Pacquiao on Mayweather fight
After weeks of the fight appearing to be on the way there’s been two days of hand-wringing about how it is not on the way. Some of the newest scuttlebutt suggests that unless Pacquiao manager Bob Arum steps aside — and Mr. Arum is not a step-aside kind of guy — there will be no fight. Pundits began writing about who Mayweather would fight now instead, and who Pacquiao might sign to fight next.
But today we hear from Pacquiao that he continues to wait for Mayweather to sign the contract, that he himself has already signed it and is ready to go, and that the fight can still happen. No mention of the impediments it seems that his guy, Arum, has placed in the way of the bout.
Just more self-serving nonsense about how he cares for the fight fans and Mayweather does not. More crap about how Mayweather is afraid of him. Pacquiao is in London, on a promotional junket, and here’s some of what he said to Sky Sports writer Roger Clark when they talked at the city’s Fitzroy Lodge boxing club on Friday:
“We’re waiting for an answer from them, and the signed contract from them,” he told Clark. “So probably by next week we’ll know if we can push the fight through or not.”
He also mouthed the usual “the fans deserve the fight” and when asked if he felt Mayweather was afraid to fight him, the 36-year-old Pacquiao said “I think so. I don’t want to think about that but it’s kind of like that.”
Mayweather: unbeaten record on line
Here’s one thing all of that leads to: fans believing it. Which is a large part of why, despite having the biggest Pay Per View audience, the 37-year-old Mayweather is a boxer fans love to hate. Pacquiao’s persistent implication the American fighter will duck him has fans believing it and that leads to comments like these from a ‘mrsheen,’ left on Roger Clark’s story:
No doubt Mayweather will find an excuse to duck both the Manny and the Khan fight. Hes more interested in keeping and untarnished record than being involved in good fights.
Wrong. There’s nothing to suggest the undefeated Mayweather, 47-0 with 26 KOs, has any fear of Manny Pacquiao, or that he’d be simple-minded enough to think that ducking Pacquiao would be forgotten when he retired unbeaten. It wouldn’t be, and if you and I ,know that, you think Mayweather doesn’t?
Why does Pacquiao, 57-5-2, and his camp keep going there? Are they the ones who are looking to back out, like they did in 2009/10 because they were afraid of the testing regime Mayweather’s camp asked for? Are they putting down a smokescreen so that when the time comes to announce there’s no fight forthcoming they can point the finger, falsely, at Mayweather?
Mayweather is off to Australia on a similar promotional junket and will make an announcement on whether he will meet the Pac Man while he’s over there. If he does say it’s happening then look for him to say little else. Why? Because, as I’ve said before and will say again, the measured Floyd Mayweather Jr. will do his talking inside the boxing ring.
