Politician Pacquiao sending out muddy message

• 2quik4u

  

  http://sports.yahoo.com/box/news;_ylt=AtWTohaRalR40N6P_sOtJWWUxLYF?slug=dw-pacman050410
  
  Politician Pacquiao sending out muddy message
  
  While campaigning for political office in the Philippines this week, Manny Pacquiao took a moment to send a message back across the Pacific.
  “Yes, I want [Floyd] Mayweather,” Pacquiao is quoted in the Philippine Star telling boxing writer Michael Marley. Pac-man went on to declare if the fight happens he would “attack until Mayweather is gone.”
  It sounds all well and good; Manny prepared for fireworks in a super fight with Mayweather.
  
  Of course, a lot of things politicians conjure up sound good. You can say all sorts of stuff that you don’t mean or won’t get done in an effort to appease the voters. In this case Pacquiao is playing politics with the blockbuster fight (or fights) boxing needs.
  
  Pacquiao has identified the prime stumbling block to a proposed November fight, his opposition to the stringent, Olympic-style drug testing that Mayweather favors. Unfortunately, Pacquiao’s position is not consistent with the facts of the past six months.
  
  The real reason Mayweather-Pacquiao didn’t happen this spring is not Mayweather’s insistence on drug testing conducted by the United States Anti-Doping Agency.
  
  In negotiations last winter, Pacquiao agreed to that exact setup, only with a catch. The USADA wants to test either blood or urine up to the eve of the fight. Pacquiao demanded testing stop 24 days before the fight. Mayweather compromised to 14 days. Pac-man wouldn’t budge.
  And that was that, the fight was off and boxing fans were left with dueling lopsided events: Pacquiao shutting out Joshua Clottey in March; Mayweather dominating Shane Mosley on Saturday.
  
  The issue – and the sole remaining issue – was that extra 10-day window of non-testing. Yet here is Pacquiao this week trying to rewrite history to create some kind of principled argument.
  
  “My message to Mayweather, to the world, is simple,” Pacquiao said to Marley. “I am not the lawmaker when it comes to the rules and regulations of any boxing commission. That is not my job or my duty. Neither is it Mayweather’s unless he forms his own personal commission.
  “I will comply fully with whatever drug test, blood or urine, rules are specified by the commission of the place where this fight is arranged.”
  Now, I’m not a Mayweather fan and I’m not a Pacquiao fan. I’m a boxing fan that wants to see the best fighters fight. I look at the impasse as infuriating. The misinformation and posturing by both sides alone is pathetic.
  
  After witnessing decades of fraud and corruption in the sport, Pacquiao’s argument that state boxing commissions are some infallible regulatory outfit is an insult to anyone with a modicum of intelligence. And while hammering out performance-enhancing drug testing standards is new ground in the fight game, everything else in boxing has long been negotiable – from the cut of the purse, to the weight of the gloves, to who gets to enter the ring last. The details are always in the demands.
  
  Pacquiao’s line is obviously just an emotional plea that will perhaps play well with his fans. Unfortunately for Manny, it just isn’t true. He already agreed to the more stringent rules and regulations than the boxing commissions, a position he now supposedly finds too reprehensible to consider.
  
  We repeat: He agreed to blood and urine testing by the USADA. He simply demanded a window where the testing would end. When he did that, the debate over the appropriateness of such testing ended. It shifted to Pacquiao’s cut-off date, those 24 days.
  
  Why the heck would an athlete ask for a 24-day break in testing? Pacquiao’s camp has suggested Manny’s belief that blood testing too close to the fight would weaken him, a position that defies all scientific knowledge, sporting precedent and common sense.
  
  At the Olympics, doping agents do daily sweeps of athlete housing, drawing small amounts of blood and taking urine samples sometimes just hours before competition. At the Beijing Games swimmer Michael Phelps gave on the morning of one of his events. Mayweather and Mosley just went through USADA’s testing plan to no ill effects.
  
  A 24-hour window would be more than sufficient for Pacquiao to “recover.” Twenty-four days is a huge gap of time, so big that it renders some of the testing moot. There is plenty of time in the non-testing period to run a sophisticated doping regime and still get it out of the system prior to a post-fight test.
  
  Also too long, for that matter, is Mayweather’s proposed 14-day stop date.
  Consider a blood doping agent such as erythropoietin (EPO), which will increase red blood cell counts and improve stamina. Many doctors say it can be flushed out of a body in two to five days, which means the proper way to deter it is to allow testing within a few days of the fight and then immediately after.
  
  This is why I considered Mayweather’s proposed 14-day window such a major concession. It also says to me that he isn’t actually all that concerned with Pacquiao doping and that this was just a way of running a head game on his opponent. (Mayweather isn’t innocent here, he just has, in this particular case, a far more defensible position. This despite the fact his crusade to make boxing clean is so obviously self-serving.)
  
