A super duel of recycled heroes

WHO BETWEEN these two recycled boxing stars can bag all the marbles on May 2?

Pardon this, but looking back into their careers, Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao can’t be rightfully branded as truly sweet and bigger-than-life.

Well, not exactly wornout and fit for the ukay-ukay (second-hand) market.

But both Mayweather and Pacquiao have had to resurface from the abyss of inadvertence to arrange the richest boxing championship fight in history.

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Mayweather had to claw his way back ahead.

Steve Carp, Las Vegas Review Journal: “Despite two lengthy hiatuses from boxing, Mayweather never lost his luster. He took 19 months off from 2007 to 2009 because he said he needed a break from boxing. And despite several run-ins with the law over the years to pleading no-contest to domestic battery and ultimately being incarcerated for 60 days in Clark County Detention Center in 2012, Mayweather always came back bigger and better.”

Mayweather, 38, kept his unbeaten record and stayed up as the richest sports hero of his time.

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Also in 2012, Pacquiao, 36, suffered a shattering defeat with that dismal knockout loss to Juan Manuel Marquez.

Pacquiao took a one-year break from boxing. He returned to the ring in 2013 with a sensational victory over big and young Brandon Rios in Macau.

Pacquiao also avenged a controversial loss to flamboyant Tim Bradley, before making a floor mop out of the overdecorated kickboxer Chris Algieri, also in Macau, last November.

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The clash with adversity brought new light to the lives and careers of the main superfight rivals.

Leonard Ellerbe, Mayweather ally and confidant: “Things happen. It’s about how you bounce back from situations. How you deal with adversity. How you handle things. As you get older, you get wiser. You don’t do the same things now that you did 20 years ago, or three years ago. You learn as you move on and that’s what Mayweather has done.”

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Saying the defeat to Marquez meant God was preparing him for something big, Pacquiao doggedly pursued a fight with Mayweather, the unbeaten world boxing pound-for-pound ruler.

Taking his boxing kingship opponent for an enemy, Pacquiao has vowed to teach Mayweather a lesson. He also claimed God will deliver Mayweather into his hands.

Mayweather, on the other hand, said he was done with dirty talk. He claimed he has learned to be calmer and humble now that he has matured.

Choosing to be more realistic, he said that anything in excess, faith included, could be harmful.

Mayweather also said he doesn’t believe that God takes sides.