Pacquiao vs Mayweather is a bout that many boxing enthusiasts desired to watch. Manny Pacquiao vs Floyd Mayweather, Jr was such a pleasing bout because Pacquiao is presently pound-for-pound the best fighter in the league. Floyd Mayweather, Jr used to hold that distinction, and has an undefeated record.
In today's world, it seems that almost any topic is open for debate. While I was gathering facts for this article, I was quite surprised to find some of the issues I thought were settled are actually still being openly discussed.
The best course of action to take sometimes isn't clear until you've listed and considered your alternatives. The following paragraphs should help clue you in to what the experts think is significant. Read the Pacquiao vs Mayweather Anlysis.
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CHICAGO—Highly-regarded cutman Joe Chavez has seen the fierce punching power and the indomitable fighting spirit of Manny Pacquiao from both sides of the ring.
He’s toiled as a Pacman cutman and worked in the same capacity for Miguel Cotto in the Nov. 14 Las Vegas beatdown the Boricua Bomber took.
So, when I asked the veteran who he would favor in the mega fight between Megamanny and Floyd Mayweather, I expected no less than a reasoned, thoughtful approach.
Chavez, one of the more popular cornermen in boxing, stroked his chin several times as if trying to render a Fistic Freudian analysis.
Then he just laughed.
“I can’t pick Manny over Floyd,” Chavez said, “and I can’t choose Floyd over Manny either. They’re both just such great talents, different in style but similar in the depth of their boxing ability.
“Maybe I could just flip a coin on this one. I don’t know if I have ever seen anyone faster or better defensively than Floyd is, the incredible way he moves around the ring. He always knows what he is doing and where he is relative to his opponents.”
Then Chavez talked about his recent birds eye of Manny bashing Cotto about the MGM ring.
“It was impressive how Manny took so many shots, I mean real, hard shots from Miguel, and he walked right through them. You had to be a bit amazed at seeing that. Miguel hit Manny with shots that knocked other guys down and sometimes down and out but they couldn’t stop him from coming in on the attack.”
When a hard core fight guy like Chavez speaks about picking a winner by a coin toss—maybe heads it’s Pacman, tails it’s Money May—he is not joking.
Like the rest of us, Chavez is licking his chops for a fistic feast of epic proportions.
MANILA, Philippines - Could this be the last fight for Manny Pacquiao?
Well, the boxer now being considered as the greatest of his era thinks so.
“Baka last fight ko na (It could be my last fight),” he said on TV yesterday of his highly-anticipated showdown with Floyd Mayweather Jr., the undefeated American ex-pound-for-pound king.
Pacquiao, who turns 31 on Wednesday, now holds the distinction of being the best fighter in the planet, not long after scoring historic wins over Oscar dela Hoya, Ricky Hatton and Miguel Cotto.
Pacquiao is the first and only boxer in history to win seven world titles in seven different weight classes – flyweight, super-bantam, featherweight, super-feather, lightweight, junior-welter and welter.
His victory over Cotto, who’s supposed to be much bigger and much stronger, cemented his place in boxing history, and after starting out at 105 lb he’s now the reigning world champion at 147 lb.
Following his sensational win over the Puerto Rican last Nov. 14 in Las Vegas, Pacquiao’s mother, Dionisia, said it’s about time to call it a day and that she can’t stand watching him fight again.
“Ayoko na makita siya lumaban at masaktan (I don’t want to see him fight and get hurt),” said Dionisia.
Pacquiao said retirement had crossed his mind a couple of times.
“Ayaw na talaga ng mama ko (My mother doesn’t want it anymore). Umiiyak na nga siya (And she cries),” said Pacquiao, now getting ready for another big birthday bash in his hometown in Sarangani.
Then he gets to enjoy more time with his family on Christmas and as they celebrate his wife Jinkee’s birthday on the first week of January. By that time, however, they could be in the United States.
Pacquiao and Mayweather, unless fate dictates otherwise, should be holding a press conference in New York on Jan. 6 or Jan 11 to announce the fight being billed as the fight of the new century.
Then it’s off to training, another seven to eight weeks, starting off in Baguio City and capping it at the Wild Card Gym in Los Angeles. Pacquiao said he will train like never before because it could be his last.
The boxer is also seeking a congressional seat in Sarangani in the May 10 national elections.
