By George Willis, New York Post
Moments after Manny Pacquiao earned a 12th-round TKO over Miguel Cotto in November, boxing was at the forefront of general sports conversation again. Ross Greenburg, the president of HBO Sports, practically was salivating at the prospect of a spring showdown between Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr., arguably the biggest fight since Mike Tyson and Evander Holyfield were in their prime.
“The boxing pubic and the sporting public want this fight to happen,” Greenburg said that night in a Las Vegas ballroom. “There are a lot of egos involved, but at the end of the day, it’s going to come down to making the fight. It just has to happen.”
Incredibly, what could be the richest fight is boxing history will not happen, at least not on March 13, the proposed date for the bout. An impasse on drug-testing procedures doomed the welterweight championship between the top pound-for-pound prize fighters. A last-ditch effort at mediation failed to reach an agreement, leaving each side blaming the other for the demise of the bout.
Though the fighters never got in the ring, there has been plenty of damage inflicted to their reputations and the sport. Pacquiao’s refusal to agree to Mayweather’s demand for random blood testing has left some suspicious the Filipino might have been using performance-enhancing drugs in capturing world titles in four different weight classes over the last two years.
Instead of being viewed as a special athlete who carried boxing at a time when Oscar De La Hoya was fading and Mayweather was in a brief retirement, Pacquiao is getting the Roger Clemens treatment in some circles — guilty until proven innocent.
Meanwhile, Mayweather’s reluctance to accept any of Pacquiao’s counteroffers have many wondering if he was looking for a way to protect his unbeaten record. The knock on Mayweather is that he will duck opponents that pose a credible threat — such as Cotto, Antonio Margarito, Shane Mosley and now Pacquiao. It’s a notion that is bound to gain more members to the choir, even though Mayweather issued a release blaming Pacquiao for not wanting the fight.
“First and foremost, not only do I want to fight Manny Pacquiao, I want to whip his [butt],” Mayweather said.
Mayweather, however, insists on blood testing up until at least 14 days before the fight. But that’s something never before done in boxing. Pacquiao has passed all mandatory drug tests administered by the Nevada State Athletic Commission before and after his previous fights, and the only reason why he is being tainted now is because the Mayweather camp made it an issue, even after saying fighting Pacquiao would be “easy work.”
Nonetheless, consenting to blood testing, Olympic-style or otherwise, would be a no-brainer for most any athlete looking at a $30-$40 million payday, but in the macho world of boxing and with the egos involved, being forced to agree to something that’s unprecedented was going to be difficult to achieve.
Mayweather recently said he is in the “check cashing” business, and if he were going to make $50 million he couldn’t lose no matter the outcome. Apparently, the fear of Pacquiao being on PEDs was greater than his confidence of victory.
The two sides likely will square off in a courtroom before they meet in the ring, with Pacquiao having filed a defamation lawsuit against the Mayweathers and Golden Boy Promotions for allegedly hurting his image.
Meanwhile, Pacquiao’s promoter, Bob Arum of Top Rank, said he would like to match Pacquiao with junior middleweight champion Yuri Foreman of Brooklyn, but Pacquiao’s camp is balking at that matchup fearing Foreman is too big at 154 pounds. Meanwhile, Mayweather reportedly is looking to fight Paulie Malignaggi, a former junior welterweight champion, also from Brooklyn.
george.willis@nypost.com
Source: nypost.com
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