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ThreeCups

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The jump in weight leading to the De La Hoya fight does raise some eyebrows. I can't deny that. But the De La Hoya bout isn't the one that Mayweather Sr. opened his mouth about and got this whole steroids train rolling. It's the Cotto fight. He was 142 lbs. for De La Hoya (12/6/08), 138 for Hatton (5/2/09) and back up to 144 for Cotto (11/14/09). They're making it seem like he made this jump in weight classes and then destroyed someone he had no business destroying at a weight he wasn't used to, and that simply isn't true. He had two previous fights against solid competition at a his higher weight before Cotto.

Does Manny look suspicious? Certainly. But you're painting Mayweather as a guy who's only character flaw is that he likes money. This is a guy who has been notorious for ducking tough competition. His latest "retirement" was deemed by many to be a ploy to avoid Cotto. He ducked Mosley last year. He ducked Margarito in '06. Why is it so easy to look at Pacquiao and think steroids, but it's so difficult to look at Mayweather and think he's looking for a way out? One has a track record with what he's accused of, the other doesn't.

I won't deny that Pacquiao seems suspicious in all of this. But to say that Mayweather is free from suspicion/blame just strikes me as odd.

Floyd Sr. said something after the Cotto fight because Manny is naturally much smaller than Cotto. Cotto is also regarded as one of the heavier punches in the division. The way Pac walked through Cotto's shots seemingly UNFAZED did not see human to lots of people. Cotto probably walks around damn near 170! And here was Pac someone who probably now walks around 145ish just walking through his punches like nothing. I will say Mayweather has picked his fights carefully. HOWEVER, my biggest problem with people trying to say he was looking for an excuse out: COULD MAYWEATHER REALLY HAVE THOUGHT PACQUIAO WOULD REFUSE THE TESTS AND LEAVE $40 MILLION ON THE TABLE?!? I do not think so. He probably expected Pac to take the tests and have the fight go on as usual. With what is at risk here I would want to make sure there was an even playing field as well. These guys risk their LIVES in the ring. Would you want to get in there with a guy who was on some sort of drugs? I do agree that Mayweather has stayed clear of certain guys. But that is comparing apples to oranges. (steroids accusation and "ducking" people) None of those guys would have generated remotely the money that this fight would. To me, it is a black and white issue. Pac refused to submit to the testing, and now the fight is off. If there was nothing to hide and he was truly clean, this would have been a non issue and we would all be glued to our TVs on March 13th....

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COULD MAYWEATHER REALLY HAVE THOUGHT PACQUIAO WOULD REFUSE THE TESTS AND LEAVE $40 MILLION ON THE TABLE?!?

That's a bad way to look at it. That's justifying Mayweather demanding absolutely anything he wants, no matter how ridiculous, and since there's $40 million on the table Pacquiao would be a fool to refuse it. Mayweather demands Pacquiao fight one-handed ... hey, there's $40M on the table! How can he turn it down?! The money on the table doesn't justify the demands one person pulls from thin air.

Again, weight jumps, however dramatic, are nothing new. Michael Spinks jumped 243/4 lbs. in six months before beating Larry Holmes on the cards in 1985. The greatest weight class story of all-time was Henry Armstrong, who over a period of 10 months won the belts for the featherweight, welterweight and lightweight divisions (this was back when boxing only had eight divisions) from 1937-38. These guys didn't just jump weight classes, but they won (the Spinks fight was Ring Magazine's Upset Of The Year ... boxrec.com is fun). Pacquiao's win over Cotto is far from unprecedented. Mayweather's demands, however, are. To say it's because his life is on the line ... well, boxers put their lives on the line for every fight. By that logic, shouldn't Mayweather have demanded these tests for every fight?

And it really isn't apples and oranges. They're the reasons the two boxers have for not wanting this fight. They're one and the same in this instance, because they both are having the same effect on the fight. It isn't fair to discount one and place all your support behind the other. That's favortism. You can say this fight is off because Pacquiao refused testing, and you'd be right. You could also say that this fight isn't happening because Mayweather made demands that no boxer has ever made, and you'd also be right. To place all support behind one and completely blame the other is subjective.

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That's a bad way to look at it. That's justifying Mayweather demanding absolutely anything he wants, no matter how ridiculous, and since there's $40 million on the table Pacquiao would be a fool to refuse it. Mayweather demands Pacquiao fight one-handed ... hey, there's $40M on the table! How can he turn it down?! The money on the table doesn't justify the demands one person pulls from thin air.