That’s why his promoter, Bob Arum, is making sure Pacquiao gets the best of both ends in his fight with Mayweather. And as it is, despite a recent hitch, negotiations could be done and over within a week.
While both camps are ironing out minor kinks in the contract, promoters are busy trimming down the choices as venue of the fight. As of presstime, the choices are down to the MGM Grand in Las Vegas and the Cowboys Stadium in Dallas.
Even before negotiations for this fight started, Pacquiao said if it’s Mayweather then he deserves a guaranteed purse of at least $25 million or almost P1.2 billion which is enough to fund a presidential campaign.
But his Canadian adviser, Mike Koncz, said because of the magnitude of the fight, the pride of the Philippines could end up with $50 million in his already fat bank account.
Your weekly random thoughts …
Las Vegas, Dallas, New Orleans and Los Angeles are all places that are interested in the fight. Promoters Top Rank and Golden Boy also received inquiries from places such as Atlanta, Miami and such non-starters as the Congo and Dubai.
I've always believed the fight would wind up in Las Vegas, although it would be fun to go with some place like Dallas, where the stadium with a retractable roof could seat 100,000 people. But the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, from what I understand, has exerted big-time pressure to have the fight there. The MGM, perhaps the best place on Earth to see a fight, has always been the leader in the sweepstakes for obvious reasons. It's hosted numerous Pacquiao and Mayweather fights and supports Top Rank and Golden Boy fights regularly, even some that don't bring big crowds. The MGM hosts lesser fights knowing it also will get the big ones. Golden Boy, in particular, is very tight with the MGM, particularly executive Richard Sturm, who plays a key role in keeping boxing a major aspect of the casino's entertainment offerings. The only problem is that Pacquiao-Mayweather is so big, the arena, which holds maybe 18,000 max, just isn't big enough.
Los Angeles, despite a supposed $20 million offer from AEG, which owns the Staples Center and a minority stake in Golden Boy, seems unlikely because of the state income taxes that will be assessed to each fighter. Besides, Pacquiao says he doesn't want to fight there.
Dallas is interesting, given the serious interest from Cowboys owner Jerry Jones in bringing the fight to his stadium. I think that would be cool, not to mention I could make a pilgrimage to nearby Southfork Ranch, home of my all-time favorite TV show, Dallas.
Golden Boy's Richard Schaefer inexplicably dissed Jones by canceling a planned trip there on Wednesday with Top Rank's Bob Arum and HBO Sports president Ross Greenburg to tour the facility and meet with Jones. Even if Schaefer was under orders from Mayweather and manager Al Haymon not to do the fight anywhere other than Las Vegas, Schaefer was wrong to cancel the trip. What harm could have come from it? You at least listen to what Jones has to say.
Schaefer bailing so angered Arum that he threw up his hands, pulled himself out of the talks to finalize the fight (which will get done despite the bumpy road) and turned over the Top Rank end of talks to company president (and stepson) Todd duBoef. He is trying to clean up the mess and do his impersonation of Winston Wolfe -- the legendary Harvey Keitel character from "Pulp Fiction" who could fix any problem.
Now that Schaefer and duBoef are working together, I'm told Dallas is back in the mix. Unless some other place pops up, this is a two-town race: Vegas or Dallas, neither of which levy state income taxes.
We should know in a few days. And just think -- all this craziness is just about where the fight will be. Imagine how much fun it's going to be when the fight is signed, sealed and delivered.
• I tuned into HBO's "Joe Buck Live" on Tuesday night to see Mayweather's appearance. What a complete waste of time. Only Buck could make Mayweather boring in an interview. I have also watched a previous episode of the show, and it's just awful. It's a train wreck. It's the "KO Nation" of talk shows.
• If Kelly Pavlik beats Miguel Espino next week, I still want to see Pavlik against Paul Williams before I see a Williams rematch with Sergio Martinez.
• Now that heavyweight Cristobal Arreola has bounced back from his loss to Vitali Klitschko by stopping game Brian Minto in four exciting rounds, I want to see Arreola against David Tua. Somebody please make this happen.
