CONAN UPDATE: Floyd Mayweather relied on the old drug testing dodge in answering Conan O’Brien as to whether he will fight Manny Pacquiao.
“If you’re the best, you got to take the test,” Mayweather said.
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COMEDY ALERT: Funnyman Floyd Mayweather Jr. will match his laugh a minute skills with fellow comic Conan O’Brien on national TV (TBS) across America at 11 pm , Monday night. The yuks should be plentiful especially when the Boston Boy Conan asks about Manny Pacquiao
“Everyone would love to see Manny Pacquiao fight Floyd Mayweather — that would be the fight of the century — but it’s never going to happen. Boxing is in the toilet in terms of promotion.”
The speaker in this article on Nola.com, the site for the great New Orleans Times Picayune newspaper, is the head of the Louisiana State Athletic Commission, a fellow named Alvin Topham.
Now this gent seems to be a bit of a cheerleader for MMA, or the Colossus that is UFC to be specific, but that does not make him wrong about boxing.
Everything that is wrong with boxing is encapsulated in Floyd Mayweather’s latest verbal slip, in which he accused a reporter to his face of “putting words in my mouth” about “Money” fighting Congressman Pacquiao after he gets done with Vicious Victor Ortiz this Saturday night.
SEE MAYWEATHER’S CALLOUT OF PACMAN IN THIS VIDEO.
Not sure who the Inquiring Mind was at Mayweather’s gym on that media day but the question was certainly pertitent but not more so than Unbeaten Floyd’s Pinocchio like answer when he said “I never said” that Pacquiao would be his next opponent.
In this silly scene, Mayweather had no words put in his always flapping mouth. In his own words, as recorded for posterity at an Ortiz-Mayweather press conference, the 34 year old Mayweather bellowed:
“Manny Pacquiao, you’re next!”
It’s not easy making a liar out of yourself but Mayweather accomplished this completely with this bit of prattle.
Mayweather pretends he cares about fight fans. It’s an act, folks, a clumsily written act.
In the video, there was no smoke so I guess Mayweather’s boxing shorts were not literally on fire.
If he did care about cash customers, if he did intent to confront Pacman after Ortiz, then he would have responded with something like this:
“Yeah, I said it and I will say it again. Manny Pacquiao can’t run, can’t hide, because I will hunt him down and pulverize him.”
But he didn’t he won’t, not unless paymaster HBO, newly charged up and aggressive under executives Michael Lombardo and Richard Plepler have the sway and their way with the Mayweather and Pacquiao camps.
I say both but, as I’ve written before, I don’t see Pacquiao handler Bob Arum blocking the door to the so-called “Dream Match” anymore, not since the drug testing procedure is amenable to both fighters.
Yes, as Pacman mentioned, they are still squabbling about dividing the money but obviously the financial trough is big enough to satisfy both sides. I am reminded of the old Wall Street line about “bulls make money, bears make money, only pigs don’t make money.”
It should not take a long negotiating session to produce a final solution to the economic split.
These are leaner times for fat cats in the stock market, sure, but when it comes to Mayweather-Pacquiao, the jackpot is absurdly large.
Finally, maybe Mayweather is right. The more I dwell on the style matchup, the more I think Floyd-Manny could be more dull (if this is humanly possible) than Mayweather’s soporific waltz with Oscar de la Hoya.
Leaping lizards, Mayweather and Marley finally agree on one thing.
Mayweather doesn’t want to fight Pacquiao and I don’t really want to see it.
If this was the UFC, this fightmight have happened already not once but maybe twice or thrice but that’s another matter.
Can we shake hands, Floyd, and come out not fighting now?
Btw, please don’t repeat the contents of this column to anyone.
If you do, I will just deny, deny, deny.
Hey, that rhymes with lie, lie, lie.
