Many believed that in taking the tough Ghanian Joshua Clottey, Pacquiao proved he is up to any challenge and only wanted the best competition there is in his division - which some did not find lately in Mayweather Jnr.
Clottey is a tough durable welterweight – arguably belonging to the top five in the division.
Had the Shane Mosley-Andre Berto pushed through as originally scheduled for today (January 31 in the Philippines), Mayweather would have at least three more months to find an opponent that would be equal if not better than Clottey whom Manny will be facing on March 14.
As it turned out, Mayweather Jnr will have the Haiti tragedy to thank for. Berto withdrew from his scheduled fight with Mosley to attend to his grieving family which lost at least eight relatives.
It left a window for Mayweather Jnr to prove that the days of cherry picking his opponent are over.
He has to take Mosley who had been aching to square off with him for a decade now.
Mayweather Jnr did not only have popular opinion running against him when he demanded Pacquiao undergo rigid drug testing way beyond what the boxing world has been prescribing and observing that eventually led to the cancellation of the fight against the Filipino boxing champion. He also saw cable show provider HBO turn its back on him when it chose to air Manny’s fight with Clottey even though Mayweather previously owned the date.
Granting Mosley is better than Clottey, Mayweather still has to beat him in convincing fashion before he can again issue a challenge on Pacquiao.
And Pacquiao will have the honor of drawing the first blood. If Manny beats Clottey in the manner he conquered his last three opponents (Oscar de la Hoya, Ricky Hatton and Miguel Angel Cotto), Mayweather will have to knockout Mosley in a very convincing fashion to regain any leverage he has lost when Pacquiao decided to pull out from their fight.
Doing that however will still not gave him the recognition he has been demanding since coming out of retirement for the nth time.
He still has to take Manny.
Manny is the new kid on the block. Any pretender to the pound for pound throne will have to go through him just like the road to this year’s NBA championship will have to pass through the Los Angeles Lakers.
Mayweather probably realized this by now. The Money Guy no longer goes by the name Floyd.
That is why he is taking the Mosley fight even if the risk of losing to his fellow American is far greater than losing to the Filipino – business wise.
Mayweather will probably get US$10 million max fighting Shane. And Mosley is the only credible challenge left for him to get that mega-million payday with Pacquiao.
Pacquiao, on the other hand, is guaranteed at least a eight-figure purse against Clottey and probably even bigger if he fights Mosley later.
Given these developments, my haunch is that Pacquiao and Mayweather will finally get to fight each other later this year.
But there are big ifs - if Mayweather wins against Mosley and if Pacquaio loses his congressional bid.
Source: asiancorrespondent.com
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