Who's Ducking Whom? A History of the Failed Mayweather vs. Pacquiao Negotiations

Image via Complex Original

Yesterday, the promotional tour for the Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Miguel Cotto May 5 fight began and the main topic was the Mayweather vs. Pacquiao super fight that's scheduled for Nevuary 2013. Whether the top pound-for-pound fighters are going up against world champion boxers or mud wrestling midgets, it really makes no difference at this point because they aren't fighting each other. But who's to blame? Is it Floyd for turning down a 50-50 split? Pacman's refusal to agree to Olympic style blood testing? Well, we're going to attempt to get to the bottom of this. Who's Ducking Whom? A History of the Failed Mayweather vs. Pacquiao Negotiations.

Industry Rule No. 4080

When: 2006
Who's Ducking: Neither

The way tensions have heightened between these two, you would think that Pac-Man and Money are lifelong rivals, that they have always hated each other. What people don't realize is that before thoughts of a mega-fight between the two were even considered, there was plenty of drama between the fighters and their promoters. After 10 years of working with Bob Arum and Top Rank, Mayweather broke out of his shackles in 2006, uppercutting Arum in the process. "You wouldn't let me be me," Mayweather said to Arum. Money accused Arum of taking money that was rightfully his, under-promoting him, and exploiting his talents.

Around the same time, Manny Pacquiao was toeing a fickle line as well. In September of 2006, he signed a seven-fight deal with Golden Boy at a secret dinner right before he was expected to sign a long-term deal with Top Rank and Arum. Two months later, after his third fight with Morales, Pac made it clear that he was returning his Golden Boy signing bonus and following through with Top Rank. Golden Boy sued Top Rank and Pacquiao for breach of contract, racketeering, and fraud. And thus, a tangled web between the four was already being weaved.

In The Beginning There Was Hype

When: December 2008
Who's Ducking: Neither

We're taking it all the way back to '08 when talks of this super fight first began to generate interest among boxing enthusiasts and casual fans alike. Pacquiao had just out-punched Oscar De La Hoya 224-83 in his bloody eight-round destruction that would send The Golden Boy into retirement. His victory continued his historic climb up weight classes. Mayweather had defeated De La Hoya 17 months earlier, but his split-decision victory was controversial as some fans argued that De La Hoya was the clear aggressor and thus deserved the victory. Regardless of whose side you were on, by the end of 2008, everyone agreed that both Pacquiao and Mayweather were the top pound-for-pound fighters in the world. At the time Mayweather was in the midst of a 21-month layoff from the sport, so the world had to wait before serious negotiations began.

What Up, Blood?

When: December 2009
Who's Ducking: Both

The first serious negotiations between the camps began in December 2009 with Manny Pacquiao having beaten Ricky Hatton seven months earlier for his light welterweight titles and Mayweather coming off his victory over Juan Manuel Marquez after a 21-month hiatus. Both Mayweather and Pacquiao agreed to fight one another on March 13, 2010. Each boxer would take half of the $50 million purse. But before things could be made official, Mayweather demanded Olympic style blood testing administered by the United States Anti-Doping Agency. This particular style of testing, which is not normally enforced in non-Olympic boxing matches, requires each fighter to allow random blood and urine tests throughout training and up until the day of the fight.

Pacquiao did not agree to the proposed style of testing as he preferred either scheduled tests or a cutoff date for blood testing at least seven days before the fights. Reasons for Pacquiao's request have included his fear of needles (despite having a few tattoos) and his belief that drawing blood too close to the fight date will weaken him. After mediating possible testing windows before a former judge, both camps were unable to reach an agreement and negotiations officially ended on January 7, 2010. Pac-Man decided to take this fight to the courtroom suing Mayweather, Oscar De La Hoya, and other members of Golden Boy promotions for defaming his name with steroid accusations. The Filipino boxer later dropped that suit in July 2011. Cheating accusations? Lawsuits? Sounds like these two deserve a spot on this list.

All For Show?

When: June and July 2010
Who's Ducking: Pacquiao

In possibly the biggest tease of the negotiations between Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather, Bob Arum announced that the drug testing issue had been resolved and that the Floyd's signature was the only thing in the way of the super fight the world was anticipating. Top Rank promotions added to the hype by posting a "'Money'" Time: Mayweather's Decision" countdown clock on their website to emphasize the 14-day deadline set by Arum. The deadline passed and Pacquiao instead agreed to fight Antonio Margarito. After it seemingly became evident that Mayweather was the one holding negotiations up, one of Floyd's advisers, Leonard Ellerbe said the fight had never been agreed to and no serious negotiations with Top Rank had ever taken place at the time of Arum's announcement. Ellerbe's comments were later confirmed by HBO Sports President Ross Greenburg, who was acting as a mediator between both camps, after he revealed that no agreement had ever been reached.

Any questions regarding who was really lying were settled in July of the following year when Michael Koncz, Pacquiao's top adviser, admitted that Manny had never agreed to blood testing up until the night of the fight. Yup, more smoke and mirrors than your local crack house.

Gimme The Loot

When: January 2012
Who's Ducking: Mayweather

This is the one that left every fan out there with a terrible case of blue balls (II). Finally we had Floyd Mayweather publicly calling out Manny Pacquiao via Twitter. The two even spoke to one another on the phone. Shit, the American justice system pushed back Floyd Mayweather's 90-day sentence after a domestic violence conviction to make this super fight happen. But as usual, money and politics got in the way. First there was Bob Arum who publicly stated that Manny Pacquiao would be able to fight in May (when it looked like Mayweather would be unable to fight because of his sentencing). However, Arum changed his tune when Mayweather's sentencing was pushed back to June making a May 5 fight possible, saying Pacquiao would need more time to heal from a cut suffered in his November bout with Juan Manuel Marquez. After public criticism for that reason, Arum then explained how it wouldn't make sense to fight at the MGM Grand when a potential $40 million more could be made once a larger outdoor stadium was erected in June.

Those hurdles were apparently cleared when Mayweather and Pacquiao cut out both the middle men and talked to one another directly over the phone on January 19. Then Floyd's greed got in the way. Money Mayweather offered Pac-Man $30 million leaving Mayweather with all the Pay-Per-View earnings which have been estimated at around $160M. Obviously that didn't fly with Pacquiao nor Bob Arum so negotiations once again fell thru and we're left with Mayweather vs. Miguel Cotto in May and Pacquiao vs. Timothy Bradley in June. In other words, some shit we're probably only going to tune into if there's no MMA on that night.

Conclusion

Considering all parties involved, the blame for the super fight that has yet to happen falls on boxing. What other sport has situations like this where the top athletes do not face each other because of the ridiculous aforementioned reasons? None. Because most other major sports have a sanctioning body to avoid such embarrassment. If the NBA had owners act as promoters setting up "championship games" with teams like the Heat facing off against the Wizards instead of taking on the Thunder, then you'd lose fans and diminish the quality of the sport. Thus what's happened to boxing over the last few decades.

The more alphabet belts handed out to every brawler willing to lose brain cells for a bit of money and fame and the longer fans have to wait to see legit fights, then the less likely it seems of boxing becoming a relevant sport again. So, until Dana White's twin comes in to get shit straightened out or the second-coming of Iron Mike arrives, we'll keep hopelessly waiting for the Mayweather vs. Pacquiao fight that seems further away from happening than ever before.