If
you want to further damage the sport of boxing, keep
matching Pacquiao against guys like Margarito and Joshua
Clottey. Clottey was coming off a loss to Miguel Cotto, who
is a very credible fighter -- but how does losing your last
fight earn you the right to face the world’s pound-for-pound
No. 1, Pacquiao? Then you have Margarito, who is coming off
his year-long suspension for attempting to load his gloves
prior to his fight with Shane Mosley -- a bout in which Margarito ultimately was demolished.
Then,
unimpressively, he beat Roberto Garcia -- and now he is
scheduled to fight Pacquiao. I guess guys like Amir Khan,
Tim Bradley, Andre Berto, Devon Alexander and Paul Williams
wren't suitable opponents for Manny. If you want to go one
step farther, Pacquiao’s next fight is for the light
middleweight title, but at a catchweight of 150 pounds. Why
not fight a light middleweight such as Sergio Martinez, who
just won the middleweight crown after moving up in weight
just to get a big fight and a big payday?
Arum
is the promoter of both Margarito and Pacquiao. and whatever
money is made from the fight it stays in-house, so to speak.
This is great for Top Rank and Arum, of course, but is this
great for boxing?
The obvious
answer is a resounding no.
Boxing fans are bitter, and frankly they should be. Where
would boxing be with out legendary fights like Ali-Frazier,
Ali-Foreman, Leonard-Hagler, Leonard-Hearns and
Vasquez-Marquez I, II and III?
No
one man or promoter is bigger than boxing. If it weren’t for
the aforementioned fighters, Pacquiao and Mayweather
wouldn’t have a chance at such megafights because boxing
would have faded away long ago.
