Macau: It says much about Manny Pacquiao’s situation that confirmation of his comeback fight after being knocked out by Juan Manuel Marquez last December, against another last-time loser in Brandon Rios in the distant boxing outpost of Macau on November 24, has not catapulted his name back into the mix for a showdown with the man he once rivalled as the best pound-for-pound boxer in the world.
When the referee Robert Byrd raised Mayweather’s hand at the end of 12 rounds in the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas on Saturday night to signal the near-total domination of Mayweather over the Californian Robert Guerrero, thoughts of a fight with Pacquiao did not force their way to the front of the winner’s consciousness.
He spoke briefly of the exciting young Mexican light-middleweight Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, and even more briefly of Devon Alexander, the IBF welterweight champion, who has to resist the surprise challenge of Lee Purdy in Atlantic City on 18 May. There was a quick name-check for Amir Khan, too but no mention of Pacquiao, nor much interest.
Mayweather’s eyes are fixed elsewhere at least for the time being. He has two things Pacquiao doesn’t: a title and an unbeaten record. That translates into power in the fight game and, while he is happy to entertain Pacquiao, it will be on his terms and not for at least 18 months, which is an eternity in boxing.
In that time, both veteran fighters must guard against injury and the inconvenience of contenders not willing to accept that there are only two horses in this race.
The rest of the field is a hungry one, full of fighters willing to give up a big financial edge to fight Mayweather in the knowledge that whatever crumbs they are thrown will most likely be more substantial than anything else they can scavenge in an otherwise dull marketplace.
Pacquiao’s next fight is a stark reminder of this reality: Rios was undefeated and going places until, arriving at the fight overweight yet again, he was outworked by Mike Alvarado over 12 rounds in March. And it was hardly a grand occasion, being for the WBO’s interim light-welterweight belt.
So in November Rios and Pacquiao land up in Macau at the Cotai Arena in the Venetian Resort casino, a long way from the MGM Grand, although no doubt the deal is a healthy one. And the fight should be competitive. Rios, for all his indiscipline (he also came in over the weight before stopping Manchester’s John Murray at Madison Square Garden in 2011), is a tough proposition for someone coming off a knockout defeat.
If he cannot beat Rios, Pacquiao definitely cannot beat Mayweather and the small number of people who cling to that notion in the face of all available evidence are to be found mainly in his homeland.
Craving for a Pacquiao-Mayweather fight goes back to the night in November 2009 when the little Filipino shook up the business with a dramatic 12th round stoppage of Miguel Cotto to win the WBO welterweight title and move into territory hitherto ruled by Mayweather. Yet the American’s determination not to be cowed by the aggressive negotiating technique of Pacquiao’s promoter, Bob Arum, led everyone up several cul-de-sacs, with detours to courtrooms to settle unproven allegations by Mayweather and some of his associates that Pacquiao was using performance-enhancing drugs.
It was a frustrating soap opera, with a farcical plot and no denouement. The eternal spat showcased all the worst aspects of professional boxing, and cynics rightly wondered whether pride and cussedness would again rob fans of a fight everyone, including the fighters, wanted.
However, those still saying Mayweather must fight Pacquaio before the unbeaten Las Vegas money machine retires in September 2015 are ignoring the law of diminishing logic. As it stands the Filipino bizarrely for a man who has won versions of world titles at eight weights has to rebuild his career after losing back-to-back, even if Timothy Bradley’s points win last June owed much to the imagination of two of the judges, Duane Ford and CJ Ross.
Mayweather will either wait for Pacquiao to deteriorate further and slot him way down his schedule, or continue to ignore him. There is the possibility also, of course, that Pacquiao might have retired by then and devoted his full energies to his political career.
So what once might have been a classic showdown is in serious danger of going down in boxing history as the greatest fight that never was.
There is some stiff competition for that title. Riddick Bowe v Lennox Lewis didn’t happen, mainly because the American’s eccentric manager, Rock Newman, demanded 90 per cent of the purse for his fighter.
Roy Jones Jr might have fought Nigel Benn in the 90s but Jones chose easier routes; Sugar Ray Leonard v Aaron Pryor was a dream collision both avoided, as was Erik Morales against Marquez.
One man who should know all about these kind of non-events is Oscar De La Hoya, whose Golden Boy Promotions will work alongside Mayweather’s company and Showtime to determine who will be lucky enough to get on the five-fight roster as he winds down his career.
In 1997, during his three-fight campaign as a light-welterweight, De La Hoya was close to fighting the main man in the division, Kostya Tszyu. Instead he chose to move up to meet Pernell Whitaker, while Tszyu went on to lose his first fight, shockingly stopped by Vince Phillips, who brought an unremarkable 35-3 record to the fight.
Phillips went on to lose to Ricky Hatton, who went on to beat Tszyu then lost to both Mayweather and Pacquiao. In boxing there are no certainties, only serial surprises.
