In December of 2009, the Mayweather and Pacquiao camps were in talks to have their superfight on March 13, 2010. However, Floyd Mayweather’s uncle Roger Mayweather has openly accused Pacquiao of taking steroids, and the Mayweather camp said they would only agree to a deal if both fighters agreed to ‘Olympic-style’ drug testing up to ten days before the fight. Pacquiao agreed to take random urine and blood tests but only up to thirty days before the fight because he claimed that the loss of blood would make him feel weak that close to the fight. The random urine and blood tests that Pacquiao attempted for were much more strict than the current testing of the Nevada State Athletics Commission. However, Mayweather didn’t consider the testing a negotiable matter and both fighters decided to fight different fighters (Pacquiao fought Joshua Clottey and Mayweather fought Shane Mosley). Bob Arum, Pacquiao’s promoter, disagreed with Mayweather’s camp to cancel the fight,
“It's terrible. Mayweather and his people have never cared about the good of boxing and it is Manny that has brought boxing back. Is this a loss for boxing? Is this a missed opportunity? Of course it is."Mayweather’s camp wanted to show the public that it was Manny Pacquiao as the person that didn’t want to agree to terms that Mayweather would have also done for the fight,
"Let the record be clear: Manny Pacquiao and his promoter, Bob Arum, are threatening to walk away from the largest fight in history. It is disappointing for us to see that the benefits of blood testing, and the fact that many different substances and procedures can only be detected by blood testing, are still not fully understood by all."Both camps left the table with possibility that the ‘superfight’ was still possible in the future.
Fast forward to the current day, and Floyd Mayweather has just backed out of the fight against Pacquiao after Pacquiao changed his mind on blood testing and was willing to do blood tests up to ten days before the fight and a 50-50 split on the money proceeds. Bob Arum placed a Friday deadline on the fight, and it passed without word from the Mayweather camp (Pacquiao will now fight Antonio Margarito in November). The Mayweather denied that the Pacquiao camp ever contacted them and that they would only agree to a deal on their terms, Oscar De La Hoya, former boxer and now working with Golden Boy Promotions (Floyd Mayweather’s promotions) said there were talks between the two camps and that they were very close to a deal in June. Nobody wants to accept the responsibility for being the camp that backed out of the deal so it’s both sides pointing fingers at each other, but who really is telling the truth?
In my opinion, it’s Floyd Mayweather who is ducking the fight. Imagine if you’re Manny Pacquiao. You haven’t lost since 2005, and you have beaten some of the top fighters in boxing: Marco Antonio Barrera, Oscar De la Hoya, and Miguel Cotto. All of sudden you become of the top two boxers in the sport, and the other top boxer first accuses you of taking steroids. Next he wants you to submit to a rigorous blood testing before the fight. Most people are going to think that if you have nothing to hide, why wouldn’t you submit to the testing, but if you are clean your entire life why should you let someone who is falsely accusing you to run the way you have done things. Now in the current day, you are a busy politician that upset one of the top incumbents and now to continue your fighting career, you agree to everything the top boxer wants you to, yet he still refuses! Floyd Mayweather hides behind his undefeated record, as it’s the only way he can be considered one of the top fighters. This isn’t to take away from Mayweather as he is one of the quickest, agile and greatest defensive fighters that ever lived, but he hasn’t faced a quality opponent in years. He fought Oscar De la Hoya after he was falling off of his peak, and won in a split decision. Mayweather won that fight by backing off of De la Hoya the entire fight, and using his quickness to win each round, but was never looking for the knockout or the affirmative attacks. Next, Mayweather fought Ricky Hatton, who was vastly undersized and in the wrong weight class when he fought Mayweather before being knocked out. Hatton was also undefeated but he went up a weight class to challenge Mayweather. Next, Mayweather fought Juan Manuel Marquez, who also went up a weight class and Mayweather to maintain his edge showed up to the weigh-in two pounds overweight, and although it doesn’t seem like a lot, it can be a huge difference in Mayweather keeping on some muscle. Finally, after Mayweather couldn’t agree with Pacquiao, he fought Shane Mosley, who hasn’t been very successful in this decade and almost knocked out Mayweather in the early rounds before succumbing to Mayweather’s speed. Mayweather is ducking the fighters that he has a chance to lose to because he is hiding behind his undefeated record. Mayweather refused to fight Miguel Cotto at one point (after his fight versus Hatton, the public wanted to see him fight Cotto but Mayweather went into a one-year retirement), but Cotto eventually lost to Antonio Margarito and later on Manny Pacquiao. Mayweather refuses to fight anyone that can push his loss record to one, and I’m not saying that Mayweather would lose to Pacquiao but I think it would be his toughest fight in years and that he is scared of the possibility that he could lose. Mayweather can’t go down as one of the top fighters if he is going to keep ducking other fighters.
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