Pacquiao, Mayweather Jr., Sergio Martinez and This Great Tragedy We Call Boxing

Manny Pacquiao remains ranked No. 1 by The Ring at welterweight and pound-for-pound, as Floyd Mayweather Jr. slides back into the No. 2 spot on both lists in the wake of his fourth-round knock out of WBC belt holder Victor Ortiz.

"Great," all the rational, positive minded folks are saying now. Provided Pacman gets past Juan Manuel Marquez next month, surely they will at long last fight. No doubt sometime next spring!

Loving the sweet science is the same as loving too many bad women—it will turn you into a cynic. Sure enough, even as the boxing world is still talking about the Mayweather-Ortiz fight last Saturday night, here comes this crap today about Manny Pacquiao fighting Sergio Martinez at a catch weight of 150 pounds.

Sergio Martinez is The Ring middleweight champion and the No. 3 pound-for-pound fighter. Under normal circumstances, if both fighters were top three pound-for-pound, it would be a super fight that would have all fans rejoicing.

However, Manny Pacqiao versus Sergio Martinez is a joke. The fact that Manny's people are asking for it at a 150-pound catch weight is the sick punchline. 

Sergio Martinez had many of his best years at 154 pounds, but he is now 36 years old and has been fighting at 160 for two years. Moreover, he has been knocking people unconscious in spectacular fashion as a middleweight.

When Sergio Martinez knocked out Paul Williams in the second-round of their second fight, I was convinced that he had forever punched himself out of any chance for a shot at a mega fight with Manny Pacquiao.

If I were handling Manny Pacquiao I wouldn't let him near Martinez. Manny is just too easy to hit, and Martinez is far too big, athletic and generous with punches. 

Of course, it never occurred to me to require that Martinez dehydrate himself like a miner stranded in Death Valley and risk organ failure. 

That Martinez would be hungry enough for a big payday tells you all you need to know about the current health of big time professional boxing. Martinez is a class act, a sensational athlete, a skilled boxer and an explosive puncher. He has the total package and shouldn't need a "mega fight" against a man who started his professional career at 106 pounds. 

Even without current credible contenders at middleweight, Martinez has the power, speed and skill to possibly clean out the division at 168. Lucian Bute in Montreal would be a major fight by any standard that isn't "Manny and/or Floyd in Vegas." If he beat Bute then showdowns with Ward and/or Froch would be mega fights on their own—if the sport were properly promoted across the board.

As for Manny Pacquiao? Well, first he needs to beat Juan Manuel Marquez. Pacman and Marquez drew once and Manny won a split decision another time, so nothing is guaranteed here. 

Provided he wins like I think he will, the only person he should be looking to fight before retiring into the sunset of his political career is Floyd Mayweather Jr. 

He will also need to agree to whatever drug test stipulations are required. The greatness of Manny's legacy rests in large part on the fact that he first fought for a world title at 112 pounds and still pounds people into submission at 147.

Almost no one has done that before. I'm willing to believe he did it all naturally, through hard work and the smartest training and nutritional science available, and that Manny is just that once in a lifetime athlete who we get to see do things nobody else has done before.

If the fight never takes place because of a disagreement over how stringent the tests are going to be, it won't look good for Pacman. In this age of PEDs, we cynical fans—and Floyd Mayweather Jr. in this case—have a right to insist on the strictest testing standards available.