As great as that sounds, he’s not fighting Sergio Martinez, who is the Middleweight champion, and also shares the distinction of being perhaps the best Junior Middleweight in the world... nor is he fighting Paul Williams.
Instead, Pacquiao will fight either Miguel Cotto for the WBA title in a rematch of their catchweight welterweight bout, or Antonio Margartio for the WBC Title that Martinez vacated. I don’t think the fans really want to see either of those fights, and it's time that Pacquiao and his camp share the blame for the clash against Mayweather crumbling apart.
Pacquiao busted Cotto up pretty bad in their first fight and I don’t think a few pounds will make that much of a difference. Margarito really doesn’t deserve a title shot, much less a fight against Pacquiao. By now everyone knows what happened in the dressing room before the Mosley fight. Margarito’s reward for being suspended for cheating and then coming back and looking average against an average fighter in his comeback fight is a chance to fight the best in the sport and win a world title? That’s a joke. Even though I believe Mayweather is ducking Pacquiao, Pacquiao is also going to be tarnished a little if the fight never happens.
The whole drug testing bit is bogus, but Pacquiao could have went through with it. I don’t think Pacquiao is using anything, but him not agreeing to the blood testing leaves doubt in some people’s heads. It probably was an issue of principles, Pacquiao didn’t want to give Mayweather the control. I understand that. However, Manny’s career resume will have a hole in it if the fight never gets made. A lot of people don’t want excuses. They just want to see the fight.
Getting back to reality, what happens next if Pacquiao defeats Cotto or Margarito, and negotiations fall through next year for a Mayweather fight once again? Pacquiao could retire, but I hope not. There could be some big time fights that would challenge the Filipino star before he hangs up the gloves. That’s the one thing we all can agree on. We want to see Pacquiao challenged.
By next spring, Paul Williams, Sergio Martinez, Tim Bradley, and Devon Alexander could all be in position for a fight with Pacquiao. Lurking in the background is always Juan Manuel Marquez depending on how his fight with Juan Diaz goes and if he takes a fight at 140. I would really like to see a third Marquez fight, even though the odds are slim. Just so maybe we could have a definite conclusion to the rivalry.
The point is that the best way for Pacquiao to continue his Hall of Fame career is to continue fighting fighters who represent challenges. Morales at 130, Hatton at 140, Oscar at 147, those were all fights were people weren’t sure Pacquiao could do, but he passed each one of those tests. There are bigger challenges for him right now than Cotto or Margarito.
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Tags: boxing controversy, boxing rumors, floyd mayweather, manny pacquiao, pacquiao vs. mayweather
Mr. Taylor, I definitely share your frustration with the Pac v. Margarito bout.
On the other hand, the news today is a third party of the negotiation has just came out and confirmed that indeed there was a negotiation. So the news is “there was a negotiation” and our common sense tells who should be blamed. I kind of wonder that you have not written anything about the confirmed negotiation. You also have not written anything that would blame Mayweather, instead your article blames Pacquiao for the previous failed negotiation. With that being said, I feel that your credibility is questionable.
i agree, the title should say, Maynever deserves most of the blame. it was reasonable to expect pacquiao, the champion, to refuse maynever’s attempt at gaining advantage during the negotiation(s) but now it’s obvious maynever never intended to fight pacquiao no matter what pacquiao did or does in the future. the proven ducker ducked a threat again – he deserves all the blame!!
manny should not be blamed, first;manny has never been tested positive for using PED in his entire carrer.second;blood test is not a requirement.third;to make the fight happen “manny agrees” to take the blood test but not close to the fight, contrary to what mayweather is telling the whole world that “manny doesn’t want” to take the test.it’s all mayweathers fault.and all the boxers you have mentioned like williams.i also want to see manny fight these guys,but i do believe they are not yet ripe enough as PPV draw.
no writer even wrote this fact! pacman was tested negative during morales-paquiao 1. pacman cry foul because he was drawn blood 2 days before the fight. that was a sure “surprise blood test” and it is more reliable than “random blood test”
this article has excuses for pretty boy again. you are also bringing to the table tough challenges to pacman, do you think pretty boy will even think of fighting a guy where he is at a disadvantage either in weight, talent, age (he was talking lately that he wants to fight now at a level playing field). everything has to be at his advantage so as not to loose that “0″ that he has. ultimately he is ducking pacman and believes he will not be “pretty” at the end of round 12 if ever it reaches there.
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horrible article.
The fight could of been stopped at the 10 and pretty much the 11th…if you noticed Pac-man looked at the ref and gave him a “really going to keep this going?” kind of look,
To Gab Montoya, Mike Rosenthal, James Goyder, John Evans, Distino Lois JR, Lou Cinder Block
What’s wrong if Pacquiao declined a THIRD fight with Marquez?
