By Ray Ratto, CBS Sports
They try. Lord, they try hard, and still, the folks trying to drum up a fervor for the Floyd Mayweather-Manny Pacquiao bout haven't quite hit the right button yet to grab us from our playoff football/Gilbert Arenas/Tiger Woods mindset.
At least we presume that's what's behind the latest development in The Little Fight That Can't -- each man booking a different opponent to fight the same night in competing cable or pay-per-view promotions in an attempt to screw with each other's money.
And it doesn't get any more pointed than that.
Clearly, this is the next attempt for Mayweather and Pacquiao to show (a) each other and (b) the rest of us the level of their dislike and how willing each will be to pound the other's brains in when the fight actually happens.
This was after Mayweather all but accused Pacquiao of being a doper, and Pacquiao suing for defamation, and the two sides wasting an afternoon calling each other names before an arbitrator. All because of a fight they both know will happen some time this year.
We'll give them this much -- it's a novel approach, creative yet spiteful. It comes as close as actually fighting on a Manhattan street corner after a "chance" meeting as you can get without actually doing so. After all, next to putting your fist in another guy's eye, throwing a lawyer at him comes second in our cool and happening new society.
Now, both the Mayweather people (Golden Boy Productions) and the Pacquiao people (Top Rank) will tell you this is on the up-and-up, and maybe to an extent it is. But this being boxing, it also isn't, because for lack of a more complete explanation, it's boxing. This is the fight boxing folks like to say everyone wants, but because it can't make a significant splash outside of boxing enthusiasts, the two sides are employing the bait-and-switch.
Only now, with Pacquiao signed to fight Joshua Clottey at the new Jerry Jones-atorium and Mayweather working on a fight at the MGM Grand against an as-yet-determined foe (rumored to be Paulie Malignaggi), the bait is dominating the switch.
And no, we're not putting much stock in Bob Arum's claim that former President George W. Bush, whom he sat near at the Cowboys-Eagles playoff game, essentially said, "It doesn't matter what Mayweather does. Everyone just wants to see Pacquiao anyway." It's been shown fairly conclusively that GWB didn't exactly have the nation's pulse beat when he had a job, so either his boxing expertise can be questioned, or his quote to Arum can be.
But again, points for creativity, trying to start a new finger-jab between Fox News and MSNBC over who might be the better fighter. Maybe Mayweather now has to seek out Bill Clinton's endorsement, or they can both hire psychics to channel Richard Nixon.
And yet the nation still hasn't reached that desired froth. It's hard to know what's left for the two men to do, save announcing that they've both dated women who dated Tiger.
If this sounds like we believe the two sides have been acting in concert all along in an attempt to make this the new fight of the century, well, again, it is boxing. And even if they have genuine issues with each other, well, it's still boxing, and the best way to drum up a crowd is to make sure the crowd hasn't already been drummed up by someone else.
Therein lies the real problem for Mayweather and Pacquiao. Whether they're just playing chicken with each or with us, their competition is too strong, at least through the Super Bowl. Then there is a window before the questions about when Woods will return to the PGA Tour will dominate the news, made smaller if and when David Stern decides just how to more starkly define the Arenas punishment.
And the Clottey and Maybe-Malignaggi fights will get lost in the shuffle, as they probably should. Golden Boy and Arum are trying to thread a tiny needle here, and whether they've lucked into the most original gimmick or gotten an out-of-work writer to pencil it out for them, it hasn't worked yet.
But I'd give that Nixon angle another go. Maybe you suck in the occult crowd, and while they may not have a lot of purchasing power, they do tend to be shut-ins, and they can be persuaded to make a $60 PPV buy with the right set of inducements.
Ray Ratto is a columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle.
Source: cbssports.com
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