Again, weight jumps, however dramatic, are nothing new. Michael Spinks jumped 243/4 lbs. in six months before beating Larry Holmes on the cards in 1985. The greatest weight class story of all-time was Henry Armstrong, who over a period of 10 months won the belts for the featherweight, welterweight and lightweight divisions (this was back when boxing only had eight divisions) from 1937-38. These guys didn't just jump weight classes, but they won (the Spinks fight was Ring Magazine's Upset Of The Year ... boxrec.com is fun). Pacquiao's win over Cotto is far from unprecedented. Mayweather's demands, however, are. To say it's because his life is on the line ... well, boxers put their lives on the line for every fight. By that logic, shouldn't Mayweather have demanded these tests for every fight?

And it really isn't apples and oranges. They're the reasons the two boxers have for not wanting this fight. They're one and the same in this instance, because they both are having the same effect on the fight. It isn't fair to discount one and place all your support behind the other. That's favortism. You can say this fight is off because Pacquiao refused testing, and you'd be right. You could also say that this fight isn't happening because Mayweather made demands that no boxer has ever made, and you'd also be right. To place all support behind one and completely blame the other is subjective.

Obviously if Mayweather requested Pacquiao to fight in a tu-tu with a blond wig and lipstick on, that would be ridiculous demand. To take the same drug tests Floyd would take to make sure there is no foul play by either side hardly constitutes a "ridiculous" demand to me. I realize others have jumped weight and won. But in this era I have never seen a naturally small man such as Pac gain so much mass and just destroy opponents who have been in the larger weight classes for years. Yes boxers do put their life on the line for every fight. However, none of Floyd's previous opponents have done what Pac did, and looked so brutalizing in doing so. He obviously had an inkling that Pac might be taking something, so he wanted stringent testing to ensure there was nothing going on. Seems pretty reasonable. "You can say this fight is off because Pacquiao refused testing, and you'd be right. You could also say that this fight isn't happening because Mayweather made demands that no boxer has ever made, and you'd also be right. To place all support behind one and completely blame the other is subjective." I see what you are saying there, BUT, the Floyd request seems very minimal to me in terms of the financial gain for both of them and importance of this fight for the sport as a whole. It may seem ridiculous to some people that Floyd requested this, but it makes perfect sense to me. Why not make sure no PED's are involved? What does not make sense is that a fighter who supposedly did not taking anything would refuse the tests and throw away $40 million.

EDIT: I will add that I WAS a big Pac fan before all of this....

Edited by ThreeCups
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I see what you are saying there, BUT, the Floyd request seems very minimal to me in terms of the financial gain for both of them and importance of this fight for the sport as a whole. It may seem ridiculous to some people that Floyd requested this, but it makes perfect sense to me. Why not make sure no PED's are involved? What does not make sense is that a fighter who supposedly did not taking anything would refuse the tests and throw away $40 million.

EDIT: I will add that I WAS a big Pac fan before all of this....

And this is just where people's opinions are gonna differ, I guess. To me, if this concern was this legit, and if random blood-testing all the way up until the day of the bout was the solution, then wouldn't it be the standard? Of course, it is boxing, the most corrupt sport out there. And of course, the testing Mayweather wants is the standard for the Olympics. Still, for a guy who ducks challenges to pull this on his toughest opponent yet simply as a diversionary tactic or mind game wouldn't surprise me. To me, if that was the case, it'd be the most brilliant boxing tactic since Ali's rope-a-dope.

I don't know much about the different PEDs out there and what kinds of tests they're designed to go undetected by. But I do know that blood tests show what was taken over a very small window of time, usually within 24 hours, while urine tests show a larger window of time, usually up to a few days (Nevada tests urine taken right before and after the fight). If they REALLY wanted to be serious, why not have hair tests done? They show what was taken for up to 90 days in most cases. No random tests, no interruption of training (sorry, I know you hate when that's brought up), no problem, right? If a fair fight is really what you're after, why not go that route? Why pick the type of test that is the most invasive and shows the smallest window of time? (Well, I guess he picked it because it's the Olympic standard. I'm gonna stop answering my own questions now.)

