Pacquiao - Mayweather off?

Last night Golden Boy Promotions sent out a press release stating that the Manny Pacquiao - Floyd Mayweather Jr. fight was in jeopardy due to the fact that Pacquiao was not willing to comply with certain areas of the Olympic style drug testing. According to the statement, Pacquiao doesn't want to have his blood taken too close to the fight (30 days) due to superstitions. The release made it seem as if this is a big sticking point and the fight could be ruined because of it.

In the release Mayweather added ""I understand Pacquiao not liking having his blood taken, because frankly I don't know anyone who really does," said Mayweather. "But in a fight of this magnitude, I think it is our responsibility to subject ourselves to sportsmanship at the highest level. I have already agreed to the testing and it is a shame that he is not willing to do the same. It leaves me with great doubt as to the level of fairness I would be facing in the ring that night. I hope that this is either some miscommunication or that Manny will change his mind and step up and allow these tests, which were good enough for all these other great athletes, to be performed by USADA."

Not one to be pushed around, Bob Arum has fired back, going as far as saying the fight is off and that "the plug is pulled."

"Mayweather proves that he’s a coward and he’s looking for a way out of the fight," Arum said. "The Nevada commission has been doing drug testing for the last 40 years. To appease Mayweather, we agreed they could do urine analysis any time they wanted. But Manny doesn’t want them to draw his blood when he’s in training because it weakens him."

Arum turned the blame completely around, saying the testing was only a way for Mayweather to find a way out of the fight.

"All they’re doing is harassing Pacquiao," Arum said. "I’m not going to allow it to happen. We’re willing to do urine analysis at random, even though we don’t have to do it under Nevada rules.

"I know deep down Mayweather doesn’t want the fight. He can take a walk."

To read my views and opinions please go to the main article........

Boxing's Naughty List of 2009

After going through some magazines and websites it seems like this is time of the year writers and fans give out their personal awards, make best of lists, and overall just recap anther year that just passed us by. I don't have any awards to give out and I feel like ten of something tends to be a bit too much, but five on the other hand is just right. So in celebration of Christmas I am going to make up a "Naughty and Nice" list of the sweet science in the year 2009. Usually when someone asks you what you want first, "Good news or the bads", I always start with the bad. Now as a boxing fan I usually don't like to get negative about the sport of boxing, but let's be honest... it is boxing. I promise though, I won't call dead or talk about how corrupt it is, there are plenty of other writers to bash the sport like that, I'm just going to cover the things that dissapointed me most this year.

The Naughty five of '09:

Honorable Mention:

Wasted Talent: As Robert DeNiro's character Lorenzo in A Bronx Tale said "the saddest thing in life is wasted talent". This year one of, if not the most exciting fighter to come up through the ranks over the past few year, James Kirkland was arrested on gun charges. In July Kirkland pleaded guilty to gun charges and was sentenced to federal prison for two years. I won't make a judgement on Kirkland because I know that we live in very different worlds, but that doesn't mean it isn't sad to see him sitting out his prime in a jail cell. Lorenzo was right, it truly is sad to see his talent wasted.

To see #'s 5 - 1 please check out the full article on nesn.com.........

DALLAS vs. VEGAS

So it has come down to Vegas or Dallas for the Manny Pacquiao - Floyd Mayweather showdown on March 13th. I am here to tell you that for the good of boxing this fight needs to be in Dallas. I completely understand that Texas has been known to have some bad decisions in the sport, but Vegas has had bad decisions too. What state hasn't?

As much as I loved watching the Miguel Cotto - Manny Pacquiao fight it wasn't as electric as a Ricky Hatton fight when he fought at the M.E.N Arena, or Lucian Bute when he fights in Montreal, and they don't even have to be taking on stellar competition. That because they have a decent following and have their fights in venues that actual fight fans can get tickets for. If you are putting on the biggest fight in the sport in years rational thought would be that you would want to put it in the biggest venue, right?

What does a boxing fan have to do to get in on a big time fight? Why do hardcore fans, the ones that pay the money and support the sport for years get punished when a big event comes around? True boxing fans deserve the chance to see this fight, and if it happens in Vegas you can forget about it. Cowboy Stadium is the only hope for Pac-maniacs and Floydians to see this fight in person.



Check out my full article on the subject.......