Mayweather might be playing Pacquiao how Sugar Ray Leonard played Marvin Hagler

Floyd Mayweather took care of business before a three month stint in the pokey by beating Miguel Cotto via unanimous decision. Mayweather acknowledged that this might’ve been the toughest fight he’s ever had. No the focus once again turns to Manny Pacquiao. Mayweather says there are reasons he won’t take the fight (Bob Arum, performance enhancing drugs), while others will always say he’s scared.

Call me out on this if you want, but Mayweather is not ducking Pacquiao. He has his reasons for not taking the fight which I can agree with. But i feel he’s cheating the general public by not facing what would be his biggest challenge. Everyone will say that Mayweather only decisioned Cotto and Pacquiao defeated Cotto by knockout. Ok, big deal. Mayweather has never been a knockout artist.

After reading an article on the Sugar Ray Leonard-Marvin Hagler fight on Grantland.com I see some similarties on how the supposed negotiations between Mayweather and Pacquiao are going and how Leonard  and Hagler came together.

For the longest everyone said that Leonard was ducking Hagler. Leonard had been out of the fight game for four years and Hagler was running out of contenders in the middleweight division. Leonard never thought he could beat Hagler until two things happened. First Roberto Duran took Hagler the distance and lost but according to Leonard Duran told him after the fight that he could beat Hagler. The second moment came in March of 1986 when Hagler took on challenger John “The Beast” Mugabi. Hagler took down Mugabi in an eleven round war in which Leonard was present. Hagler took a lot of punishment and Leonard saw holes in Hagler’s armor which enticed him to finally take the fight. If you read the Grantland.com article everyone though Hagler was slowing down and that Mugabi would probably be his last fight. Anyone around Hagler and most boxing experts thought Hagler was near the end and that his heart wasn’t in it anymore.

My assessment might not be dead on, but Mayweather will be locked up when Pacquiao fights Timothy Bradley on June 9. Now I don’t know if Mayweather will be able to view the fight but maybe his uncle Roger or one of his other people will be in Las Vegas to view it for him. After Pacquiao had some trouble with Juan Manuel Marquez he might face some with Bradley even though Bradley is a heavy underdog. This might be the fight where Mayweather sees some holes in Pacquiao’s game and then call him out and finally take the fight.

Fair or unfair, Mayweather will always be called a coward for not buckling in to make the fight happen. Maybe he just wants Bob Arum out of the way. With Pacquiao saying that he might retire soon and seems resigned to never fighting Mayweather. Maybe Mayweather is setting him up. I’m not giving Mayweather credit for being a mental giant in the game of human chess, but I think he might be setting a trap for him. Getting Pac-Man to talk retirement and softening him up mentally and then just saying he’ll take the fight on any terms. Kind of what Hagler did to Leonard. Took the fight on any terms.

As of now it’ll always remain a mystery as to why they’ll never fight, but after a little bit of thought and revisionist history I figured this might be the only way the megafight boxing needs might happen. Leonard took on Hagler when many thought Hagler was at the end of his illustrious career and Mayweather might be taking the same path to a showdown with Pacquiao.

It’s time to amke it happen and get it on.    

Mayweather says fighting Pacquiao is a ‘health risk’

Being the showman that he is, Floyd Mayweather was out promoting his upcoming fight this Saturday against Miguel Cotto. But he wasn’t talking about how great he is or how he’ll outclass Cotto on Saturday. This was about why he’s not taking the fight against Manny Pacquiao and how Bob Arum and Don King don’t care about the health of the fighters.

Mayweather said that fighting Pacquiao would be a “health risk”. He also stated that it was “basic common sense” that Pacquiao had used performance enhancing drugs.

Mayweather once again said it is “basic common sense” that Pacquiao has used performance-enhancing drugs and getting in the ring with him would be a risk to his future health.


“Health is more important than anything,” Mayweather said. “Because guess what? When my career is over, if I’m hurt because of something that has happened in a fight, I can’t come to you and say, ‘I need (money).’ “


Mayweather discussed that fans or promoters don’t care of someone in the sport of boxing gets hurt and how the boxing world doesn’t care if Pacquiao is using. He went on to say that King and Arum are all about the money and said the reason why he won’t fight Pacquiao is that he won’t forfeit his health for money.

“People say, ‘We don’t give a f— if he’s taking or not; we just want to see the fight. We don’t give a f— about your health and we don’t give a f— about your family.’ ” Mayweather said.


“I care about my family. I love my family. They’re going to be there when no one else is there. When my career is over, you’re all going to move on to the next one.”

“Don King and Bob Arum don’t see out the eyes of a fighter because they’re not a fighter,” Mayweather said. “All they care about is some f—— money. I care about a fighter’s well being because I am a fighter.

“I know how it is to have a broken rib the rest of your life. I know how it is to piss blood. You all don’t know nothing about this.”