Before all of this, I was indifferent towards both boxers. Just wanted to see a good fight. If anything, I probably would have rooted for Pacquiao just because I think Mayweather's cerebral style of outboxing opponents is kinda boring to watch. But now I'm fed up with both of 'em. For a sport that's already struggling, this certainly ain't helping.

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And now it looks like Pacquiao is going to fight Joshua Clottey.

With his fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr. all but off, Manny Pacquiao has instead agreed to fight Joshua Clottey on March 13 at a site to be determined, Pacquiao's camp said Friday.

Clottey's manager told ESPN.com's Dan Rafael that he spoke to Pacquiao's promoter, Top Rank's Bob Arum, on Friday about the fight's details but would only confirm a "seven-figure" purse.

"Josh is ecstatic about it," Vinny Scolpino told ESPN.com. "I think we can get this done in a couple of days. He's coming home [to New York from Ghana] on Monday."

The Pacquiao-Mayweather bout, which had also been tentatively set for March 13, was called off Wednesday night by Arum after mediation failed to resolve their issues over drug-testing protocol.

Clottey (35-3, 20 KOs) last fought in a split-decision loss to welterweight titlist Miguel Cotto on June 13, a fight many believed Clottey won.

http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/boxing/news/story?id=4808708

So, does this actually happen? Or is it a ploy to get Mayweather to cave?

Don't know how I missed this in all the other articles, but something I didn't realize til reading this one was that both sides in the Mayweather/Pacquiao mess had agreed to unlimited random urine testing. So Pacquiao went from Vegas sanctioned urine testing right before and after the fight to unlimited random urine testing, one blood test the week of the kickoff press conference, another blood test no later than 24 days before the fight and another blood test right after the fight. That is an unholy sh!tload of drug testing.

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Also found this posted on the comments part under the ESPN article:

http://www.examiner.com/x-10947-Indianapolis-Fight-Sports-Examiner~y2010m1d8-Let-the-innocent-cast-the-first-stone-Floyd-Mayweather-Jr-used-performance-enhancing-drug

This is not a baseless accusation. This is an article on the irony of Team Mayweather's accusations against Manny Pacquiao regarding the use of performance enhancing drugs.

The irony lies in the fact that "Money" has been using a banned substance in several states. It is however legal in Nevada but nonetheless gives a fighter a boost in his performance.

If Mayweather was to fight Pacquiao in Dallas, he would not be allowed to use Xycocaine. Inside Boxing wrote back in 2002, "Before the fight began, HBO

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I'm sorry, even though it's kinda over I just can't look away from this Pacquiao-Mayweather drama.

Pacquiao-Clottey will be at that brand spankin' new mega-stadium in Dallas on March 13, the date originally set aside for Pacquiao-Mayweather.

http://sports.espn.go.com/dallas/news/story?id=4813862

Jerry Jones got his fight.

The owner of the Dallas Cowboys, who made a strong pitch to host the now-aborted Manny Pacquiao-Floyd Mayweather Jr. fight at Cowboys Stadium by offering a record $25 million site fee, landed the next best thing.

The new $1.2 billion state-of-the-art facility in Arlington, Texas, will host Pacquiao's March 13 pay-per-view welterweight title defense against Joshua Clottey.

Not to be one-upped, Mayweather's next bout (against a still TBD opponent) will also be on March 13.

http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/boxing/news/story?id=4814829

Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao will still compete against each other on March 13, but not in the ring. Instead, they will be duking it out for pay-per-view buys.

Two days after Top Rank's Bob Arum, Pacquiao's promoter, announced plans for Pacquiao to defend his welterweight title against former titlist Joshua Clottey on March 13, Mayweather is making plans to fight on the same night.

While Pacquiao will face Clottey at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas, just outside of Dallas -- Arum concluded a deal with Cowboys owner Jerry Jones on Sunday -- Mayweather will face an opponent to be determined at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer told ESPN.com on Sunday night.

An interesting footnote here: Originally, the new Cowboys Stadium was a possible venue for the Pacquiao-Mayweather bout, but Mayweather's people cancelled their plans to visit the stadium to review it as a potential host. This is only interesting because the pain-killer Mayweather injects his hands with is illegal in Texas.

So we have (according to BoxRec.com) #1 Welterweight Pacquiao against #7 Welterweight Clottey.

