A Question of Greatness
By Rene Bonsubre, Jr.
PhilBoxing.com
Mon, 07 Jun 2010
Sports is built on rivalries. Athletes who move up in the sporting world have always tested themselves against a worthy opponent; someone perceived to be his equal or better yet, a rival who is perceived to be better. The truly great ones look for someone who will push them to perform at a higher level.
Floyd Mayweather,Jr. is correct when he said boxing is a business. But it is not just his business. The success of the boxing industry hinges on the fans ? the millions who buy tickets and pay-per-views, who subscribe to boxing magazines and passionately voice their opinion on the internet.
These are the very same fans who prefer to watch a rivalry fought inside the ring, not through trash talking and press releases.
Mayweather deserves our sincere applause for devoting his time to grant a wish of a young man with Hodgkin?s disease who wanted to meet his favourite fighter. There is too much pain and suffering in this world and an ounce of compassion and charity goes a long way.
But Mayweather?s gesture of kindness has been overshadowed by the fact that he has once again dodged a showdown with Manny Pacquiao by stating that he would be taking 'a year or two' off from the sport of boxing.
Does he really love his unbeaten pro record that much? Was he really spooked after the near loss to Jose Luis Castillo in 2002?
The last time Mayweather lost a fight was in the featherweight division semi-finals of the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. He was tagged as a possible gold medallist but lost to Serafim Todorov of Bulgaria 10-9 and had to settle for the bronze.
The loss was controversial as Mayweather wasn?t credited with several blows including two punches in the last 15 seconds that would have tied the score. But Mayweather was also criticized for dropping his arms and daring the Bulgarian to hit him thus blowing away his lead. The U.S. filed a protest ? later rejected - claiming that Todorov was credited a point in the electronic scoring system when he fell on the canvas. The featherweight gold was won by Somluck Kamsing of Thailand.
Future Hall of Famer Bernard Hopkins once said, ?Money you can make, and money you can lose. But history you can?t erase.? A few days ago, Pacquiao was the recipient of the Fighter of the Decade Award. That?s the kind of history you cannot erase.
Mayweather, despite also winning multiple titles, has been accused of picking opponents who were either undersized, less skilled or past their prime.
Pacquiao won a congressional seat in Sarangani last month and is contemplating on having just a couple of more fights before devoting his energies to public service. The obvious choice for his opponent was Mayweather, who was supposed to fight Pacquiao early this year but negotiations were stalled due to the Mayweather?s unsubstantiated accusations that the Filipino boxing icon was using performance enhancing drugs and their disagreement about the scheduling of blood tests. But it seems Mayweather has never been interested in fighting Pacquiao and will surely receive a lot of flak in the days and weeks to come.
Representatives from both of their camps have been negotiating behind closed doors for what fans and boxing writers consider as the biggest welterweight fight since the 1981 welterweight unification bout between Sugar Ray Leonard and Thomas Hearns.
Both Leonard and Hearns tested their greatness against each other and against worthy adversaries like Wilfred Benitez, Marvin Hagler, and Roberto Duran. It will be the tragedy of Floyd Mayweather?s career if he will never test his greatness against Manny Pacquiao.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Rene Bonsubre, Jr..
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