There’s an old saying that, “Everyone has a bullet with their name on it.” This saying is usually said to remind us that none of us are invincible, and there just may be that one person out there that just might have our number. Regardless of how good you are at a particular skill or craft, there could be someone out there that just may be better on a particular occasion. Could Manny Pacquiao be that bullet with Floyd Mayweather’s name on it?
It’s easy to look at both men’s recent performances over the last couple of years and say that Floyd Mayweather should beat Manny Pacquiao, and he would most certainly be favored to do so at the sportsbooks. But, maybe Floyd Mayweather knows something that we don’t. There just may be something about Manny Pacquiao and his style that troubles him. Of course he isn’t going to publicly admit that but now that Pacquiao has shown some vulnerability in recent years, it would seem like it would be the perfect time to strike while the iron is hot. Regardless of what anyone says about the potential fight having lost its luster and that it should have happened years ago, it is still the biggest money fight out there that boxing has to offer.
There have been many excuses made by both men as to why this fight hasn’t happened yet, but it seems as though Manny Pacquiao has pretty much given in to all of Floyd’s demands and has even undergone Olympic style drug testing in his last fight, so that would seem like a non issue at this point. I’m really not buying into the latest excuse of Floyd not wanting to do business with Bob Arum as the reason why the fight can’t happen. There’s only one thing that I believe Floyd cares about more than money and that’s protecting his undefeated record. In my own humble opinion the Arum excuse is just a smokescreen.
It’s hard not to notice the reactions of both men when they are asked about fighting each other. Manny Pacquiao seems very calm and relaxed and always says that he wants the fight while Floyd Mayweather gets very agitated and refuses to answer questions a lot of times when asked about it. It leads us to believe that he is the one that really doesn’t want the fight.
I’ve always believed that Mayweather would beat Pacquiao, and I still do, but that doesn’t really matter. The question is: Does Floyd Mayweather believe that he can beat Manny Pacquiao? You can tell a person who is afraid of flying that it is much safer to fly than it is to drive a car and provide that person with statistical evidence to support your claim but if that person has it in their head that they are afraid of flying, they are not going to get on that plane.
There are some people out there who say that they don’t care if the fight happens because they feel that Floyd would win easily anyway. They love to bring up how Floyd toyed with Juan Manuel Marquez and beat him so easily while Pacquiao struggled in his three fights against Marquez and got knocked out cold when they met the fourth time. But, didn’t Pacquiao destroy Miguel Cotto while Floyd had a much tougher time against an older version of Cotto?
Just because fighter A loses to fighter B and fighter C beat fighter B, that doesn’t mean fighter A can’t beat fighter C. There are many examples that prove this. Ken Norton beat Muhammad Ali and lost to George Foreman but Ali was still able to beat Foreman. Bernard Hopkins lost to Jermain Taylor twice. Kelly Pavlik beat Jermain Taylor twice but lost to Hopkins. The most recent example is when Abner Mares got knocked out by Johnny Gonzalez. Gonzalez lost to Daniel Ponce De Leon in late 2012 while Mares knocked out De Leon in May of 2013.
Mayweather can retire tomorrow and still go into the Boxing Hall of Fame unquestionably. Some will even consider him an all time great regardless if he fights Pacquiao or not. It’s really hard to question Floyd’s greatness, but I just have this vision in my head of Floyd being retired without having fought Manny Pacquiao and him out walking around in a shopping mall or eating dinner at restaurant with his family and a fan walks up to him and asks him for his autograph then after Floyd signs it the fan asks him, “By the way, why didn’t you ever fight Manny Pacquiao?” I think the spirit of Manny Pacquiao will haunt Floyd forever if this fight ends up never happening.