The ESPN.com article has a list of Mayweather's (#2 Welterweight on BoxRec.com) potential opponents (I added BoxRec.com's rating in parentheses).

According to sources, Mayweather's list of potential opponents includes former junior welterweight titlist Paulie Malignaggi (#7 Junior Welterweight) and Golden Boy-promoted former lightweight titlist Nate Campbell (#3 Junior Welterweight), both smaller men than Mayweather, as well as former welterweight titlist Kermit Cintron (#2 Light Middleweight), who is a similar kind of opponent as Clottey is for Pacquiao. There is also a more remote possibility of Mayweather facing junior welterweight titlist Timothy Bradley Jr. (#1 Junior Welterweight), who has ties to Showtime, which may not want to let him walk away for a possible fight on rival HBO PPV.

There is a lot of potential for there to be some great boxing going on that night. Pacquiao-Clottey is being considered a very tough matchup while Mayweather has his eye on some highly-rated opponents, although most of them are smaller than he is. The possibility Mayweather-Cintron is very intriguing.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Apparently Mayweather has his next fight, and it could be a doozy.

http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/boxing/news/story?id=4870999

Shane Mosley and Floyd Mayweather Jr. have agreed to terms for a welterweight super fight, Mayweather adviser Leonard Ellerbe said Friday. Later Friday, Mosley signed his contract in Las Vegas, Mosley's attorney Judd Burstein told ESPN.com.

...

Mosley has agreed to undergo random blood and urine testing, as has Mayweather, Ellerbe said.

Mosley has admitted to using PEDs and was connected to the BALCO scandal. Although he publicly denied using PEDs for years, Mosley admitted during grand jury testimony, which was later released, that he used designer steroids "the clear" and "the cream" and injected himself with EPO, a blood oxygen enhancer, during the lead-up to his 2003 rematch with Oscar De La Hoya. Mosley said he took the steroids unknowingly.

"Floyd only wants to be sure of an even playing field no matter who he fights," Ellerbe said.

Very interesting. Should be a great fight!

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And I'm glad this won't be on March 13 like Mayweather originally said his next bout would be. The only way it's good for the two biggest names in the sport to compete is in the ring, not against each other for ratings. I'm glad each fight will not only get it's own date, but plenty of time for their own build-up as well.

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And I'm glad this won't be on March 13 like Mayweather originally said his next bout would be. The only way it's good for the two biggest names in the sport to compete is in the ring, not against each other for ratings. I'm glad each fight will not only get it's own date, but plenty of time for their own build-up as well.

I never believed that Floyd was going to fight with that short of a promotion lead time once the Pac fight fell apart. If they were dumb enough to fight on the same night it would have been horrible for the sport. Both fights should be entertaining. I expect Clottey to give Pac some difficulty at times, but I think his speed will be too much for Clottey to overcome. Mosley is up there in age and has not been very active. I think he may show flashes during the fight, but I think Floyd wins a fairly easy unanimous decision.

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Yeah that's pretty much how I'd predict the fights to go too. Good summation.

In a perfect world, these two would be blood tested to the gills in a place where the stuff Mayweather shoots into his hands is illegal and we'd all get the fair fight we want. But, alas, this is no perfect world. All things considered, these are probably about as good of fights as we could have hoped for without these two going head-to-head.

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Yeah that's pretty much how I'd predict the fights to go too. Good summation.

In a perfect world, these two would be blood tested to the gills in a place where the stuff Mayweather shoots into his hands is illegal and we'd all get the fair fight we want. But, alas, this is no perfect world. All things considered, these are probably about as good of fights as we could have hoped for without these two going head-to-head.

If Pac and Mayweather win, they NEED to come to an agreement to fight each other. I just do not know if it will ever happen. Floyd will not budge from the testing demands, and I cannot see Pac ever giving in to them. Paul Williams could give anyone a tough fight if he comes back down to welter, but I think both Floyd and Manny will stay away from him due to his size.

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Here's the sh!tty (although unlikely) part ... what if one of them loses? Do you plug the winner against the other guy (i.e. Mayweather beats Mosley, Clottey beats Pacqiuao, do we get Mayweather vs. Clottey)? Or do we still get Mayweather vs. Pacqiuao with one of them coming off a loss? Either way the matchup has lost some luster. Or, if one of them loses, do they demand a rematch, as is so customary in this sport? That pushes this dream fight back even further, and even further still if it goes to a deciding third fight. Or what if one of them loses and a brand new challenger steps up to take on the one who won his bout? Again, pushed to the back burner indefinitely.

