Manny Pacquiao: Wave goodbye to a ring legend

By Shaun Campbell: Manny Pacquiao brutally destroyed powerful Miguel Cotto, winning the World Boxing Organization welterweight title, to become a seven weight world champion. Floyd Mayweather cemented his legacy with a win over Juan Manuel Marquez. These two men are the best boxers in the world. On March 13th they will meet in the centre of a ring, and 36 minutes of battle later, one man’s career will be over.

Over the past year Manny Pacquiao has put one man into retirement, another is left seriously considering his future in the ring, and his third victim will never be the fighter he once was. Manny Pacquiao is a storm through the boxing world, and is now firmly in place to start his training camp to potentially become the greatest boxer in history. Now people like Manuel Perez, or any of the other bias, anti-Pacquiao writers will argue that maybe Ali was better, or maybe they’ll find excuses should Pacquiao defeat Mayweather on March 13th.

These writers will soon have to eat there words if Manny can conquer arguably the most gifted technician to grace the planet. Floyd Mayweather jr, the cocky, brash, and ever confident man who still claims he is the pound for pound king, will aim to beat Pacquiao so he can retire content. Mayweather has also said that there was was or two more fighters he needs to beat so that he can retire, and stay retired.

Manny Pacquiao is coming towards to end of his career now, having little left to prove and deciding to move into politics (which is one of the reasons why the fight is happening so soon). He already has wins over Morales, Barrera, De La Hoya, and Hatton among other great names he has defeated, but adding Mayweather to his record would be the biggest of them all.

Mayweather similarly has beaten a host of top class champions, but if he got the win over Pacquiao, it would make the world stand up and notice just how truly great of a fighter he really is. It is irrelevant to compare the fighters they’ve fought. OK it took Mayweather 10 round to dismiss of tough Mancunian Ricky Hatton, where as Pacquiao did it in 2, but Floyd fought a better Hatton than Pacquiao did. Taking nothing away from Manny because he total destoryed a world class fighter in Miguel Cotto recently and looked fantastic in doing so.

The world is waiting. People all across the world are waiting for the 24/7 series to begin as it signals a start to the countdown to fight night. From the Philippians, to Las Vegas. From Las Vegas, to Great Britain. From the UK, to Australia, people are counting down to Pacquiao vs. Mayweather. The two greatest boxers debatably in history.

A Floyd Mayweather fight is very much like a Bernard Hopkins fight. A fantastically frustrating fighter playing it safe and getting the win. Never the less it is apparent that the fighter has talent. Manny Pacquiao will go out swinging, the question is, can he deal with Floyd Mayweather’s counter-punching brilliance. Will he even be able to find Mayweather? It is likely to be edgy, very tense, and highly technical fight. Will Pacquiao bring something different to the same game plan as the previous opponents?

Another question is where does the loser go? Having said that, where does the winner go? All is accomplished so this is likely to be both fighters last fight. It seems unfair and shocking to think that on March 14th, either Manny Pacquiao or Floyd Mayweather will wake up a loser. Surely no judge will dare score the fight a draw. Mayweather can’t deal with retiring on a win, so could he do it on a loss? Would Freddie Roach still consider Pacquiao his “priority” in the Wildcard Gym if he loses? The aftermath of this fight will be remembered for many years to come. But one thing’s for sure, the world will be waving goodbye to a ring legend.

Obviously I couldn’t leave without posting my prediction. “And so the winner and pound for pound champion…Floyd A.K.A Money Maaaaaaayweather

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