• Say what you want about promoterLou DiBella, but I have deep respect for him. He's a man of conviction. He left a lot of money on the table by severing ties with Jermain Taylor because he believes the diminished Taylor, who has been severely knocked out in three of his last five fights, should drop out of the Super Six and retire. DiBella won't stand by and be a part of something he believes is wrong. Before Taylor fights Andre Ward in April, likely in Oakland, in the next round of Showtime's tournament, I encourage the California commission to demand to see Taylor's medical records and test results from when he was hospitalized in Germany following the crushing knockout he suffered against Arthur Abraham on Oct. 17.
• I have decided to get disgraced judges Gale Van Hoy, Alan Davis, Benoit Roussel and Pierre Benoist eyeglasses as gifts for this holiday season. On second thought, what they all really deserve for their horrific scorecards in recent fights is a giant lump of coal. If you're a prizefighter and you find out one of these guys has been assigned to your fight, run.
• It hasn't been a good month for Square Ring, the promotional company owned by Roy Jones. In the span of three days, neither of the company's key fighters could make it out of the first round. Jones was knocked out in 122 seconds by Danny Green and Dmitriy Salita was knocked out by Amir Khan in 76 seconds. Ouch, babe.
• For the record: I absolutely love the idea of junior welterweights Devon Alexander and Khan defending their titles against good opponents on the same HBO telecast March 6. I think it could lead to an eventual Alexander-Khan showdown, something I've been interested in and first wrote about in August.
• Top Rank hopes that Miguel Cotto will return from his knockout loss to Pacquiao in June in New York on the eve of the Puerto Rican Day Parade. Don't be shocked if Cotto moves up to junior middleweight to challenge New Yorker Yuri Foreman for his title. It would be a throwback sort of fight with the Big Apple's large Puerto Rican population supporting Cotto and the Jewish community supporting Foreman. I think it could actually be a pretty big fight. If it happens, I just hope Arum doesn't give me the finger again, like he did after Foreman's fight last month when he won his title against Daniel Santos on the Pacquiao-Cotto undercard.
• A hearty congratulations to a trio of non-participants who were elected to the International Boxing Hall of Fame this week: manager Shelly Finkel, Top Rank matchmaker Bruce Trampler and former Associated Press writer Ed Schuyler. I've known all three since I started covering boxing and all three are most deserving of the honor. You can say what you want about Finkel, who has made his share of enemies, but he's managed a who's who of boxing superstars and champions (Mike Tyson, Evander Holyfield, Pernell Whitaker, Meldrick Taylor, Michael Moorer, Fernando Vargas, Wladimir Klitschko, Vitali Klitschko and Manny Pacquiao, to barely scratch the surface) over the past 25 years. His résumé speaks for itself. With Trampler, Top Rank wouldn't be the formidable company it is today. He's the glue and one of the most revered matchmakers ever. No Top Rank fight is made without his stamp of approval. Schuyler, AP's national boxing writer for 32 years, is one of my journalism idols. He retired in 2002, but in the first couple of years of my career covering boxing, I got to cover fights with him. I sat next to him for many big fights and, to be honest, it was just as much of a thrill to learn from him at ringside as it was to cover the actual fights. He's a legend.
• Happy birthday to Top Rank's one and only Arum, who turned 78 on Tuesday.
• DVD pick of the week: When I was writing a blog earlier this week about how I cast my ballot for the International Hall of Fame this year, and explaining my vote for "Prince" Naseem Hamed, it obviously got me thinking about one of my all-time favorite fights. It's been the DVD pick of the week before, but it never gets old. So back to Dec. 19, 1997, at New York's famed Madison Square Garden, where Hamed made his American debut in sensational style as he defended his featherweight title against former champ Kevin Kelley. It was Hamed's first fight under a monster HBO contract and it was a slugfest. After one of Hamed's lengthy, showy entrances they went to battle, and both men hit the deck three times. Ultimately, Hamed scored the fourth-round knockout in a fight HBO's Larry Merchant called the "Hagler-Hearns of featherweight fighting." And, by the way, the undercard bout that opened HBO's telecast -- a pitched battle between Kennedy McKinney and Junior Jones, in which McKinney rallied for a fourth-round knockout to claim a junior featherweight title -- was also sensational.
By TIM DAHLBERG AP Boxing Writer
LAS VEGAS(AP)—Promoters of the Manny Pacquiao-Floyd Mayweather Jr. fight abruptly canceled a trip to Dallas on Wednesday, dealing a possibly fatal blow to the chances of Jerry Jones landing the bout for Cowboys Stadium.
