Carried away by Mayweather

Let’s not get too hasty in assuming that Floyd Mayweather Jr. will indeed fight Manny Pacquiao in May of 2015. There is still a lot that has to happen before that fight becomes a reality. Mayweather has not said what his conditions will be, but will definitely insist on doing things his way, in his favor. He will insist on a bigger purse, mandatory urine or drug testing, a venue of his location, a bigger cut of the pay-per-view, and probably even his promotion schedule. And there’s still the matter of the rift between his and Oscar Dela Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions and Pacquiao and Bob Arum’s Top Rank Promotions, which was partly caused by Pacquiao dumping the former for the latter.

Mayweather is in a quandary. His lifelong goal is to surpass the immaculate 49-0 record (with 43 knockouts) of Rocky Marciano. The diminutive heavyweight champion retired at the age of 31 after a failed attempt to become a professional baseball catcher, and said: “The ring has seen the last of me. I am comfortably fixed, and I am not afraid of the future.” Mayweather has 47 wins (26 knockouts). 

In his last fight in September of 1955 against Archie Moore, his third title defense in Yankee Stadium, the Brockton Blockbuster scored a sensational ninth-round knockout, and the unofficial tally of closed-circuit television viewers in major cities across North America was estimated at over 400,000. So you can see where Mayweather also gets his fetish for big pay-per-view numbers. 

Rocky Marciano died in a plane crash in Iowa in 1969 having never stepped back into the ring, unlike most boxers who can’t stay away from the fight game. Of course, Mayweather and Marciano are poles apart in terms of how they each compiled those records. Marciano fought everybody as often as possible, and came close to losing on several occasions. He almost lost his world heavyweight title in the rematch with Ezzard Charles in 1954. In the sixth round, Charles had cut Marciano’s nose so badly, it wouldn’t stop bleeding. With the ring doctor poised to stop the fight, Marciano knocked Charles out in the eighth. Marciano started fighting late, and only fought for eight years. But like the great boxers of the Depression era, he fought frequently, despite all his physical limitations. In 1948, Marciano fought 11 times. The following year, he fought 13 times, thrice within that December. Two of his fights that year were only a week apart. He was a wrecking ball.

Let’s look at Mayweather. Floyd Jr. started his pro career after the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta. He’s been fighting more than twice as long as Marciano was as a pro. But to be fair, he’s listed as having fought 10 times in 1997, mostly early knockout wins before he started pacing himself. He’s only fought 12 times in the last eight years, partly due to personal and legal issues, domestic and economic. He only fought once in 2004, didn’t fight in 2008, and has been handpicking opponents for the better part of the last decade, which slows down the increase of number of victories. His only knockout since 2009 was that ridiculous mismatch against Victor Ortiz, which involved a headbutting and Mayweather punching while coming out of a clinch with the referee conveniently looking the other way.

Mayweather is not a sure thing against Pacquiao, even though Manny’s fought bigger and heavier-hitting opponents in the last five years. Perhaps Mayweather sees some deterioration in Pacquiao after successive losses to Timothy Bradley and Juan Manuel Marquez, and the battering of an overmatched Chris Algieri. But he still can’t be sure. Pacquiao is still very dangerous, and will not embarrass himself. He will take the fight to Mayweather. Perhaps what Mayweather is hoping is that all his playing coy over the last five years will have the Filipino charging in with a reckless, blind rage and thus making himself vulnerable to Mayweather’s dirty tricks.

Of course, there is also the rumor that this will be a last hurrah for the two champions, who stand across each other over the rubble of their formidable conquests, and see no worthy challengers left. It might just be a business decision, which, in all honesty, may mean a rematch whatever the outcome. As we all know, business decisions are the best decisions for the promoters and not always the best decisions for the fans. Let’s wait and see.

At any rate, Mayweather has a lot going for him. He cheated Marquez with a two-pound excess in weight, and there’s no reason to believe he won’t make the Pacquiao fight insanely difficult with some unreasonable pressure to do something not normally done. But as time wears on, the more Mayweather needs Pacquiao, whether he admits it or not. Pacquiao is his Moby Dick, the last compelling storyline he needs to complete his career. Unfortunately, Pacquiao and Arum are less than pliable, and will not just agree to whatever Floyd says.

This writer believes that Mayweather may say nay another day and another way, find two or three more patsies, beat Marciano’s record, and then gamble on a fight with Pacquiao. But knowing how difficult it has been to pin him down, this is likely just another maneuver for him to stay relevant and in the news as he searches for another tomato can to step into the ring with. Why would he risk his career in an uncontrollable situation now, when he has spent nearly two decades protecting that magic number of wins? It does not make sense. But on the other hand, he’s also boxed himself into a corner. It will be highly unlikely that Pacquiao will fight beyond the 2016 elections, when he will most likely use his fame to run for Philippine senator. So now, he has to work fast, or he will miss out on his last opportunity to ride out gloriously into the sunset.

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