No More Bull, Give us the fight we want Pacquiao vs. Mayweather

By George Napier: Like many fans across the globe, I have become sick and tired of the whole Pacquiao vs Mayweather facade. It’s time this fight was made; or for both fighters to disappear, because frankly there are no other fighters out there for either man.

Both have fought their way to a position where nothing else matters, they both reside #1 and #2 in both the welterweight and pound for pound rankings; so anything less is simply not good enough. I’m not interested in seeing either fighter face off against a fighter making the transition from light-welterweight, neither am I interested in witnessing either man take on a soft touch at light middleweight; to win yet another phoney title.

Fans, or should I sat worshipers of both fighters need to seriously take a reality check; I myself am a fan of the sport of boxing and not any one particular fighter. Yes, I like and appreciate certain styles, but that’s where the buck stops. However, when it comes to some fans of these two fighters it’s like they worship the man, and not the sport.

The sad thing about this is they probably don’t even realise they are being ripped-off. Let’s start with Pacquiao’s last fight, anyone who knows anyone who actually picked Clottey to win please let me know, because of all the fans I interact with on social networking sites and boxing forums I never did come across anyone who picked the Ghanaian to win. Is this really, what we want form a pound for pound fighter, facing off against someone whom no-one gives a chance. In truth the bout was a facade and the smokescreen was the venue in where the bout was staged, the Cowboy’s stadium, Arlington, Texas, it was the venue, the event as a whole we looked forward to and not the fight.

So rather than both sets of fans throwing verbal assaults at each other why not be more constructive by openly criticising both fighters.


Drug Testing
In my opinion, camp Mayweather’s approach was all wrong, if they handled it in a different manor and put the proposal forward as a request rather than a demand we could have ended up with a different outcome. Voices from the camp openly expressed their views and literally accused Manny Pacquiao of using performance enhancing drugs. This accusation added a completely new dimension to the negotiations, instead of both agreeing to clean up the sport and to undergo stringent testing, they found additional problems with the defamation of character citations that followed.
Photo By Yehoshua Rey

I find it hard to criticise a man who is trying to clean up the sport, yes, we can question the motives behind this stance, but when it’s all said and done if it results in the implementation of more stringent testing through the sport, I don’t really care about the motives.

Now it’s a matter of principle, was Pacquiao right to walk away from the fight, I don’t think so; and let me tell you why. This is the sport of boxing where most opponents through the history of the sport have tried underhand tactics including slander to get under the skin of their opponent. There is also the persona projected by Pacquiao, Pacquiao is regarded the peoples champion, a man fighting for a nation and a higher cause; giving his fellow countrymen hope and inspiration. (We don’t need to even mention Mayweather in this segment as he openly admits he fights for money).

So if you were fighting for a nation and the people would you not do anything to give the fans the fight they want, would such a man not walk through walls to give the fans the fight they crave?

Example: Willie Pep was Featherweight Champion and widely regarded as the peoples champion in 1947. On January 5th, 1947, Pep was in a small plane that overshot Newark Airport and landed in nearby woods killing 5 people. Pep had 2 broken vertebrae as well as a broken leg; Doctors told him he would never fight again. He was in a cast until June, and incredibly several days after the cast was removed with little, training or preparation he returned to the ring on June 17th and won a tenth round decision, his opponent Victor Flores was sent to the canvas twice during the fight.

Will o' the Wisp went on to compile ten fights through 1947. That’s what you call a peoples champion. People say Pep was never the same after the crash; he lost something as a fighter. Before the plane crash, Pep had a record of 108-1-1, and retired almost 20 years after the crash with a record of 229-11-1, testament to a great fighter and a great champion.

Source: theboxinghistorian.com