  That Mayweather gave up such a major position in the negotiations still wasn’t enough for Pacquiao. To argue that two weeks is still too close to the fight is just ridiculous. If Team Pacquiao can come up with a fact-based argument to why an even longer stretch is needed, I’m dying to hear it.
  Instead it’s reverting back to emotional arguments over long-ago agreed upon points. Pacquiao is playing a politician – when dealing with bad facts, change the debate.
  
  Yes, he claims he wants to fight Floyd Mayweather and will knock him out.
  Unless he’s willing to sign a fight contract, I’m more interested in having him accurately explain what he delayed things in the first place rather than hearing half-truths and smoke screens under the assumption no one’s paying attention.
  
  Because if even Manny Pacquiao isn’t willing to defend his true position, is there any hope of this fight getting made?

  
  bout time they start calling him out
• I Wear Pants

  That's what I got out of it when all the shit went down.
• elbuckeye28

  I don't follow boxing at all, but I was listening to the radio the other day and they said that Pacquiao was worried that he would become weak from the drug testing. I'm glad this article called him out on it. I mean it's not like they are taking a gallon of blood or anything. Plus it's two weeks before the fight. One would think a world class athlete could recover from a little blood being taking two weeks before, especially if the other guy is having the same test. This all just seems very suspicious to me.
• iclfan2

  

  I think the main reason he isn't doing it is because who died and made PBF God? He can't just make up rules as he goes. They are both being morons and killing something that could get people excited about boxing again.
• Fab4Runner

  

  I don't follow boxing that much but I do remember when this fight was called off. Most on here and in the media put the blame on Mayweather. I never understood why and I'm glad someone with a platform is finally talking about it.
• gibby08

  

  Mayweather wants blood testing the day of the fight...which Manny wouldn't(and most likely won't) do
• Fab4Runner

  

  gibby08 wrote: Mayweather wants blood testing the day of the fight...which Manny wouldn't(and most likely won't) do

  Got that, thanks....
• Hulk Smash

  The writer is too stupid to look at the big picture.
  If they fight on the original date the promoters have ONE big fight.
  They dream up this crap, postpone the fight and look where it went.
  Since then they have made big money from TWO big fights and have all summer to promote a THIRD big fight.
  
  Don't believe any of this "drug-testing killed the fight" bullshit.
  The only part of this that was not planned was Mosley suddenly becoming available to fight Floyd.
  They're going to promote this thing all summer and hope Pacquiao does not win his election.
  
  After Pac and Floyd's fights last year both promoters had hinted at taking another fight first then make this fight in late 2010.
  Then HBO stepped in and pushed them to make the fight in the spring before Pac's political campaign started.
  I cheered HBO for putting their foot down on the promoters especially since Golden Boy was one of them.
  It looked like the network was to going force two powerful promoters to put together a high profile fight that the promoters had planned on milking for a while first.
  
  Then the drug-testing issue came up, postponed the fight and more importantly it polarized the fans and media. There have been far more articles about this fight after it was called off then there was before they started negotiating and it will stay that way all summer.
• gibby08

  

  If this fight takes place...there is talk that this could be the first billion dollar fight in history and could draw 100,000 people
• wes_mantooth

  

  Chris Manix(SI writer) was on Rome today and he said that he is 100% positive that Mayweather will destroy Pac. I found that interesting, since a lot of people think Pac is the #1 lb for lb in the world.
• 2quik4u

  

  gibby08 wrote: If this fight takes place...there is talk that this could be the first billion dollar fight in history and could draw 100,000 people

  I highly doubt that the highest ever was $120 million
• 2quik4u

  

  wes_mantooth wrote: Chris Manix(SI writer) was on Rome today and he said that he is 100% positive that Mayweather will destroy Pac. I found that interesting, since a lot of people think Pac is the #1 lb for lb in the world.

  I would expect the same. Pac has very bad defense and Floyd will easily exploit that.
• gibby08

  

  2quik4u wrote:

  gibby08 wrote: If this fight takes place...there is talk that this could be the first billion dollar fight in history and could draw 100,000 people

  I highly doubt that the highest ever was $120 million
  [/quote
  
  I think they are factoring in merch,PPV,Tickets,etc

• gibby08

  

  Mayweather wouldn't beat Pac...
  
  Pac would knock him out within 3 rounds
• 2quik4u

  

  gibby08 wrote: Mayweather wouldn't beat Pac...
  