Even Chavez declined a rematch with Pernell, the same with Trinidad to Oscar, B-hop to Trinidad, Floyd to Oscar, Leonard to Hagler, Ali to Foreman , Calzaghe to B-hop and so on…
Oscar avoided Margarito, Vernon and Winky. Floyd rejected an $8 million fight with Margarito and even against Cotto both of which Pacquiao annihilated.
We know that Marquez gave Pacquiao a hard time but don’t you forget that Pacquiao should have been awarded the title in their first bout because the judge who scored it a draw admitted afterwards that he made a mistake. And Marquez was the one to turn down an immediate rematch with Pacquiao, not the other way around as many people believed. A prime Marquez instead fought and defeated by John.
Even the Greatest had a hard time with Norton in their 2 fights, which many believed the latter had won both times. Does that make Norton the greatest? Of course not.
What’s wrong with Pacquiao’s winning a vacant title?
Even the Mexican legends won at least one vacant title in their careers like Marquez defeated Medina for the vacant IBF Feather title, Barrera defeated Wenton for the vacant WBO Super-bantam title then defeated Freitas for the vacant WBA Super-bantam title, Morales defeated Ayala for WBC’s vacant Feather title, Oscar defeated Paez for the vacant WBO Lightweight title then defeated Coley for the vacant IBA Welter title, Chávez won his first championship against Martínez for the vacant WBC Super-feather title and how many more greats fought for a vacant title?
Even Chavez, Roy and B-hop fought for and won a vacant title as their first.
What’s wrong with Pacquiao’s title wins with a catch-weight?
Of all Pacman’s fights, only 2 have catch-weights. The title fights vs Cotto at 145 for the 147 title and vs Margarito at 150 for the 154 title. Oscar asked Pacman to jump 2 divisions to fight him in their non-title Welter bout the same way Floyd asked Marquez in their non-title Welter bout. There should be no problem with catch-weight if both parties agreed. So what’s the fuss with Pacquiao?
Paul Williams asked a catch-weight of 158 and yet KOd by Martinez for the 160 title. Even the great Leonard did it twice, defeating Lalonde at 168 for the 168 & 175 titles and defeating Hearns at 164 for the 168 title, the middleweight title rematch of Taylor vs Pavlik was fought at 166, Trinidad-Jones at 171 for the 175 non-title bout and Oscar vs B-hop at 158 for the 160 title where many thought Oscar was too small for the middleweight class. If that’s the case for a 5ft9in Oscar, how much more for a midget like Pacquiao against middleweights Martinez or Williams?
Does that affected Leonard’s or Floyd’s or Oscar’s greatness? NO. So does Pacquiao. Many boxers are willing to fight in catch-weights to fight the best, for big money so don’t just blame Pacquiao for it.
Pacquiao won’t fight Martinez or Paul Williams?
Oscar himself, a 5ft9in natural welter, realized after his defeat from B-hop that he’s too small to be a middleweight and even Mosley, a natural welter, won’t dare venture to middleweight because of the same belief. So why Pacquiao, a natural super-lightweight, is a lesser fighter if he opted not to fight any middleweights or if he fight with a catch-weight? Even Martinez himself thought Pacquiao is too small for him.
When Pacquiao fights Berto and if he wins, will you say “Berto didn’t have enough experience to compete with Pacquiao.”? Or when he fights Floyd and if he dominates him, will you say “Floyd has been inactive for too long.”? Or when he fights Marquez and if he beats him, will you say “144 was too heavy for Marquez.”?
All of this has been an afterthought. Since the Barrera fight up to now, many people picked the other guy one way or the other because of their size advantage against Pacquiao and ending up disappointed many times over, including you.
And then the excuses come in. How many fighters have you seen fought bigger current or former champions even with or without a catch-weight and beat them up in such a fashion? And how many fighters have you seen showed mercy to his beaten opponent the way Pacquiao did?
I really want Pacquiao to fight Floyd or Berto to get his 5th Lineal title as Ring’s Welterweight Champion in a box-off between no1 vs no2 or no1 vs no3 fighters of the division. Or a third fight with the WHINER Marquez.
It’s true that Pacman’s era is not yet over not because Pacman, Floyd and Martinez haven’t fought yet but because Pacman’s still fighting. Nonetheless, Pacquiao’s legacy is sealed.
For all of Pacman’s success and all the multi-division titlists in history, it’s not unusual. Maybe it’s unusual to you because Pacquiao is Asian.
I don’t care how you rank Pacquiao, I don’t believe he’s the GOAT, either. It’s Sugar Ray Robinson.
All I can say is Pacquiao’s an All-Time Great and a once-in-a-generation phenomenon.
Thank you.