Swag: Does Manny Pacquiao have any reason to fight if it's not against Floyd Mayweather? -- Grand Rapids Press

By Eric Woodyard, The Grand Rapids Press

When Manny Pacquiao picked up the pen to sign his name on the dotted line to face Joshua Clottey on March 13, I'm sure he felt better about himself.

No worries. No blood testing. No REAL challenge!

It seems as though that's the way that Pacquiao and his promoter Bob Arum like it. On the other hand, Floyd Mayweather is begging for the fight to prove that he is still the greatest in the sport and one of the best ever. He even recently released a statement to fans saying that "First and foremost, not only do I want to fight Manny Pacquiao, I want to whip his punk ass."

At 40-0 (25 Knockouts) and coming off one of his best performances against one of Pacquiao's toughest in Juan Manuel Marquez, could you blame Pacquiao?

I wouldn't put myself in that danger of stepping into the ring with the Grand Rapids, Michigan, native either. It's seems as though Pacquiao is shaking like booty meat everytime he hears the name Floyd Mayweather! It's obvious that he doesn't really want the fight even in his earlier post-fight interview after his showdown with Miguel Cotto when he stated that: "My job is to fight in the ring and it depends on my promoter Arum to negotiate that fight and I'm just gonna take a vacation first and spend time with my family and have fun."

When asked did he have any preference on who he would like to fight, he stated: "For now I don't know, like I said for now I'm gonna take a vacation and spend time with my family because this was not an easy fight."

This doesn't sound like the words of a man who would like to take part in what could be the biggest grossing fight of all time to me.

What Pacquiao has done by taking the fight against Clottey is play with history. The sport of boxing hasn't saw two superstar boxers collide in their primes since earlier in the last decade. People may want to argue Floyd Mayweather/Oscar De La Hoya or Lennox Lewis/Mike Tyson but the truth is that one fighter was always on the decline of his career. This fight could break records and bring a buzz around the sport bigger than Dr. Dre's Detox album (which has been pushed back another year by the way).

All the Mayweather camp is asking for is an agreement from the Pacquiao camp to Olympic style drug testing, which includes random urine and blood testing. Mayweather has even decided to give him a 14-day blood testing window but Pacquiao still couldn't reach an agreement.

Pacquiao not agreeing to the provision is fishy -- what's to hide? Why would a man run away from $40 million just because of a blood test? The only counter he could come up with was a lawsuit for defamation against Mayweather, which is more than lame!

I continue to stand by Floyd Mayweather 100 percent on this issue and the fight against Pacquiao honestly will not make or break his career. To Pacquiao, grow some cajones and give Money Mayweather the fight. If not, do us all the pleasure of retiring from the sport because no other fight matters at this point in his career.

Source: blog.mlive.com