By Jay Greenberg, New York Post
The quality of the opponent defines the quality of the reputation.
Muhammad Ali was soooo good and so fortunate to have fought not only three epics with Joe Frazier, but also a legendary match with the guy who stunningly took Smokin' Joe down, George Foreman. We suspect Larry Holmes was much better than is his legend, just don't know how all-time he was because the accident of birth put him in front of a shell of an Ali and not much else.
How much better did Marvin Hagler and Roberto Duran make Ray Leonard, and how much did we pay to find out? So what is Floyd Mayweather Jr. thinking in demanding unscheduled, Olympic-level, blood testing of himself and Manny Pacquiao? And why is Pacquiao filing a defamation suit instead of jumping at an opportunity of more than most lifetimes?
"I filed suit because it's not true, what he's accusing me," Pacquiao said yesterday at a Madison Square Garden press conference hyping a March 13 fight at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas, against Joshua Clottey that no one even previously thought of, never mind wants. "I want to clean my name."
Then take however many tests, pass them and be hailed the best-pound-for-pound fighter since perhaps Leonard by handing the seemingly untouchable Mayweather his first defeat.
Whatever Mayweather's motivation -- his stated distrust of how easily Pacquiao has won titles in seven different weight classes, fear of defeat, building hype toward a matchup that remains inevitable, or just plain, old arrogance -- the fact remains he is asking for the most foolproof drug testing in existence.
"I did [blood testing] the day of my fight against Erik Morales and I lost because my body felt so weak," Pacquiao said.
Said his trainer, Freddie Roach: "If we give blood 14 days before a fight, Days 13 and 12 would be missed sparring days close to the fight.
"Some people pass out when they give blood. They give cookies [to donors] because they feel they need something in their systems. I always feel fine, but when Manny gives blood, he feels weak for about two days."
Pacquiao could not possibly have become as weak as these excuses.
"It is such a small amount of blood it would have zero impact," said Dr. Gary Wadler, Chairman of the World Anti-Doping Agency's (WADA) Prohibited List and Methods Sub-Committee. "It's like one test tube of blood, which is a needle in the haystack.
"The whole world has signed on for this except the major U.S. sports. If you know when [testers] are coming, people have used a variety of devices and means to beat the tests."
Among those devices have been the outraged denials of Marion Jones and Rafael Palmeiro. Shane Mosley has passed every urine test, like Pacquiao, yet has confessed to using the same BALCO specialties -- The Cream and The Clear -- that helped send Jones, Tim Montgomery and their lies to prison.
"The Mayweather camp wants everything their way," huffed Bob Arum, Pacquiao's promoter. "We're willing to make the fight but we're not going to put up with the nonsense.
"And I certainly am not going to put up with ignorant writers and others saying, 'He asked for the test, take the test.' And if they asked you to jump down Broadway on one foot . . .?
"Who the hell is he?"
But who was compelled to speak such nonsense because the fight that fell through was exponentially more interesting than the one Arum was trying to promote yesterday? That's nonsensical for a sport that can't put together its most compelling matchup in decades.
jay.greenberg@nypost.com
Source: nypost.com
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