It's Time

There are a lot of exciting moments in sports, a late inning pressure situation in a playoff baseball game, the first day of the NCAA tournament, a two week 7 game NBA finals series, NFL conference championship Sunday, OT playoff hockey, the final round back nine at Augusta, and when the bell rings for the first round of a big fight to name a few. The last point was reinforced for me on Saturday night when the opening bell was sounded for the Manny Pacquiao/Antonio Margarito fight and brought back memories of my teenage years when my friends and I would gather at one of our houses and PPV a big fight. Unlike in other sports a great fight can end anytime and there are no teammates to look to or much time between the action and when you lose a fight you wear the loss physically as much as mentally. Few sports are as basic and revealing, some might say barbaric, as finding out if you get beat up the person in front of you. I watched Saturday's big fight with a group of sports fans some of who are still big boxing fans, I know you are thinking a big boxing fan is as likely to find as a big New York Islander fan, but trust me they still exist. The fight was "big" because it involved Manny Pacquiao and was held at the new Cowboy stadium, his opponent mattered little unless you wanted to see a proven cheater who used illegal wraps to win past fights take a beating. I and most of the crowd watching the fight wanted to see the beating and were happy when Pacquiao obliged and the fight was allowed to go the distance. During and after the fight the discussion centered on Pacquiao's legacy, predictions of a Pac/Mayweather fight, the odds of that fight, and the overall state of boxing. The week between this fight and Saturday's fight of the year candidate in the Sergio Martinez/Paul Williams rematch seems like the perfect opportunity to discuss the sweet science. Pacquiao's win on Saturday gives him eight titles in eight different weight classes covering 40 pounds; with the power he has shown fighting 165 pounders it seems almost unfair that his natural weight is a lightweight/welterweight catch weight. He began his boxing career at the age of 16 in the Philippines and has one significant loss and one tie since he began fighting in this country in 2000'. He lost a split decision (115-113) to Mexican legend Erik Morales in 05' and drew with Juan Manuel Marquez in 04'; in both cases he won the rematches decisively. His last ten fights all since 06' (see list below) have been against a list of who's-who in boxing and were paramount in him being named the Boxer of the Decade by Ring magazine. Pacquiao's last ten opponents and result from most recent: Antonio Margarito (UD) Josh Clottey (UD) Miguel Cotto (TKO) Ricky Hatton (KO) Oscar De La Hoya (TKO) David Diaz (TKO) Juan Manuel Marquez (SD) Marco Antonio Barrera (UD) Jorge Solis (KO) Erik Morales (KO) 6 of these 10 fights have been by knockout while the last two were virtual shutouts on the scorecards in the process he ended the careers of some of the sport's biggest names (De La Hoya, Morales, Barrera, Margarito). This all adds up to a resume that ranks as one of the best ever especially for a fighter who will turn 32 next month and is a recently elected Congressman to his native Philippines. His humble and charitable nature and his often quoted "How can we give the people a good fight" have made him a worldwide star and have helped his last four fights average more than 1 million PPV buys. The glaring hole in his resume is the name that is not on his list of last ten fights Floyd Mayweather Jr. If Manny Pacquiao is the man in the white hat, Floyd Jr. plays the villain well. He grew up in boxing with his father and uncle preceding him as champions and controversy like the sport has never been more than a few feet away. Mayweather, 32, is a five division world champion, undefeated (41-0) as a professional, who is known for having one of the best defenses the sport has ever seen. His fights are less exciting than Pacquiao's, but that is mostly due to his ability to shut down his opponents. He has been hurt less than a handful of times in the ring and seems to carry the horrid decision of his 96' Olympic semifinal loss to Bulgaria's Serafim Todorov around on his shoulders daily. This decision was so bad even for Olympic boxing decisions that not only was there an official USOC appeal, but the referee in the ring raised Mayweather's arm after the bout indicating his clear victory to those watching the fight. He also seems to carry around a childhood that gave him boxing but also profound memories of violence. A well documented story placing him as a 5 year old on his father's lap as his father and uncle pointed guns at each other is a behavior cycle that seems hard to break. When the first round of talks about a Pacquiao/Mayweather fight ended with Pacquiao refusing to submit to Olympic style drug testing Mayweather came out looking like a clear cut winner and a guy determined to clean up boxing. After Pacquiao agreed to the strict drug testing Mayweather did not give an excuse for why the fight couldn't be made and his silence forced even his most ardent supporters to lose faith. His possible excuses ranging from an unfair purse split to his trainer's legal problems to his IRS problems all seemed greedy or petty and the average public began to think he was plain scared, a reputation no fighter wants to have attached to his name. His HBO creation "24/7" is a hit and though he overacts in his episodes more than Julia Roberts in Erin Brockovich he has had his funny moments like his Mexico loves Mayweather slogan and his equally unaware moments, for example when he talked about buying his house in cash when he was on the hook for unpaid IRS taxes. He tried to crossover gigs as a contestant on Dancing with the Stars and as a WWE star, but both proved what we knew prior to those endeavors, that he is a boxer not a mainstream star. The situation has changed for Mayweather this year during his vacation from boxing, his racist and homophobic rant against Pacquiao was despicable and indefensible and his apology was weak at best. He should have manned up after this and agreed to the fight immediately; in September of this year he was arrested and charged with 4 felonies stemming from allegations of abusive and threatening behavior toward the mother of his three children in front of his children. He was released on bond and is awaiting trial, before he didn't give a reason for not fighting Pacquiao now he needs the fight as a diversion at the least. His last ten fights all since 04' (see list below) are not nearly as impressive as Pacquiao's and due to this fact and his out of the ring behavior this past year it is the time for him to make the "fight of the century" for his legacy. Pacquiao and his trainer Freddie Roach have gone out of their way to make it clear Mayweather is the one fight that they are waiting on before retirement. It is time Floyd. Mayweather's last ten opponents and result from most recent: Shane Mosley (UD) Juan Manuel Marquez (UD) Ricky Hatton (TKO) Oscar De La Hoya (SD) Carlos Baldomir (UD) Zab Judah (UD) Sharmba Mitchell (TKO) Arturi Gatti (TKO) Henry Bruseles (TKO) DeMarcus Corley (UD) Boxing needs this event since the Heavyweight division looks like the lineup of a European figure skating competition with two brothers who refuse to fight each other at the top of the ranks (W. Klitschko, V. Klitschko, Haye, Povetkin, Adamek, Valuev, Chagaev, Chambers, Thompson, Boytsov). You have to go to # 8 on the list to find the first American in Pittsburgh's own Eddie Chambers who now fights out of Philly (I am sure being able to name the top ranked US heavyweight would lead to a win in any bar trivia game). The next couple of months in the sport feature great action with the #1 and #2 contenders in the lightweight (J.M. Marquez vs. Katsidis), Jr. welterweight (Bradley vs. Alexander), middleweight (Martinez vs. Williams) all fighting on HBO or Showtime coupled with light heavyweight (Pascal vs. Hopkins and Dawson vs. Cloud) and super middleweight tournaments that are ongoing and also on HBO or Showtime. As for a prediction, I don't have one, as a sports fan and a boxing fan I just want to see this fight. It is time to settle the best fighter of this generation question and November of 2011 sounds like the perfect time to settle legacies and BCS like fan discussions.