When will they ever fight?
Aren’t you sick and tired of it?
Every time Floyd Mayweather Jr. finishes off one of his hand-picked opponents to stretch his unbeaten record, he calls out to any one who’s listening that it’s time to do Mayweather against Manny Pacquiao.
Let’s give the people the fight they want, he says. Let’s make it happen, he yells loud and clear, whetting the appetite anew of boxing fans who are hoping that the fight they crave for will finally take place.
Then, when the last battle is long over, Mayweather changes his mind and says it’s not him or his fault that’s preventing Mayweather-Pacquiao from happening.
Yeah, right.
Mayweather has again won over another lesser light in the boxing world. No matter how much hype-up is done, Mayweather fights are watched not for the excitement they offer but for the possibility of his being finally stopped by a wannabe who just happened to be good enough to land a great or lucky punch.
But to be fair to Mayweather, his evasive maneuvers and offensive moves are still the craftiest in the fight game despite his 37 years. All the opponents Mayweather has lined up to extend his unscathed 47-0 record have failed time and again to make the serious connections that will threaten his string of wins.
So here we go again with all the speculating and guessing if the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight will ever happen. In days ahead, everyone on the boxing beat will try to find a crack in the impasse and attempt to scoop everybody else with a report that the fight will happen soon.
It looks like that’s not going to happen soon.
The only way for this guessing to end is for Mayweather and Pacquiao to wheel and deal themselves. As we’ve said before, Mayweather should just pick up the phone, punch in Pacquiao’s number and agree to meet in an undisclosed place (even in a mountaintop cabin, if necessary).
Keep all the advisers away and let the boxers decide on date, time, prize money, promotions and pay-per-view. The advisers will go bananas over what they’ll agree on but the fight will finally push through.
When that happens, imagine this: Pacquiao and Mayweather are in New York together in a press conference to announce the great showdown.
Of course, Mayweather will dominate the event with Pacquaio merely dishing out that smile of his. “Money” Mayweather will boast that he can’t lose and his entourage will yell out the usual backup phrases… But, wait. It can’t be that easy.
It will take so much more than wishful hoping to get the fight happen but here’s what Pacquiao and Mayweather can’t ignore: They owe it to the fight world to clash in the ring. They have been blessed many times over after all the hard work they’ve invested. They need to give back to the game with a fight for the ages.
If they never fight and when they hang up their gloves some day, there will still be one question mark, asterisk or whatever symbol to indicate that the two best boxers of their generation never met. That’s hard to ignore even if both fighters continue to shrug their shoulders when asked if they ever will get entangled in the ring.
And once more, as they do that, we end up still without a definitive fight for this era.
