Hopefully everyone had a nice Christmas weekend and enjoyed precious time with their families and friends. Over the weekend, it appears as though the much anticipated Mayweather vs. Pacquiao mega fight completely died and fell through the cracks. Pacquiao has simply refused to comply with Team Mayweather's request of subjecting himself to Olympic style drug testing, which would include random blood testing, administered by the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA).
Pacquiao did in fact agree to take three blood tests. One blood test prior to his training camp. One blood test thirty days prior to the bout. One blood test immediately following the fight in his locker room. One would think that would be enough to satisfy Team Mayweather, but that simply was not the case nor will it ever be. Drug testing with the USADA is a non-negotiable stance that is being taken by Team Mayweather. Last week on The Huge Show, Mayweather's advisor and confidant Leonard Ellerbe once again confirmed that
they had no intentions of backing down from their random blood testing request. "It wasn't Floyd at all. I have the responsibility to put him in the best situation to be successful," Ellerbe said. "I'm not making any accusations or allegations when it comes to Manny Pacquiao but this is something we're putting in place. We feel the fans and the sport deserve a level playing field."
Last Wednesday, Pacquiao's promoter Bob Arum of Top Rank gave Mayweather twenty four hours to renege on their stance, but come Christmas Eve the holiday cheer did nothing to sway the hearts and minds of the pugnacious Mayweather clan. As a result the proposed fight in the squared circle is now officially off, but there will surely be another type of battle taking place.....in the courtroom. Pacquiao openly stated that he is suing Floyd Mayweather Jr, Floyd Mayweather Sr, Golden Boy Promotions, and their entire team on the grounds of defamation.
The day after Christmas, Pacquiao was quoted as saying
in article by ESPN's Dan Rafael, "I have instructed my promoter, Bob Arum, head of Top Rank Inc., to help me out in the filing of the case as soon as possible because I have had people coming over to me now asking if I really take performance-enhancing drugs and [if] I have cheated my way into becoming the No. 1 boxer in the world." For weeks, Mayweather's father Floyd Sr. had been saying that he wants Pacquiao to give blood. One of Floyd's uncles Jeff Mayweather has also publicly stated that Pacquiao could be taking illegal performance enhancing drugs.
Do Golden Boy Promotions and Team Mayweather truly believe that they are bigger than the Nevada State Athletic Commission (NSAC), feeling as though they can call the shots when it comes to drug testing procedures??? A request for blood testing is one thing, but making demands as to which testing agency is going to be administering those tests is a completely different story. Keep in mind, fight fans, that Mayweather vs. Pacquiao was slated to be a world championship fight for the WBO welterweight championship, with key emphasis on the term world.
Why should Pacquiao be required to submit himself to random blood tests with the USADA, the same agency that governed Mayweather's 1996 Olympic Championship triumph [Mayweather emerged as a silver medal winner]? Why not conduct the testing through a more neutral agency in Europe or any other place throughout the world? Following what appeared to be fair and balanced negotiations of a 50-50 purse split, eight ounce gloves, and fighting weight of 147lbs, it remains a little bit odd that Team Mayweather would go public with a demand that blatantly swinging in their favor. Was this indeed a pre-meditated evacuation strategy on behalf of Team Mayweather to pull out of the fight? This reopens a
big question that was asked in an article that was posted at Boxingchronicles.com earlier this year. That question asked, will Floyd Mayweather Jr avoid Manny Pacquiao when the time comes? When you look at the situation that way, it almost comes as no surprise that the 50-50 purse split was so unbelievably easy to negotiate.
Hypocrisy in the drug testing fiasco has clearly surfaced on behalf of Golden Boy Promotions, the company that was representing Mayweather throughout the weeks of negotiations for the super fight. Golden Boy has also stood firm in their case that Pacquiao should comply with the random drug testing request. However, when former undisputed welterweight champion Zab Judah demanded that Shane Mosley, a fighter of the Golden Boy stable, commit to testing for performance enhancing drugs prior to their proposed May 2008 bout (which inevitably fell through due to an injury sustained by Judah),
Golden Boy immediately rejected Judah's request. Therefore, who are they to demand that Pacquiao must go above and beyond the standards of the NSAC in order to make this fight happen???
My take as a commentator is this: If the drug testing was a major concern leading up to the finalization of the bout, logic says that these details would have and should have been ironed out during the negotiations, away from the media, before the fight was set for March 13 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. You do not come out publicly about something like that, after the fight has already been set. Both sides agreed beforehand that this fight would be privately negotiated away from the media and the newspapers; it was Team Mayweather that went public and broke that agreement. If Pacquiao is going to agree to random blood testing, which is above and beyond the demands of the NSAC or any commission in the country for that matter, he should at least be granted the opportunity to do so at a neutral testing agency, not the agency that governed Mayweather's USA Olympic trials.
Boxingchronicles.com has posted an exclusive poll question, asking you who you think the grinch was that stole the Mayweather vs. Pacquiao fight. There have been differing opinions regarding this matter, so feel free to comment and cast your vote! You may also email me at
boxingchronicles@yahoo.com if you wish to opine.
