By David Mayo, The Grand Rapids Press
Manny Pacquiao took care of business inside the ring, against the kind of defense they’d like to see more often in Cowboys Stadium, although business outside the ring clearly will remain an issue for the foreseeable future, particularly against the defensive negotiators representing Floyd Mayweather.
Next up, it’s Mayweather’s turn.
Pacquiao did his part to make sure the biggest potential fight in boxing still could go off later this year without a hitch, which is not to say without issues. Plenty of those remain, primarily -- but not exclusively -- related to Pacquiao’s squeamishness about having a tiny vial of blood drawn two weeks before a fight, and not much more than Joshua Clottey extracted from him during 12 rounds of semi-action Saturday night.
The Filipino took part in a huge event, with more than 50,000 people in suburban Dallas watching a show which usurped the fight.
Soon, perhaps Pacquiao and Mayweather will engage a fight as big as the show.
Mayweather will do precisely that in his May 1 showdown with Shane Mosley, which underscores a couple of things: One, his Plan B was much better than Pacquiao’s after their talks fell apart; two, he will enjoy a pay-per-view bonanza unlike anything Pacquiao-Clottey could have produced, which could alter negotiations dramatically if they return to the table later this spring.
Mayweather and Pacquiao are fighting the equivalent of a four-round undercard bout.
The first round, Pacquiao took care of by whitewashing Clottey in a distance fight that was dreadfully dull, although not because of Pacquiao, who threw an average of about 40 punches per minute in a futile effort to make an unwilling opponent fight.
The second round happens with this week’s release of the pay-per-view numbers.
The Mayweather-Mosley outcome -- the riskiest, by far, of the four segments -- followed by that fight’s pay-per-view sales, are the third and fourth rounds.
The problem remains not only blood testing -- Pacquiao made it clear after his victory that he wants Mayweather next and wants commission rules strictly abided, which is codespeak for not relenting on his anti-blood-testing stance -- but the negotiating divide that will occur if Mayweather wins.
Pacquiao-Clottey will be hard-pressed to hit seven figures in domestic pay-per-view sales. Something in the 750,000 range sounds realistic, though that’s strictly a guess. It would be a good number by most measures.
Yet Mayweather-Mosley could double that, or more, and if that happens and Mayweather wins, he already has said he won’t accept the same financial terms he agreed to in their original talks.
Pacquiao put himself in that position by racing to complete an alternate deal for March 13 when the Mayweather fight couldn’t be finalized for that date. Some of the timing had to do with his pursuit of a congressional seat in the Philippines, with the election in May, so he accepted Clottey -- a fighter known only in boxing circles, not general sports ones -- as his opponent, with the opportunity to appeal to a massive crowd in a football stadium.
The latter was achieved.
But Clottey spent virtually the whole fight in a defensive shell, punching just enough to produce some swelling and blood blisters around Pacquiao’s right eye, but not nearly enough to win. He seemed to come to Dallas to cash a paycheck and avoid a knockout. People shelling out $50 to watch from their living rooms could not have been pleased about seeing so many Ulysses S. Grants stuffed in a suitcase and headed for Ghana, and some of those buyers will make their displeasure known if forced to decide whether to pay for Pacquiao vs. Plan B anytime in the near future.
Truth is, there is no more Plan B for Pacquiao. Assuming Mayweather wins his upcoming fight, what else does Pacquiao do, if not fight him next?
More important, in a period when boxing pay-per-view performances have been on an upswing, largely because of these two men, what does the sport do?
E-mail David Mayo at dmayo@grpress.com and follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/David_Mayo
Source: mlive.com
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