SALUD, ARIZA BELIEVE MAYWEATHER WON’T FIGHT PACQUIAO
By Ronnie Nathanielsz
PhilBoxing.com
Mon, 15 Mar 2010
The consensus among respected boxing aficionados led by WBC founding secretary general and former PBA Commissioner Rudy Salud is that Floyd Mayweather Jr will never fight pound-for-pound king and “Fighter of the Decade” Manny Pacquiao.
Also sharing the views of Salud was conditioning expert Alex Ariza.
Salud told us that Mayweather, after watching the masterful performance of Pacquiao against the defensive rock Joshua Clottey, would be convinced more than ever that to face Pacquiao would be to court disaster.
Salud said “I feel that all the more Mayweather is going farther away” from a fight with Pacquiao, adding “how can we expect Mayweather to ever say ‘yes’? They will think of all the reasons not to make it happen.”
He said Clottey with his stance was a better defensive fighter than Mayweather who merely rolls his shoulder, leans back and run. Salud said that Mayweather was sure to have been struck by the relentless punching machine that Pacquiao proved he was, at the same lightning pace from round one to twelve which combined with his lateral and rapid in and out movement would trouble Mayweather. He said he was confident that if Mayweather accepted the challenge he would almost surely be knocked out.
Ariza said that Pacquiao’s performance showed the Filipino southpaw was “faster than Floyd” and “if he hits Mayweather the way he hit Clottey there is no he can take that kind of power.”
The conditioning expert who proved that they didn’t take the Clottey fight for granted by training hard when Pacquiao went at the same incredible pace for all twelve rounds said “when he saw what Manny did to Clottey. He hit Clottey so hard that he was afraid to throw punches. The body shots were devastating.”
Ariza also agreed with the observations of internationally well-known architect Jun Palafox and undersecretary of Health Elmer Punzalan who were guests on the popular dzMM Teleradyo show of Vic Jose hours before the fight and pointed out a crucial fact about the texture of Clottey’s skin. Both boxing fans said the texture of the skin of Africans was different, resilient and capable of standing much more pain than others, very much like the water buffalo.
Ariza said “of course it's because of the climate. It's like the hide of a buffalo. If you looked at Clottey’s face after the fight you could see there was some swelling but very minimal.”
Both Ariza and Koncz revealed there had been some talk about a fight for Pacquiao in October or November which would be after the May 10 elections where he is seeking the lone congressional seat in Sarangani.
However, Ariza who sat down with Pacquiao and spoke to him alone for some 20 minutes after they got home from the Los Angeles airport told us “he’s gonna rest. He doesn’t want to push it. I told him to rest for a while because this was the second twelve round fight in a row (the first being against Miguel Cotto last November.) Give your body a few months, six months rest.”
Ariza said they “went over what he did (against Clottey) and we are really proud of him. He is not just big, he is such a good great role model who inspires these other young guys.”
TV analyst and original Team Pacquiao member Moy Lainez disagreed. He said the bottom line is money and he doubts whether both Mayweather and Pacquiao would turn their back on the possibility of earning $40 to $50 million.
Lainez said Mayweather knows that should he beat him Pacquiao will retire unless Mosley beats Mayweather paving the way for a Pacquiao-Mosley showdown which would be much easier to make..
At the same time Lainez indicated that much will depend on the outcome of the elections. Lainez noted that Pacquiao had bought a house in Los Angeles and he feels that should Pacquiao lose, “he might stay there and just come here once in a while.”
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Ronnie Nathanielsz.
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