The epic saga continues between Floyd Mayweather's camp and Pacquiao's. Right after his victory over Miguel Cotto in an extremely entertaining action-packed fight, Mayweather was questioned by Larry Merchant about any new possibilities for him and Pacman to finally face off. Mayweather claims he is ready to fight Manny, but brought up what he believes is an excuse from Manny that keeps preventing the fight from happening - drug testing.
Mayweather claims Manny is unwilling to undergo random blood and urine tests to make sure he isn't using performance enhancing drugs. The only problem here is, Manny has already agreed to take random blood and urine tests a long time (years) ago.
"I was looking to fight Manny Pacqiao. That fight didn't happen because, and I don't think the fight would have happened because of Bob Arum. Bob Arum is in the way. He's stopping the Pacquiao fight. Let's give the fans what they want to see. They want to see Mayweather and Pacquiao."
This comment prompted Pacman's promoter Bob Arum to respond with his own insights on why the fight hasn't happened yet. He used an interesting comparison while doing so, comparing Mayweather to the late Nazi Joseph Goebbels, who was Adolf Hitler's publicist. He believes that Mayweather has been continually making false statements to discredit Manny as the sole individual who refuses to take drug tests during their preparation for the fight, and this constant mentioning of it (even though it is a false statement) has lead the public to believe his words.
"You see Mayweather is from the school of propaganda that Joseph Goebbels, who was [Adolf] Hitler's publicist, adopted. The more you say things over and over again the more people believe them. The fact is clear that Pacquiao has agreed to unlimited drug testing so that is not an issue and for two years everybody agreed that the proceeds would be split 50/50. He knows styles and the fact is he knows that it would be extremely difficult for him to beat Pacquiao because Pacquiao is a fast, left-hander who hits with tremendous power in his left hand. I promoted Floyd for over 10 years and anytime you raised the prospect with him of fighting a southpaw he went crazy."
Who knows if this fight will ever happen? Who knows if either side is willing to take that big step forward to ensure that it does? First Mayweather said that he wanted to fight Pacman after his bout with Cotto, then a day later he said that there's an 80% chance he will retire. Bob Arum and Manny have both stated that Manny will agree to the drug testing, but they want a 50/50 split of the profits, which Mayweather won't agree to. No matter what happens, there's always something preventing these two from squaring off and throwing hands.
Remember the days when Ali, or Jack Johnson would talk smack, and their opponents would be eager to step in the ring to defend their honor without years of delay? Those were the good old days in boxing.
0 comments:
Post a Comment