“When archaeologists discover the missing arms of Venus de Milo, they will find she was wearing boxing gloves.”
— John Barrymore
The late Barrymore, a great American actor more than 70 years ago, is long gone, but he could have been speaking about the Manny Pacquiao-Floyd Mayweather negotiations, which have been putting more nausea into ad nauseam with each passing day. It’s hard to know whether to laugh, cry, scream or just ask for the barf bag.
I’ve done all of that and more since the talks spun out of control and into a familiar gutter. There are no winners here, other than perhaps Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones and Arizona Senator John McCain.
Jones must be relieved that nobody dragged him into it by accepting his $25-million offer to stage the fight at Cowboys Stadium. McCain has to be happy he didn’t follow up on a reported suggestion that he become an arbitrator. The escalating Pacquiao-Mayweather blood feud makes the health-care debate sound like kumbaya. There’s no peace here. Only a piece of you-know-what.
How the talks, seemingly so smooth in the early stages, turned into such a stinking mess is probably not a surprise if placed within boxing’s usual context, which is older than Barrymore’s defining line and probably at least as ancient as the marble in the de Milo statue. But Pacquiao-Mayweather looked as if it were a chance to move on and beyond a frayed way of doing business.
That said, the business still beckons with enough potential money to say that it also wouldn’t be a surprise if the fight was signed, sealed and delivered in a sudden announcement next week. With a reported potential of $40 million for each side, it’s hard, perhaps impossible, to walk away. In the end, nobody is making a compromise. There is only one thing they’re making: Money, money, money.
But the process won’t make new fans out of a public leery of a sport that never seems to get out of its own way. Michael Katz, who is to fight-writing what Barrymore was to acting, would write that the only thing killing boxing is boxing. Nothing has changed and, oh yeah, Happy New Year.
Pacquiao’s defamation suit, filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Las Vegas, against Mayweather Jr., Mayweather Sr., Roger Mayweather, Oscar De La Hoya and Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer could only insert more vitriol into rancor that began with the Mayweather camp’s demand for Olympic-style blood testing. That’s one interpretation among many, too many.
Who knows? Both sides were quick to say that the lawsuit doesn’t necessarily kill the fight. Okay, then maybe it is just another step in the negotiations. To wit: The Pacquiao camp says it will drop the lawsuit if Mayweather backs off on the demand for random testing, especially unannounced tests within 30 days of opening bell, which had been scheduled for March 13. Then again, maybe the lawsuit is a real expression of Pacquiao’s anger at how he believes he has been smeared by the blood-testing demand, which includes at least an implication he is using HGH.
Pacquiao’s drug-testing resume is spotless in Nevada. But the state’s Athletic Commission doesn’t conduct the comprehensive, random tests done by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency. Oh yeah, USADA has been another issue. The Mayweather camp wanted it to conduct the tests. No way, said the Pacquiao promoter Bob Arum, who has said urine testing is sufficient. But physicians have said repeatedly that only random blood tests can detect HGH.
Credibility? That’s hard to detect anywhere.
The Mayweather demands are undercut on several fronts. Schaefer said no to blood testing for Shane Mosley, a former BALCO client, amid plans for a fight in 2008 against Zab Judah. According to reports of testimony to a grand-jury investigation, Mosley said he unknowingly used the clear, the cream and EPO, which were Performance Enhancing Drugs readily available in BALCO’s PED dispenser. Yet, Schaefer said Mosley had never tested positive in tests conducted by the Nevada State Athletic Commission. Hence, Schaefer said, it was wrong to treat him as a cheater.
“We are not going to do other tests than the Nevada commission requires,’’ Schaefer said in an Associated Press story. “The fact is Shane is not a cheater and he does not need to be treated like one.”
Why should Pacquiao be treated any differently?
Then, there’s Pacquiao who has reportedly said he doesn’t like needles, yet has tattoos that prove he has been needled often. Pacquiao’s anger at suspicions inherent to Mayweather’s demands is understandable. But those same suspicions are also the price of athletic fame these days. Even if Pacquiao pursues the lawsuit and wins, he will have to live with questions he can’t knock out. Olympic swimmer Dara Torres underwent a battery of random tests at her own request when she decided to make a comeback as a 40-year-old mom. She passed them all. Yet, suspicions are still there.
Olympic-style testing, no matter what acronym conducts them, is random and more thorough than anything done by a boxing commission. But the prevailing assumption is that athletes are always a masking agent ahead of any technology.
Mayweather has to know that, too, and he has used it in what some say is an early attempt at gamesmanship. Then again, there are others who say that Mayweather is simply hiding behind the demand in an attempt to delay the fight until May or September. The theory is that Mayweather has decided he wants a tune-up.
An extra helping of skepticism is needed for anything done by Mayweather. He likes to talk about a level playing field and transparency, yet he was happy to pay Juan Manuel Marquez $600,000 — $300,000 a pound – for being two over the contracted weight in September. Then, he refused an HBO request to step on an unofficial scale on the night before his one-sided decision over Marquez. So much for transparency.
In hindsight, you can only wonder why everybody talked and acted as though the March 13 fight was a done deal when there wasn’t a contract with Mayweather’s signature on it. There’s another New Year’s resolution in there somewhere.
But maybe this flap is a good thing. Initially, Pacquiao trainer Freddie Roach balked at March 13. It was too early, he said. Pacquiao still needed time to recover from his bruising victory over Miguel Cotto in November. And, yeah, maybe Mayweather really does need a tune-up. And, maybe, a fight later in 2010 will lead to some history in the ring and a rich rematch. More important, maybe it represents an opportunity for Nevada and other state boxing commissions to upgrade the testing process, especially for the biggest fights.
But, please, quit all the rancorous maybes and get the fight done. If there are only lawsuits and screaming arguments, only archaeologists will find the game, buried with de Milo’s long, lost arms.
Photo By Chris Farina/Top Rank
