SULAIMAN INSISTS MAYWEATHER-PACQUIAO IS THE FIGHT THE WORLD WANTS TO SEE
By Ronnie Nathanielsz
PhilBoxing.com
Wed, 27 Feb 2013
World Boxing Council president Don Jose Sulaiman insists that a fight between undefeated Floyd Mayweather Jr (43-0, 26 KO?s) and Manny Pacquiao (54-5-2, 38 KO?s) ?is the one that the world wants to see, more than any other of the several other interesting fights that could be.?
Referring to Mayweather, the current WBC welterweight champion who has won titles in five weight divisions, Sulaiman said he is ?a super idol who has all mouths of his rivals? and won what Sulaiman said was the ?the greatest one (belt) that any boxer can win ? the WBC Diamond Belt.?
Talking about Pacquiao. Sulaiman said ?there is one more super champion who impacted the world of boxing in every one of the countries on earth during a decade? and is also one of the very few Diamond Belt champions who won the first such coveted belt when he beat Miguel Cotto handsomely.
Sulaiman sent us his regular column ?Hook to the Liver? in which he said a Mayweather-Pacquiao fight would mean ?two Diamonds in the ring fighting for supremacy. Both have challenged each other for years and raised a great speculation in the boxing world . However, their fight has never taken place.?
The WBC president who recently advised Juan Manuel Marquez not to go ahead with a fifth fight against Pacquiao planned for sometime in September said ?anybody can say whatever they want to say? but a Mayweather-Pacquiao fight is what fight fans still wish to see.
Sulaiman noted that ?If, and only if Floyd Mayweather retains his title against Robert ?The Ghost? Guerrero in a tough fight on May 4 and Manny also wins his next fight in Macau against any one picked, I invite them to put their egos and stubbornness aside, put on their gloves and jump into the ring to see who is the one that stays in heaven on a higher cloud than the other, as they both already live there.?
He downplayed a fifth Marquez-Pacquiao showdown saying that while Marquez ?defeated Manny for the first time in their four encounters - so what??
Sulaiman reminded fight fans that Macho Camacho lost to Greg Haugen but still fought against Julio Cesar Chavez in a fight ?after many years of threats among them, in the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, packed to the roof, and broke TV records in Mexico and Puerto Rico. After Hauguen lost to Camacho in their rematch, he came to Mexico to fight J.C. Chavez to break the 300 year record of a live gate for a boxing match with 136,274 fans at the Aztec Stadium, breaking the Guinness record, perhaps forever.?
Sulaiman also posed the question ?what about Ali and Frazier, eternal enemies who filled the Madison Square Garden in New York with fans even up on the lamps!!! What about Leonard and Duran in a Stadium full to capacity in Montreal, Canada ? Those four would have thrown stones at each other, and were media delights with so many verbal wars. There are many more that would take longer to detail.?
He said ?the rivalry and media wars among boxing heroes are always gate records and fights to remember.?
Sulaiman concluded ?there is no fight today that the world demands to see more than Mayweather and Pacquiao. Top Rank, Golden Boy, and Mayweather are invited also to throw egos aside, sit at a desk and have that fight done. If both win, obviously - if both boxers do not throw their money as it seems that they are doing, they will win for the maintenance of a couple of generations, and the promoters, as well. So, let's do it. Stop having the world wait.?
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