The first Saturday in May has become noteworthy for a second major sport besides horse racing, and when Manny Pacquiao seized Kentucky Derby Day this year, there wasn’t anything Floyd Mayweather could do to counter it this time, even if he had tried.
A year ago, when Mayweather nabbedShane Mosley as an opponent, shortly after Pacquiao lined up a fight with Joshua Clottey, the prized first-Saturday-in-May boxing date went with it.
Today is a different time.
A year ago, Pacquiao and Mayweather both found themselves in the throes of responding to failed negotiations with each other. Mayweather, the Grand Rapids native, was the unbeaten fighter with the better opponent. Pacquiao salved that wound by fighting Clottey before 50,000 in a football stadium, though that fight didn’t approach Mayweather-Mosley in the all-important pay-per-view tally.
None of that would happen today.
Pacquiao fights Mosley on Saturday night in Las Vegas, for some welterweight title no one really cares about, because an everlasting title is at stake whenever the pound-for-pound king steps into the ring, a title the Filipino has reclaimed without dispute after Mayweather’s year-plus of inactivity.
Pacquiao reigns now, both as sporting royalty and elected Filipino congressman, and has juggled these final days of his boxing career and early days of his political career with equal grace.
Meantime, Mayweather faces the new distraction of three court cases, withthe newest charge filed Thursday. Two of the cases are insignificant misdemeanors involving security guards who were patrolling Mayweather’s neighborhood. The third is a bundled stack of felony and misdemeanor charges for an alleged domestic incident involving the mother of three of his children, with conviction carrying a minimum one-year incarceration, and a maximum 34, in a case slow-tracked by three evidentiary hearing delays sought by Mayweather’s attorneys.
Without those issues, Mayweather would have a hard time unseating Pacquiao’s popularity now.
Factor in the legal cases and his extended inactivity, and he would have no chance of it, short of them fighting each other.
Mayweather was 30 when he beat Ricky Hatton and later announced his retirement. Now 34, he has fought twice since then.
There have been months of rumblings that he plans to fight this year, and with a $3.4 million tax bill and lawyers to pay, it probably isn’t a bad idea.
Meantime, Pacquiao-Mosley has to stand on its own merits, with Pacquiao fighting yet another opponent Mayweather already beat as a fall-back plan to the long-stalled Pacquiao-Mayweather talks.
Pacquiao has grown intent on proving himself the dominant fighter of this era, with or without Mayweather’s cooperation, by taking the latter’s victims and beating them worse. He did it with Hatton, whom he stopped in two rounds, while it took Mayweather 10. He did it with Oscar De La Hoya, whom he stopped, while Mayweather won a decision.
If he wins Saturday, his next fight may be a third match against Juan Manuel Marquez, with whom he struggled in a draw and a decision victory, long before Mayweather dominated Marquez in 2009.
And with every step, Pacquiao has consumed all the marketing advantages Mayweather had over him.
The problem with that particular distraction -- and it is palpable, because Pacquiao was asked about Mayweather at every turn this week -- is that Mosley will be in the ring Saturday.
Mosley wobbled Mayweather early in their May 1, 2010 fight, only to be shut down the rest of the way in a lopsided decision.
Yet Mosley is, without question, the fastest opponent Pacquiao has faced in a major fight. He isn’t as plodding as De La Hoya and has a much better chin than Hatton, who essentially was knocked out on single punches by both Mayweather and Pacquiao.
Mosley also is 2-2-1 in his last five fights and winless in 27 months. Like Roberto Duran at the end of his career -- or Roy Jones, in today’s era -- you don’t want to catch Mosley on one of his good days. But at 39, he more frequently looks like an old Mosley, rather than Mosley of old.
Pacquiao’s job is to make Mosley look every one of those years, which he should, after a few potentially testy early rounds.
It may be another big opportunity for Mosley, who has made good on them frequently in his career. But for the reigning king Pacquiao, the first Saturday in May is all his.
A year ago, when Mayweather nabbedShane Mosley as an opponent, shortly after Pacquiao lined up a fight with Joshua Clottey, the prized first-Saturday-in-May boxing date went with it.
Today is a different time.
A year ago, Pacquiao and Mayweather both found themselves in the throes of responding to failed negotiations with each other. Mayweather, the Grand Rapids native, was the unbeaten fighter with the better opponent. Pacquiao salved that wound by fighting Clottey before 50,000 in a football stadium, though that fight didn’t approach Mayweather-Mosley in the all-important pay-per-view tally.
None of that would happen today.
Pacquiao fights Mosley on Saturday night in Las Vegas, for some welterweight title no one really cares about, because an everlasting title is at stake whenever the pound-for-pound king steps into the ring, a title the Filipino has reclaimed without dispute after Mayweather’s year-plus of inactivity.
Pacquiao reigns now, both as sporting royalty and elected Filipino congressman, and has juggled these final days of his boxing career and early days of his political career with equal grace.
Meantime, Mayweather faces the new distraction of three court cases, withthe newest charge filed Thursday. Two of the cases are insignificant misdemeanors involving security guards who were patrolling Mayweather’s neighborhood. The third is a bundled stack of felony and misdemeanor charges for an alleged domestic incident involving the mother of three of his children, with conviction carrying a minimum one-year incarceration, and a maximum 34, in a case slow-tracked by three evidentiary hearing delays sought by Mayweather’s attorneys.
Without those issues, Mayweather would have a hard time unseating Pacquiao’s popularity now.
Factor in the legal cases and his extended inactivity, and he would have no chance of it, short of them fighting each other.
Mayweather was 30 when he beat Ricky Hatton and later announced his retirement. Now 34, he has fought twice since then.
There have been months of rumblings that he plans to fight this year, and with a $3.4 million tax bill and lawyers to pay, it probably isn’t a bad idea.
Meantime, Pacquiao-Mosley has to stand on its own merits, with Pacquiao fighting yet another opponent Mayweather already beat as a fall-back plan to the long-stalled Pacquiao-Mayweather talks.
If he wins Saturday, his next fight may be a third match against Juan Manuel Marquez, with whom he struggled in a draw and a decision victory, long before Mayweather dominated Marquez in 2009.
And with every step, Pacquiao has consumed all the marketing advantages Mayweather had over him.
The problem with that particular distraction -- and it is palpable, because Pacquiao was asked about Mayweather at every turn this week -- is that Mosley will be in the ring Saturday.
Mosley wobbled Mayweather early in their May 1, 2010 fight, only to be shut down the rest of the way in a lopsided decision.
Yet Mosley is, without question, the fastest opponent Pacquiao has faced in a major fight. He isn’t as plodding as De La Hoya and has a much better chin than Hatton, who essentially was knocked out on single punches by both Mayweather and Pacquiao.
Mosley also is 2-2-1 in his last five fights and winless in 27 months. Like Roberto Duran at the end of his career -- or Roy Jones, in today’s era -- you don’t want to catch Mosley on one of his good days. But at 39, he more frequently looks like an old Mosley, rather than Mosley of old.
Pacquiao’s job is to make Mosley look every one of those years, which he should, after a few potentially testy early rounds.
It may be another big opportunity for Mosley, who has made good on them frequently in his career. But for the reigning king Pacquiao, the first Saturday in May is all his.
