At this point, I can't really tell whose shenanigans I'm more fed up with, Floyd's or Bob Arum's, though recently it seems that Arum might actually be the larger roadblock to what virtually everybody is already calling the biggest fight in boxing history. But maybe rather than point fingers, we should start coming up with some new ideas.
I think at this point, it will be hard for Pacquiao-Mayweather not to be a disappointment simply because of how much hype has been pumped in over the past couple years. So maybe instead of waiting on the circus of clowns who are supposed to pull the strings, we should demand fights that boast an equally interesting matchup and might actually make for a better fight.
I'm thinking two things: Pacquiao and Marquez for the 4th (and hopefully last) time, and Mayweather taking on Sergio Martinez, the man right behind Floyd and Pacman on the pound-for-pound list.
Before I say anything about the first pair, I have to admit a bias. Juan Manuel Marquez is my least favorite fighter by a decent margin. There really isn't anyone that I want to see hit in the face more in ring (Floyd might be close), so the fact that the third fight of the trilogy turned out the way it did was especially aggravating to me. Pacquiao may have won the fight, but he didn't take chances, and let a fighter who he should have once and for all proved to be inferior look fairly well to many observers. A fourth fight between these two will give some sort of closure regardless of how Pacquiao does. If he wins convincingly, he'll hopefully dispel Marquez's status as his "Ken Norton" and prove that the pound-for-pound crown is truly his. If it's deja vu, or if he dare loses, then maybe he doesn't deserve the megafight with Floyd.
By knocking out Victor Ortiz when he had his hands down, Floyd has somehow crawled back to the top spot on many pound-for-pound lists (Ortiz for sure deserved the knockout, but Mayweather doesn't deserve the top spot for it). Now he faces a 90 day prison sentence, which he's been able to delay until June so that he can fight on May 5th against a yet-to-be-named opponent. In addition, Sergio Martinez is going to be fighting on St. Patrick's Day against Matthew Macklin, so both fighters' schedules postpone any chance of bout against Mayweather. Ideally, it'd be great if Martinez magically dropped his upcoming fight in favor of appearing on Floyd's May 5th card, because I really like the idea of this fight.
Mayweather is a welterweight who has fought at junior middleweight and has mentioned moving up again, while the middleweight Martinez claims he is willing and able to fight as low as 150, so weight might not as big of a barrier as it seems on paper. It's also likely that because Martinez too has skepticism when it comes to Bob Arum, negotiations with the Mayweather camp might be a lot easier than either man trying to get a fight with Manny. But the best thing about this fight is that it, as with Manny-JMM 4, would be a build-up to the superfight as well as a superfight in its own regard if "Manny-Money" never happens. Martinez has a bit of a bizarre style, but it's one that both confuses opponents and excites fans. He has the ability to both stay away from punches as well as brawl, and if he can somehow combine these two in a fight with Floyd, I really do think he could win. He would also probably be the most powerful fighter to step into the ring with Floyd, which adds to the magnitude of a Floyd win. Besides the Hatton and Marquez bouts, Mayweather has been on a string of often boring/disappointing, usually controversial, and not always dominant performances, so this might be a chance for him to win back some of the fans that might have ditched him. And if there were to be a superfight with Manny, he'd be walking in with his money where his mouth is (and not where is ear is, as when he played the cutesy little money stack telephone game with 50 Cent).
Of course, none of this could even come close to happening, and we very well might get horseshit substitutes that no one really wants to see (in other words, mostly continuing the pattern of large scale fights). Pacquiao might get Timothy Bradley (yawn), Lamont Peterson (who looked good against Amir Khan but probably shouldn't go anywhere near Pacquiao), or Miguel Cotto (I thought that was settled quite well when Manny beat Cotto to a pulp). Mayweather might get Canelo Alvarez or another Victor Ortiz-like name (meaning someone who can sell PPV buys and has promise but is not yet a true elite of the sport). Martinez may very likely wind up fighting "rival" Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. and will probably end up pummeling him as bad as he claims he will (that is, if Chavez can even beat Marco Rubio). But if you want to stay optimistic, then think about my proposal. Each fight might even be more worthwhile than the "Manny vs. Money" showdown.
