Sharing one’s thoughts

It’s still a good 43 days from the Floyd Mayweather-Marcos Maidana rematch and a little more than four months from the November 23 (November 22 in the United States mainland) fight at the Venetian in Macau between Filipino boxing superstar Manny Pacquiao and undefeated Chris Algieri. It may however better to discuss the two fights and attempt to speculate on what lies ahead for “The Money Man” and the “Pacman”.

Eyebrows were raised when Top Rank announced that Pacquiao (56-5-2) would defend his title against American Aligieri (20-0), not because Pacquiao was fighting where the tax bite would not be as substantial compared to the US (39.5%), but for the reason that the 5’10” college graduate was unknown and undeserving of the chance to fight an icon like the fighting Congressman. Up to this point, Aligieri’s main claim to fame is his controversial victory over former Pacquiao sparring partner, Ruslan Provodnikov.

Writer Kelsey McCarson says that in that bout, Algieri was floored twice by Provodnikov in the first round before rallying strong and going the distance. It was a commendable performance, but while Algieri had the edge in both thrown and landed punches, Provodnkov landed the more telling blows to the point that one of the judges scored the bout 117-109 in his favor. Algieri, a native New Yorker, took the fight in front of the Brooklyn crowd by getting the nod on the other two scorecards, 114-112 on both.

The choice of Algieri as Pacquiao’s next opponent while awaiting some kind of an opening for the Pacaquiao-Mayweather fight of the century, is therefore viewed just like that: the guy is on a holding pattern after having fought the best and the only other lucrative and credible option is a Mayweather fight.

Never known to dodge high caliber and sometimes, physically bigger opposition, Pacquiao has fought and beaten the likes of Erik Morales, Marco Antonio Barrera, Oscar de la Hoya, Miguel Cotto, Antonio Margarito,  Juan Manuel Marquez, Ricky Hatton, Shane Mosley and most recently, Timothy Bradley Jr.

Of course, Pacquiao was knocked out cold by Marquez of Mexico in 2012 but he rebounded from that defeat by expertly carving out two unanimous decisions over Brandon Rios and Bradley. Pacquiao was open to a fifth fight with the Mexican but the 40-year old warrior was asking for too much money which some say was a deliberate tactic to avoid a fifth fight with the Filipino. It appears that the Mexican didn’t want to risk his place in history with the image of a Pacquiao lying motionless in the canvas courtesy of a Marquez right straight very fresh in the minds of the boxing community. By thumbing down a fight with Pacquiao, Marquez is closer to missing his date with history: the only Mexican to win titles in five weight divisions.

Ironically, what limits Pacquiao’s (and Mayweather’s) options is the ongoing “war” between Pacquiao’s promoter, Top Rank, and Mayweather’s own promotional outfit which is allied with Golden Boy Promotions (GBP). Instead of Algieri, Pacquiao could have been pitted against Adrian Broner (who has only one loss in his career, to Maidana) and even against another former Pacquiao sparring mate and potential Mayweather opponent, Amir Khan, had there been no bad blood between Top Rank and GBP.

After Pacquiao dispatches Algieri as expected, the former has to shop for opponents within the Top Rank stable. These opponents will definitely be younger and although less experienced, won’t have experienced the wear and tear of fighting over the last 19 years.

As for Mayweather, it’s still all business as he has agreed to give Maidana a rematch, four months after narrowly defeating the Argentinian. Iron Mike Gallego (Daniel Roberts) reports that Mayweather-Maidana II will result in Mayweather’s biggest purse thus far. And the fight is not without its drama and hype as both fighters try to out-psyche each other which will definitely bring in more pay-per-view buys. Gallego (Roberts) says that the bout with Maidana “will net (Mayweather) the single largest paycheck of any athlete on the planet this year. (It’s distinctly possible that Mayweather will earn more for those 36 minutes than LeBron James will earn in salary over the next two years).”

Maidana (34-4, 31 KOs) is a dangerous opponent and is not at all intimidated by Maweather. In fact the newest version of the “Raging Bull” has absolutely no respect for the arrogant Mayweather. Maidana claims, and rightly so, to have given Mayweather the toughest fight of his career and promises to knock out the former jailbird.

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We were elected to the presidency of the Philippine Amateur Track and Field Association (that word “amateur” has to go) or PATAFA last Friday after the PATAFA’s president for the last 24 years, Go Teng Kok, decided to relinquish the position and seek a quieter and less stressful life. We commend Teng Kok for the tremendous work he has done for Philippine athletics. He never hesitated to devote time and resources to attend to the sport, which is the centerpiece of all Olympic-type competitions, and to PATAFA’s athletes, coaches and staff.

Because of this development, out of ‘delicadeza’ and in order not to compromise both the column and The Star, we have to go on leave from writing this column right after submitting this last piece.

We will miss sharing our thoughts with The Star’s readers (and engaging them in discussion) which we started doing in 1989, right after we resigned as Secretary of the Department of Agrarian Reform, up to 1995. In March 1995, then President Fidel V. Ramos asked us to become Chairman of the Philippine Sports Commission. We went on leave when we were appointed Chairman since it was incompatible to be both the government official in charge of sports and be a sports columnist at the same time. We resumed writing for The Star sometime in 2005-2006 and have never missed a deadline since then.

We have to attend to the many needs of athletics and it is with a very heavy heart that we momentarily bid The Star family and our readers good-bye. For good or bad, we will be back….you can count on that.