Pacquiao vs. Mosley: Who Cares, Where’s Mayweather?

This weekend, Sunday May 7th, 2011, at the MGM Grand Garden Arena, Las Vegas, Manny Pacquiao will defend his WBO Welterweight World Title against Shane Mosley. Pacquiao has taken time away from politics (he is now a congressman in his native land) to fight the American but many people (especially those outside the Philippines) are saying, “Who the fuck cares.”

Every fight fan in the world, if they have a brain in their head anyway, are thinking of this fight as a disappointment. No one in their right minds really cares much about Shane Mosley as an opponent for Pacquiao. On everyone’s minds is when Floyd Mayweather Jr. will step up and fight the best known man in the Philippines. Time is running out for this to occur and fans will be seriously disappointed in the two men if both become too fucking old to exchange blows in the ring.

There has been two negotiations between the Mayweather and Pacquiao camps and both fell through due to stupidities in many fan’s minds. Not to get into the details, suffice it to say that drug-testing was a major factor according to both camps. But that is solved easily by testing both fighters a few weeks before and directly after the match. The Pacquiao camp had difficulty with this in the first negotiations back in early 2010, but agreed to it in the second a few months later.

Although Mayweather stated at the time the reason for the fall out in the last negotiations was in part due to his fight 60 days earlier, many believe now that Mayweather is protecting his undefeated record by avoiding the Filipino. Whether this is correct or not, what is true is that true champions, if they want to be considered among the greats of all time, never avoid fighting anyone of merit.

Unfortunately for both fighters, if the match never transpires, they will both have a blemish on their records. Mayweather’s zero in the loss column is nothing spectacular if he finally retires without ever facing the greatest boxer the world has ever seen, and as for Pacquiao and his fans, they will always have this sliver of doubt whether the Filipino is actually the greatest fighter of all time without a win against the American. As for this fight against Mosley, Pacquiao should win fairly easily.