The trip was canceled at the last minute because Mayweather’s promoter apparently decided he didn’t want the fight at the new stadium. The move leaves the MGM Grand hotel arena in Las Vegas as the heavy favorite to host the March 13 fight.
“I’m just embarrassed, really embarrassed,” Arum told The Associated Press. “The man (Jones) changed his whole schedule for this and you certainly want to listen to the man.”
Arum said he was blindsided by Mayweather’s promoter, Golden Boy CEO Richard Schaefer, who was to join him in Dallas along with HBO Sports president Ross Greenburg. He said Schaefer called him and told him he wasn’t going to go to Dallas because he didn’t want the fight there.
“There was no point in me going then,” Arum said. “My guy can’t go into the ring and just take bows. He needs an opponent.”
Arum said Schaefer told him that he didn’t want to stage the fight in an outdoor stadium, and that there wasn’t enough time to set up the stadium for the bout.
“I told him it wasn’t an outdoor stadium, that it had a retractable roof,” Arum said. “That didn’t seem to matter.”
The abrupt cancellation was the first problem between the two promoters, who earlier had quickly come to agreement on the date of the fight and the purses for their respective fighters. Things were going so smoothly that they were looking for sites for a Jan. 6 press conference in New York City to formally announce the bout.
Schaefer could not immediately be reached for comment. He and Arum earlier agreed not to publicly speak about the negotiations until all arrangements for the fight were complete.
Arum said he planned to talk to Schaefer again Thursday and that he didn’t believe the fight was in any jeopardy. Though both fighters have reportedly agreed to terms, neither of them have signed contracts.
Jones said last week he hoped to bid for the fight for his stadium in Arlington, Texas, and representatives of the Superdome in New Orleans were also interested. The gate for the fight could be the richest ever in boxing, perhaps exceeding the $20 million mark before even starting to count pay-per-view sales.
A Staples Center official told the Los Angeles Times on Wednesday that the arena has made a $20 million offer to host the fight, but the offer would likely have to be higher than any MGM Grand offer because California imposes state taxes that the fighters would have to pay, and Nevada doesn’t.
The MGM Grand is also considered a favorite because that’s where both Mayweather and Pacquiao have fought their biggest fights. Mayweather lives in Las Vegas, and has always been partial to fighting in the city.
Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones has offered a $25-million guarantee to host the scheduled March 13 mega-fight between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao in his Texas stadium, a source close to the negotiations but not authorized to speak publicly about them told The Times today.
Jones' new Dallas Cowboys Stadium has a capacity of more than 100,000. His offer exceeds the $20-million guarantee that Staples Center offered fight promoters earlier this week.
When asked about the Dallas guarantee, Mayweather promoter Richard Schaefer of Golden Boy Promotions would neither confirm or deny its accuracy.
"The numbers are going in the right direction, and I believe we'll end up in excess of $30 million," Schaefer said.
A spokesman for Jones declined to comment about the site talks.
The Dallas offer will be greatly challenged by the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, which is expected to offer ringside seats for $2,500, which is $500 more than the highest-priced seats for the most lucrative fight in boxing history, Mayweather's split-decision triumph over Oscar De La Hoya in May 2007.
Experts say that price increase could put a Mayweather-Pacquiao gate near $28 million, and Las Vegas is also positioned to sell another 40,000 seats for closed-circuit showings at $100 apiece, generating another possible $4 million at selected MGM properties, including Mandalay Bay.
MGM hasn't presented a guarantee yet, fight sources have said. An MGM spokesman declined to discuss his company's involvement with Mayweather-Pacquiao this week.
Schaefer said he first is hopeful that he can gather signed deals from Mayweather and Pacquiao next week, and then work to finalize the site deal.
He said counteroffers are encouraged to be sent to his Los Angeles office during the weekend. He added the final decision will require Mayweather's approval.
"I just added toner to the fax machine and had it serviced right before I left Friday," Schaefer said. "So keep those offers coming."
-- Lance Pugmire
Photo: Cowboy Stadium is a $1.2 billion facility that opened for play this NFL season. Credit: Sharon Ellman / Associated Press
