Manny Pacquiao: Why Floyd Mayweather Will Never Fight Pacquiao

It would be the true fight of the century, the fight many think would save boxing. The best bout since Mike Tyson, Joe Frazier, Muhammad Ali and even Lennox Lewis were prowling the ring. 

It also has no chance of happening, in your lifetime or mine. 

I'm referring, of course, to the highly anticipated, publicly demanded, but yet-to-be-seen fight between Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao. 

Oh, sure, when Pacman beats Juan Manuel Marquez for the second straight time on Saturday, all you'll hear about between now and, say, January will be that epic combination of the pound-for-pound greatest fighters on the face of the Earth.

The hype machines will kick into overdrive, the sport's talking heads will speculate, posture and clamor for the fight, and Top Rank's Bob Arum (who promotes Pacquiao) and Golden Boy's Richard Schaefer (who promotes Mayweather) will let the media talk and talk, leading them on yet another snipe hunt for what would be the greatest fight in the last 20 years in the sport. 

But in the end, there's as much chance of these two legends of the sport getting in the ring to face each other as there is of me getting in the ring to face either of them. 

Which is to say, nil. 

It's not for lack of desire, at least on the part of Pacman. The 32-year-old Philippine megastar knows he needs a bout with an elite fighter still in his prime (like Mayweather) to cement his already-impressive legacy. He's clearly driven to be the best in the world and take his place in the Pantheon of great fighters, and has even shown a willingness to acquiesce to Money's demand of Olympic-style blood testing prior to the bout. 

Instead, the fault lies squarely with Mayweather, who has been much more talk than walk in recent years. The 33-year-dold has fought all of once in the last 16 months, a bout he won in controversial fashion over Victor Ortiz several weeks ago. 

But the lack of in-ring action hasn't stopped Mayweather's mouth from running virtually non-stop, as he continues to get people to believe his impressive 42-0 record is more impressive than it is, since it lacks one very crucial feature: a win over the other best fighter of this generation. 

Simply put, Mayweather is dodging the Pacman fight for one simple reason: He's terrified of losing that sterling undefeated record, mistakenly believing that if he retires with it intact, no one will remember the fact that it was earned by not fighting the speedy superstar from the Philippines. 

Deep down, Mayweather must know Pacman is the one fighter alive who can take knock that zero off his loss column. Deep down, he also knows Paquiao's speed and power would give him fits in the ring, and that if the two were to fight, he'd walk away from the ring with his precious record, and in his mind, his place in history, go up in a puff of bloodied, bruised smoke.

Don't let Money fool you. This has nothing to do with Pacman's reluctance to acquiesce to his demands of Olympic-style drug testing or with the promotional team's unwillingness to pay Mayweather the $50 million guaranteed purse he's demanding. It's simple fear of losing. Plain and simple. 

Is there hope for a fight? Sure, there is. Someone simply needs to explain to Money (or is it Mouth? I can never remember) that unless he fights Pacman, he can go 50-0 and there will always be an asterisk by his name. That people will never see him as the defensive mastermind he truly was, or as the fighter who has been knocked down all of once in his career. 

Instead, he'll be told that people will see him as the fighter who was too afraid of losing his precious record to actually put it to the test. The fighter who was unwilling to prove himself the best in the world against the other contender for that title, a fighter who talked a great game, but when the rubber hit the road, he didn't do much else. 

Even if someone tells Mayweather all that, this fight probably won't happen. The 33-year-old pugilist is too stubborn and proud to ever see the light, meaning that while every boxing fan—no, every sports fan on Earth—wants to see the two greatest fighters of a generation square off, it simply isn't going to happen.