I don't think either of them will lose, but while it's great to see neither guy chose a slouch as their next opponent it also opens the door to the possibility of making this dream Mayweather vs. Pacquiao bout less realistic/desirable. Boxing needs both guys to win, then suck it up and get this fight done.

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Here's the sh!tty (although unlikely) part ... what if one of them loses? Do you plug the winner against the other guy (i.e. Mayweather beats Mosley, Clottey beats Pacqiuao, do we get Mayweather vs. Clottey)? Or do we still get Mayweather vs. Pacqiuao with one of them coming off a loss? Either way the matchup has lost some luster. Or, if one of them loses, do they demand a rematch, as is so customary in this sport? That pushes this dream fight back even further, and even further still if it goes to a deciding third fight. Or what if one of them loses and a brand new challenger steps up to take on the one who won his bout? Again, pushed to the back burner indefinitely.

I don't think either of them will lose, but while it's great to see neither guy chose a slouch as their next opponent it also opens the door to the possibility of making this dream Mayweather vs. Pacquiao bout less realistic/desirable. Boxing needs both guys to win, then suck it up and get this fight done.

If one of them loses, I am 90% sure the fight will NEVER happen, ESPECIALLY if it is Pac that loses. Mayweather would not bother fighting Pacquiao if someone else beats him. If Pac loses and Mayweather wins, Mayweather would likely fight Clottey and beat him with ease. (he will then beat the man who beat "the man"- he will shout from the mountaintops that Pac was never on his level) Now if there is a rematch clause, it would surely be enforced in this scenario, leaving Pacquiao vs Clottey 2 and Floyd needing a new opponent. If Mayweather loses and Pac wins, Mayweather would likely invoke the rematch, creating Mayweather/Mosley 2 and Pac in search of a new opponent. If either loses their upcoming fight, we will likely never see the dream matchup. Hopefully they both take care of business and get the deal done. A September Pac/Floyd matchup would break PPV records.

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Uh oh.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/mma/boxing/02/03/mayweather.contract/index.html?eref=sihp

Sitting on desk in Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer's office in Los Angeles is Shane Mosley's signed contract to face Floyd Mayweather on May 1st in Las Vegas. Conspicuously missing, however, is Mayweather's.

Though both sides have agreed to the terms of the fight -- which will include random blood testing done by the USADA -- Mayweather has still not signed the deal. And Schaefer doesn't understand why.

"I have no idea what's going on," Schaefer told SI.com. "Every time I talk to [Mayweather's advisors] they tell me it's coming the next day. Every day it's the next day."

...

While Schaefer said he is willing to wait longer for Mayweather, he said Mosley was "getting close" to reaching the point where he will start looking for other opponents.

Hopefully this turns out to be a big nothing story.

Edit: ESPN's Dan Rafael has a much better story on this:

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/blog/index?entryID=4880645&name=rafael_dan

"He still hasn't signed. I am so frustrated," Schaefer said. "I wanted both guys to go down to the Super Bowl in Miami to do some promotional stuff. I don't know what Floyd is waiting for. I have no clue. I have a signed contract from Shane on my desk. I have nothing from Floyd."

...

So what does Burstein believe is the issue?

"It's either one of two things that has happened," he said. "Either he's rethought the wisdom of risking his undefeated record against Shane or he chooses to act like a 7-year-old. Hopefully, it's the latter and he will mature very quickly. But either of these possibilities is completely unacceptable to us. He's going to end up in a fight with Mosley. The only question is whether it will be in the ring or in court."

Now, May 1 is still a ways off, but for a megafight the magnitude of Mosley-Mayweather, kicking it off with promotional appearances at the Super Bowl is significant. When Mayweather and Oscar De La Hoya met in May 2007, their media rounds at the Super Bowl generated enormous interest in the fight, which went on to set the all-time pay-per-view record.

...

Schaefer has been down this road with Mayweather before, perhaps one of the reasons for his concern. He negotiated a fall 2008 rematch between Mayweather and De La Hoya, which also had been agreed to and was on the verge of being announced. However, Mayweather never signed the paperwork and instead announced his retirement, which lasted 18 months.

Edited by DaneykoIsGod
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