EDITORIAL - Stop this Pacquiao-Mayweather 2 folly

Let sleeping dogs lie. The sad and sorry episode that was the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight is best left forgotten. Not even the disclosure that Mayweather had several illegal intravenous procedures just prior to the bout can change the fact that it was a humongous rip-off with almost everybody in the world a hapless victim. There is no need to reopen old wounds. It will not change anything.

So what if Mayweather did something illegal? If the disclosure had to mean anything, it should have been made prior to the fight. Then, it would have meant something. But everybody has moved on. Even if a rematch is held, which Pacquiao wants all of a sudden but which is never going to happen, it will not change the fact that the first time should be the last time.

Pacquiao should not have allowed himself to be drawn into this new development in the manner that he did -- asking for a rematch. What rematch does Pacquiao want? He had his chance and that was it. Nobody will believe in a rematch after what happened. And what happened is not so much just Mayweather refusing to slug it out. It is as much about Pacquiao going up the ring knowing he was, in his own words, just 60 percent of his normal self owing to a shoulder injury he kept to himself.

Pacquiao has been wrongfully praised as a hero for fighting on despite an injury. He in fact should be condemned for fighting on despite an injury. Had he disclosed the injury, that he was impaired and was, again in his own words, only 60 percent, no one would have paid with an arm and a leg to see the fight, or wagered good money on an outcome that was certainly a losing one.

Sure, Mayweather refused to slug it one, thereby ensuring the fight the world waited for to be a boring one. But that is the way Mayweather fights. His fights have always been unexciting because of the way he fights. On the other hand, he is not the only man in the ring. It takes two to fight, remember. If nobody likes the way Mayweather fights, there is still Pacquiao to make the fight happen.

The problem was, Pacquiao simply did not have what it takes to bring the fight to Mayweather. Of all the punches he threw, the statistics will later show only very few found their mark. The whole world spent great fortunes to see the fight expecting only two possible outcomes -- if one man was left standing, that would be Pacquiao, but if two men were on their feet, there could only be one winner, and that would be Mayweather.

Again, the world has long moved on, may have even forgotten the ignominious outcome that will go down in history as the greatest insult to boxing. There is no point in dishing out belated facts that no longer change and mean anything. Even if they say Mayweather had rocks in his gloves, so what? Some may still watch either fighter fight, but never again each other. In the same manner that Pacquiao fighting Marquez yet once more will not change history, so should we drop this folly.