Don't beat up Yahoo on the rankings and a Don King sighting -- Examiner

By Matt Stolow, Examiner.com

It was typical classy of Yahoo boxing reporter Kevin Iole to give his take on things after being severely criticized by Manny Pacquiao followers for Pacquiao's drop from No. 1 to No. 2 after Floyd Mayweather easily beat Shane Mosley.

I don't know that Iole's column today went deep enough though, which I will explain, and the letters he received were not necessarily representative of all Pacquiao fans - again I will explain. Iole's column was a good start though.

Pacquiao became No. 1 by attrition. Mayweather retired and took off 21 months. Pacquiao absolutely was a great No. 1. He has done nothing to lose the designation of No. 1.

I'm assuming it were the same voters, or very little turnover, of voters between the time Pacquiao became No. 1 and when Mayweather overwhelmed him in the voting from his win over Mosley.

My point is while Iole fielded a lot of mail from Pacquiao fans, it wasn't representative of all his fans and general boxing fans who thought that Pacquiao shouldn't lose his top spot based upon Mayweather beating a 38-year-old Mosley.

Most of the letters or emails, were emotional fans and knee-jerk reactions.

Nobody likes change in anything and Pacquiao has come to represent an entire nation and in fact Asia itself. He is the national sports franchise while Floyd Mayweather has to fight it out in America for sloppy seconds of sports reporting with golf and tennis, well behind the mainstream sports of football, baseball, basketball and even ice hockey, not to mention this is a World Cup year in soccer.

Iole makes the point Pacquiao fans weren't complaining that the Yahoo poll wasn't representative during the time he was No. 1 and that's a difficult point to get around.

Maybe now, in the down time while a possible fight between Pacquiao and Mayweather is on the horizon, that Yahoo considers making their balloting more representative of Asian fighters by having more Asian representatives voting if necessary, but also it needs to explain better, as it has attracted an international interest, that this isn't scientific in the first place.

The voting is just a place for fans and media to congregate and hope big fights get made by making the boxing world a smaller place and a place to debate fairly and have some fun.

On a side note:

Don King gets a mention here: On Saturday afternoon, the banks closed, a judge in Florida gave 78-year-old King two hours to raise a $1 million in cash so as to force an injunction on an event later that evening. With time to spare King returns with two duffle bags packed with the money. Name one other promoter or anyone else that could do that!

Source: examiner.com