If I were Manny Pacquiao, as the recognized pound for pound king today and as one of the world champions in the welterweight division, I will make a serious effort to help the former and now number two pound for pound king Floyd Mayweather Jr. in his attempt to clean up boxing of steroids and other performance enhancing drugs (PEDs) .
The first thing I will do is take a day off my training for the March 13 fight with Joshua Clottey and call a press conference to announce my support for Floyd’s new found advocacy and seeming noble crusade.
In that media forum, I will bare my plan to show the boxing world that I totally agree on a need for equality in boxing and that changes are necessary for the betterment of the sport.
I am sure Floyd will be very happy to hear me announce I will now agree to an Olympic-style drug testing up to the day of the fight to be conducted by a neutral agency like the United Kingdom Anti Doping (UKAD) which according to a February 24, 2010 report fighthype.com’s Ben Thompson, just recently tested positive for HGH a professional rugby player.
This decision is most difficult and will certainly take a heavy toll on me like what happened in my first bout with Erik Morales but what the heck, I want the fans and the whole world to know I really want to fight Floyd and I’m now ready to bend backwards for this to happen.
Besides, this is what the sport needs and as Floyd said it will cost me only a few drops of blood so I’ll definitely go for it for the sake of the boxing fans yearning for a fight between us.
At the same time, however, I will make sure my opponent will come to the fight as clean and as natural as I am and I will insist that no PEDs or any substance, banned or not, legal or illegal, should be allowed before we climb the ring for the sake of fair play. As for Xylocaine, he can use as much of it as he wants after the bout.
And as Floyd has been preaching lately and obviously wants most nowadays, there should be no undue advantage over an opponent and it should be a level playing field so even the weigh in should be done a few hours before the fight.
Floyd has also been saying it is time for change in boxing and I have come up with an idea of that kind of change which Floyd and I can start when we finally (hopefully) get to fight.
I’m talking about introducing a new kind of scoring in a boxing match where the fighters cannot win a round unless a knockdown or knockdowns are made. I believe fighting to score points is just for amateurs and professional fighters should show we are a notch higher by always striving for a decisive win (knockout). If both fighters cannot knock down or knock out each other then the bout should end in a draw.
I also think this is good for the sport as boring fights are eliminated and biased scoring by some judges done away with.
Floyd’s desire and vision to see the dawning of a new era in professional boxing is admirable and as such, in order to make the fight between us easy to negotiate by our respective promoters, I will never use as leverage my being the recognized number one pound for pound boxer and holder of world championship titles in seven divisions aside from being the current welterweight titlist to ask for more than fifty percent share of the fight purse.
And while I recall that I made more PPVs than him when we had our separate bouts last year, I hope he makes more PPVs in our respective fights scheduled this year so that he can put himself on equal footing with me.
If I were Manny Pacquiao, these are the things I am willing to do to make sure the dream of Floyd becomes a reality, including a mega payday fight with me he’s so obsessed of but appears too scared to take.
Unfortunately, I am not Manny Pacquiao and I can understand the guy if he will not and never give in to Floyd’s demand that appears more intended to put Manny in a weak and vulnerable position come fight night. It is a sad thing but I guess Manny may just opt to retire without giving us the fans perhaps the most exciting fight this decade.
And so for this journalist, those things I said may remain just wishful thinking and a Pacquiao vs. Mayweather fight that most people want to see may never happen at all because even as Manny seems to want the fight badly so he can let his fists do the talking, Floyd appears bent on finding ways to prevent it and only wants his mouth to do the fighting.
Author: PATRICK ROXAS
Source: theboxinghistorian.com
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