  Pac would knock him out within 3 rounds

  lol wont happen
• gibby08

  

  No..you're right
  
  Because Mayweather will run around the ring like a little bitch
• 2quik4u

  

  gibby08 wrote: No..you're right
  
  Because Mayweather will run around the ring like a little bitch

  Or he will just stick to his boxing style. Pac has no chance, he is a head hunter, he will live himself wide open and money may will fuck him up.
• Hb31187

  

  Head hunter vs...best defensive fighter in boxing...yeah pac man would go for a haymaker and get pieced up
• 2quik4u

  

  $$$ May/Mosley second Highest PPV Fight of all time, Mayweather gets $40 Million.
  
  1.4 million buys, it puts Mayweather on the top two non heavyweight ppv fights of all time.
  
  Mayweather is definitely the bigger draw
  
  http://www.boxingscene.com/?m=show&id=27676
• Hulk Smash

  http://www.fightnews.com/Boxing/media-declares-pacquiao-victorious-45466
  
  The media is declaring Pacquiao the winner in his political campaign.
  
  I wonder how that will affect his boxing career.
  If the fight happens it will likely be his last, regardless of the outcome.
  
  HBO wanted the fight to happen before this election...
• KnightRyder

  

  if PBF is the greatest fighter of all times. like he has proclaimed himself to be. then he would fight pac any where any time under any circumstances. the self proclaimed greatest fighter of all times? shit he aint even the greatest welterweight of all times.
• 2quik4u

  

  two dates have been set aside for dallas cowboy stadium nov 6 and nov 13 by pac, no opponent has been set obviously
• 2quik4u

  

  Aide: Congressman Pacquiao to fight in November
  By OLIVER TEVES (AP) – 1 hour ago
  MANILA, Philippines — Boxing champion Manny Pacquiao, who is awaiting formal proclamation as a newly elected congressman in the Philippines, will enter the ring again in November, his aide told The Associated Press on Wednesday.
  Michael Koncz, Pacquiao's chief financial adviser, said no opponent has been selected yet, amid speculation it could be Floyd Mayweather Jr. or Antonio Margarito.
  He said two dates — Nov. 6 and Nov. 13 — have been set aside for the fight at the Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas. The Cowboys are on the road on Nov. 7 and Nov. 14.
  "There is no named opponent yet, but that is certainly when we will fight," Koncz said.
  He said no negotiations are taking place with any of the potential rivals of Pacquiao, who is headed for a landslide win in Monday's vote in his southern Sarangani province.
  The boxing world is eager for a clash between Pacquiao and Mayweather, not only the world's two top welterweights but widely regarded as the two contenders for the unofficial title of pound-for-pound champion.
  A planned bout fell through in March when the Filipino champion refused blood-testing conditions set by the Mayweather camp.
  "If Mayweather wants to fight Manny, then no problem, provided he doesn't try to bully us into terms and conditions," Koncz said.
  Pacquiao will fight under the rules of the commission of the state where the fight is held, he said.
  Koncz said Pacquiao could also fight whoever wins the June 4 bout between Yuri Foreman and Miguel Cotto, whom Pacquiao defeated in November.
  According to Koncz, the "television date and the venue are the two most important things" in setting up a fight, even before an opponent is identified, as was the case when Pacquiao fought Joshua Clottey at the Cowboys Stadium in March. Pacquiao won by an unanimous decision.
  Pacquiao said the decision to return to the ring was up to his mother, Dionisia.
  "So many fans want me to fight Mayweather, so I asked my mother to allow me to fight one more time, and she said 'OK,' my mother agreed," Pacquiao told ABS-CBN television Wednesday.
  Koncz said Pacquiao, 31, was resting following a night of monitoring results from the congressional race in Sarangani province that pitted him against businessman Roy Chiongbian, 61.
  "Pacquiao is leading by a big margin and it looks like a landslide," said Michael Abas, regional director for the Commission on Elections.
  "Pacman" was roundly defeated when he first ventured into politics in a run for the House of Representatives in 2007.
  Campaigning last month, Pacquiao described his platform as "very simple, very basic" — giving small boats to fishermen and financial support to neighborhood stores so people can build livelihoods, plus offering free education and medicine and medical care to the poor.
  Copyright © 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
  
  
  http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5g0gwVV6khdHHmk_xrF_i9WRqwjqQD9FLAGRG0

• Hulk Smash

  "Pacquiao will fight under the rules of the commission of the state where the fight is held, he said."
  
  Golden Boy and/or Top Rank need to go to the Texas commission and tell them to change the rules on drug testing for this fight if they want the biggest money-maker in history to happen in their state.
  It wouldn't be the first time commissions have tweaked rules to help promoters.
  
  The NSAC has already hinted that they will change rules to get this fight, but it looks like Arum is hell-bent on having Pacquaio in Texas again.