Floyd Mayweather and The Fight No One Wants To See

While we won’t know exactly where Floyd Mayweather’s next fight will be for a couple of days, we now know who will stand in the opposite corner of the undefeated champion. It was announced on Monday, February 24, 2014 that Mayweather, arguably the best pound-for-pound fighter of our generation, will be fighting fellow Welterweight titleholder Marcos Maidana on May 3.

This will be Mayweather’s second defense of the WBC Welterweight Title, while Maidana comes in as the WBA Welterweight champion.

Maidana is no slouch, as his most recent convincing win over Adrian Broner showcased a boxer who knows exactly where his strengths lie; hit you repeatedly until the plan you came in with is no longer useful. Maidana is unbeaten in his last four fights. The Argentinean is 35-3 with 31 wins by way of knockout. He’s fought at welterweight and light welterweight and he possesses serious knockout potential.

It certainly won’t be an easy fight for Mayweather. However, it’s the shadow cast by the man Mayweather won’t fight that makes this the fight no one wants to see.

The Mexicutioner Manny Pacquiao is the man hovering above the Mayweather vs. Maidana fight. Whether it takes place in Brooklyn, New York or in Las Vegas, Nevada Pacquiao’s the man everyone wants to see enter the ring to take on Mayweather. It’s been a fight that has been brewing for years with no resolution yet.

The 35-year -old Pacquiao is the only eight-division champion in the history of the sport, and has been the only tangible threat to Mayweather’s claim that he is the best pound-for-pound champion of this generation. With a record of 55-5-2 and 38 wins by way of knockout, Pacquiao has a legitimate claim to the throne. Pacquiao is the other side of the question that boxing fans have always wanted answered: who is the best of our time?

Boxing fans around the world have been clamoring for the fight between Mayweather and Pacquiao since the night Pacquiao knocked out Ricky Hatton and Mayweather won a unanimous decision over Juan Manuel Marquez. Four years later, despite trading insults and allegations, the two fighters have yet to meet in the squared circle. Negotiations have started and stalled and then deemed over by both parties only to be restarted once more.

The last rounds of negotiations were denied once the mainstream media was informed of them, and then Floyd expressed that he was in no rush to fight Pacquiao at this time. Pacquiao issued a challenge to Mayweather in January 2014, stating that he’ll fight Mayweather, but that the fighters’ purses should be donated to charity. This was Pacquiao’s attempt to dispute the claim made by Mayweather that Pacquiao only wanted the fight because he was having financial difficulties.

So, where does that leave the sport of boxing? Floyd has yet to issue a response directly to Pacquiao, although maybe by choosing to fight Maidana, his response registered loud and clear. Pacquiao’s challenge is now over a month old, and Floyd has not even so much as uttered Pacquiao’s name.

Maybe Floyd is scared. Maybe Pacquiao is scared. Maybe we’ll never get to see this fight. Regardless of why it won’t happen, boxing fans are once again stuck with a fight no one wants to see.

Dalbin Osorio is a Mavericks writer for Rant Sports. Follow Dalbin on Twitter @Disable_MMi

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