Mayweather believes that Pacquiao is using PED’s and won’t back down from that stance. When he breaks it down it makes some sense. I know it’s a point that I’ve mentioned before in conversations about boxing, so I can see why Mayweather called for the Olympic style drug testing before taking the fight.

 “It took me years to get to here — years,” Mayweather said. “I’m going up in weight but I’m not walking through no damn fighters. (Pacquiao) is 106; now he decides to walk through (Miguel) Cotto? Cotto can’t knock down (Shane) Mosley, but can he?”


When it comes to that point it makes sense as damning of an accusation it might be. Throughout the years in the sport of boxing when someone moved up in weight classes they sacrificed some of their power. Only a select few were able to maintain their power but not many. I don’t think Mayweather is scared. In fact I think he’s playing a game of human chess.  

 

Mayweather says he offered Pacquiao $40 million for fight

There is a lot of talk about how Floyd Mayweather is ducking Manny Pacquiao, but if you ask Mayweather he’ll tell you he’s done all he could to make it happen in the past few months. Mayweather seems to be over the drug testing flap that initially put the superfight out to pasture. Now it’s all about the money.

Mayweather won’t give Pacquiao a 50-50 split and told Bob Costas that he offered $40 million to Pacquiao for a May 5th date. Manny balked and now Mayweather will fight Miguel Cotto instead.

“I tried to get it done. I tried to get it done for May 5th,” Mayweather told NBC Sports’ Bob Costas on “Costas Tonight.” 


“It would have been Mayweather vs. Pacquiao, but, I got turned down.”


Mayweather explained why he won’t give Manny the 50-50 split. The main reason is that he feels Pacquiao’s buy rates aren’t high enough to garner a split.




“Absolutely not. I’m not giving up the split. I’m not. I can’t. I can’t afford to,” Mayweather said. “I gave this sport my whole life. I have record-breaking numbers that I’ve done. He has no record-breaking numbers.

“I had done my homework, seen what he was used to making in big fights. I offered him $40 million. I told him I would wire him $20 (million) within 72 hours. I keep 100 percent of the revenue. So why would I even give a guy 50-50? 


“I’m not just the highest paid guy in the sport of boxing. I’m the highest paid athlete.”

To Mayweather’s credit he’s trying to do something, so all the chatter about him ducking Pacquiao should quiet down. I think Mayweather has seen enough of Pacquiao to find some weaknesses to exploit. People tend to forget that Mayweather is a top notch ring general.

If the hold up id over money it would be a shame that it would be the reason why this fight doesn’t happen. Is $40 million not enough. Please. You never saw Roberto Duran or Marvin Hagler say that enough wasn’t being offered to take a fight.

Don King Puts $1 Million On Mayorga vs. Cotto

Well known boxing promoter Don King has been known to bet on his fighters as well as the opponent. Saturday night one of his fighters, Ricardo Mayorga, will be taking on Miguel Cotto, for Cotto’s super welterweight title.

The fight should be an entertaining one with Mayorga’s wild, drunken style against Cotto’s natural boxing skills that have been honed by legendary trainer Emanuel Steward.

With this being a Don King promotion, along with rival promoter Bob Arum, that should add to the entertainment factor. Add this in also. King has bet $1 million dollars on Mayorga. Now maybe King knows something we the public don’t know or he’s just smarter than us. I think he would claim the latter. Mayorga is an 8-1 underdog and even though he has fought with the best, he’s slowing down. If I’m King I would bet a few million on Cotto to cover possible losses. King is a sly fox so you never know what can happen.  

Pacquiao batters Cotto

If there was any doubt Manny Pacquiao could bang with the big boys in the welterweight division,he erased it last night with a 12th round stoppage of Miguel Cotto.The win gave Pacquiao the WBO welterweight title,his seventh in seven different weight classes.Regarded as the pound for pound king,Pacquiao showed why as he turned Cotto’s face into a bloody mess.He put down Cotto in the third and fourth round the second which slowed Cotto the most.It was a dazzling display of power and speed as Cotto stated “he didn’t know where the punches were coming from”.Cotto’s trainer,Joe Santiago,wanted to throw in the towel in the 11th round,but Cotto came out for the 12th and final round for more punishment.Santiago said that Pacquiao “Hit harder than we expected and was stronger than we expected”.

   Now the waiting begins.Floyd Mayweather,who is still regarded in some circles as the pound for pound king is the fight everyone wants to see.Pacquiao’s trainer Freddie Roach says he would like to to see Manny fight Floyd.The crowd in Vegas also would like that to happen as they chanted “we want Floyd”.The thing is,does Floyd want Manny.Mayweather is a great fighter but seems to duck that topic whenever someone brings it up.It would be a true classic if Mayweathther takes the fight.But I think money will be a sticking point as Floyd would rather fight against a more winnable opponent.I hope it happens,because no one seems to want to take the megafight,like fighters did in the past.