Pacquiao vs. Mayweather: Assessing Likelihood of Dream Fight After Pac-Man's Win
The prospects of Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather stepping in the ring together have never looked better.
Stop if that has been said before, though.
Boxing has never seen anything like the drama surrounding the two biggest names in the sport. After a deal fell apart back around 2010, both fighters and their camps, not to mention the companies in possession of their contracts, have engaged in plenty of finger-pointing and the like to explain why the most obvious fight of all time has yet to be made.
.jpg?w=256 "Colts Jaguars Football")
Hey, booking the biggest fight of all time is hard work.
Hope is once again renewed this holiday season after Pacquiao took to The Venetian Macao in Macau, China, and thumped previously undefeated and severely overmatched Chris Algieri.
| Landed | 229 | 108 |
| Thrown | 669 | 469 |
| Pct | 34% | 23% |
Granted, the card was designed by Top Rank to get relatively easy victories for the favorites while helping to push the sport itself deeper on the international scale, but six knockdowns by Pacquiao was impressive no matter which way it gets sliced, even if he still has yet to record a knockout in more than five years.
After the fight, Pacquiao was more vocal than ever about the dream encounter.
“The people deserve that fight. The fans deserve that fight,” Pacquiao said, per ESPN.com's Dan Rafael. “It’s time to make that fight happen. It’s been a long time. I want that fight. They’re always denying the fight. I think the fight has to happen.”
Through all of the silly things fans have had to wade through over the years, the dream fight seems more likely now than ever.
Before Pacquaio's drubbing of Algieri, Bob Arum had dropped hints about negotiations between HBO and Showtime. The former has Pacquaio under contract, and the latter has Mayweather. But those hints were humorous at best—Arum is a promoter and was trying to sell a dud of a fight (Pacquiao-Algieri) as much as possible.
But this time the talks have not stopped. As a bonus, Pacquiao seems more vocal than ever about it.
The potential suitors outside of those directly involved in making the fight certainly appear to be jockeying for position on the chance the two promotions and camps figure something out, as Calvin Watkins of ESPNDallas.com points out:
The time is certainly now for a deal to come to fruition.
Both men are past their prime. Mayweather is going on 38 years old and is no longer the most elusive fighter in the sport. Pacquiao is well on his way to 36 years old and is not the most feared offensive threat in the sport any longer.
But as the old cliche goes, the fight would be better late than never. Outside of the financial implications, the fight would dramatically boost the dwindling reputation of the sport as a whole, something Arum seems adamant about.
“I think that fight should happen. I think the boxing fans deserve that fight," Arum said, per Rafael. "If boxing is to be considered a major sport the fight has to happen and all the nonsense has to cease."
Right now, Arum is where he wants to be—the headlines are flowing and Mayweather is silent. Both men could easily go their separate ways from here. Pacquiao could move on to another bout with Juan Manuel Marquez, and Mayweather could dance with Amir Khan.
Of course, that is not the desired end result for anybody. Talking about the fight and actually making it are two very different things, though.
Talk is cheap in this sport. Until Mayweather also breaks his silence and notable negotiations take place, Pacquiao's win over Algieri and all of the chatter after the fight means little.
Move forward under the impression the dream fight is still off. If it happens, all the better. But fans have been down this path far too many times before to think that this past weekend was the turning point that leads to a historic dance between Pacquiao and Mayweather.
Stats and info via ESPN.com unless otherwise specified.
.jpg?w=480 "Colts Jaguars Football")
