By Jamie Savin: On May 2nd 2009 history was made Manny Pacquiao stopped Ricky Hatton in a way which few will ever forget. The two round demolition of Hatton has shown how great Pacquiao has been going up the weights but still keeping his fantastic speed and ferocious punching power. On the same day the expected return of Floyd Mayweather Jr was announced against Juan Marquez, whilst this should be a great fight it is widely thought Mayweather will win and improve his record.. When Mayweather left he was the undisputed pound for pound number one, since his ‘retirement’ in December 2007 Pacquiao has stepped up to the plate and become the pound for pound number one. The return of Mayweather has got a lot of people salivitating at the thought of a fight between these two, the two arguably being the best of there generation and a fight which would appeal to casual fans and true boxing fans, but the path may not be as clear as we hope for.
Mayweather returns to the ring on July 18th fighting Marquez, the pound for pound number two, at around 144lbs. The exact weight is unknown but regardless of that issue people are expecting Mayweather to win and then fight Pacquiao. It may sound simple but it is far from it, as Bob Arum would like Pacquiao to face Cotto providing he beats Clottey in June. This fight would be a lot easier to make as both fighters fight under Aru’s stable and would sell well to the general market. If this fight is made where does it leave Floyd, well there is still potential fights for him out there mainly in Mosley and it was being talked about prior to the Marquez fight being made.
This of course is all speculation about future fights and everything read on the internet regarding possible fights should always be taken with a pinch of salt. But for a second lets assume the Arum plan of Cotto-Pacquiao happens then it could spell disastor as Cotto is an exceptional fighter one whom many believe could beat Mayweather, so if he was to fight and beat Pacquiao then he should be the one in line to fight Mayweather. Again if Mayweather was to fight Mosley in what would probably be a fantastic fight and lose then surely Mosley would be in line to fight Pacquiao.
The ideal scenario of course is July 18th Mayweather wins and shortly after they announce Mayweather v Pacquiao for the end of the year for the true pound for pound belt and quite possibly who is the best of this generation. The fight would probably break box office records as Pacquiao brings the casual viewer with his exciting style and also the true boxing fan given his undenible skills. Mayweather brings the bad guy he’ll play all the mental tricks he can to make the calm gentleman Pacquiao lose his cool which always leads to a few more buys as people want to see the bad guy punished.
Maybe it would be better if they went the long way round, had Pacquiao fighting and beating Cotto and Mayweather fighting and beating Mosley as people would be clamouring for the fight even more. As boxing is a business which needs to make money whilst one of the rules of business is giving the people what they want, you have to make them wait for it a little. In the mean time we boxing fans get exciting big name fights which only serve to wet the appetite for the true main event of boxing main events in many peoples eyes. People have even questioned would Floyd want the fight though, well on Saturday he said he went out on top and comes back on top so anyone questioning his number one status should surely be on his hit list and the only one who can lay claim to it is Pacquiao. Floyd likes nothing more then money and he knows no other fight will make him as much money as well as give him chance to brag about his greatness one more time. So you can guarantee if Pacquiao keeps on winning in such style the fight will happen, but maybe not just yet.