Floyd Mayweather Doesn't Need Manny Pacquiao to Cement His Legacy

After decisively beating Miguel Cotto on Saturday, most would say that only one true challenge remains for Floyd "Money" Mayweather. There is no doubt that boxing fans want to see him validate his career by fighting Manny Pacquiao, but it simply isn't necessary.

Mayweather is now 43-0 and didn't have much of an issue at all against Cotto, who is four years his junior. Like fine wine, "Money'' seems to get better with age. His trademark quickness and counter-punching are as present as ever, and his in-ring savvy continues to improve with each passing fight.

Critics like to tear down Mayweather for not beating elite fighters, but he has simply met every challenge put in front of him. Cotto, Shane Mosley, Juan Manuel Marquez, Oscar De La Hoya and Arturo Gatti were all quality victories and pretty much all of them were by a wide margin. Mayweather is head and shoulders above the competition in his era, so he makes difficult tasks look easy.

It has become increasingly clear that Mayweather is the standard by which all other current boxers must be judged. That means that he has nothing left to prove.

A fight with Pacquiao would be fantastic and it is undoubtedly what people want to see. But Mayweather doesn't owe it to anyone to make it happen, and if it doesn't, he'll still go down as one of the all-time greats.

Before Mayweather returned to defeat Victor Ortiz last year, there was a thought that Pacquiao had surpassed him, but that was clearly nothing more than a fallacy. Because Pacquiao is the more exciting fighter and because he is generally regarded as a nicer person than Mayweather, he was made to be better than he really was.

Don't get me wrong, Pacquiao is a fantastic fighter, but he has lost three times over the course of his career and very easily could have been saddled with a loss in his most recent fight against Marquez. He has shown that he can be frustrated and beaten, which is something that has never once been apparent with Mayweather.

Mayweather is and always has been a superior all-around fighter to Pacquiao, and he doesn't have to beat him to prove it. Defeating Pacquiao would allow Mayweather to silence his detractors once and for all, but he certainly doesn't care about that. If the right situation presents itself, I doubt Mayweather would hesitate to fight Pacquiao. But there is no guarantee that will ever happen.

If Mayweather and Pacquiao never fight, unbiased observers are always going to believe that Mayweather is the better of the two. With that in mind, Pacquiao should be the one who is desperate to get a deal done. That means that Pacquiao has to make concessions in the negotiations, not Mayweather, because "Money'' simply doesn't need for it to happen.

Perhaps the purse should be split. But if Mayweather wants a higher percentage, he is entitled to ask for it because he has all the leverage. Also, if he wants Olympic-style drug testing for the fight, he's entitled to that too because he shouldn't have to put his undefeated record on the line while fearing that Pacquiao might have an unfair advantage.

When you take everything into consideration, Mayweather has already accomplished all that he needs to in the sport of boxing. If he were to retire today, he could go out without any regrets.

The notion that he needs to beat Pacquiao to complete his career is perpetuated by the media, and it simply isn't the case.