Mayweather-Pacquiao: The Fight Of The Century, Cancelled

After weeks of back-and-forth between Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao regarding pre-fight testing, a venue, and otherwise mundane footnotes to what many have called the fight of the century (which is only 10 years old, but still), it seems the fight’s been cancelled.

SB Nation's Bad Left Hook mourns the loss:

They agreed to the split. They agreed to the gloves. They had a mostly for-show search for a venue that put them at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, boxing’s grandest stage. Hell, they even worked out whose name would go first on what promotional devices.

It was going to have both fighters earning up to $40 million or so when all was said and done, with $25 million guarantees, the largest ever. The fight would have a chance at breaking the all-time gate record in Nevada, and the all-time pay-per-view record.

It was a perfect fight. Floyd Mayweather Jr., the unbeaten immovable object, against Manny Pacquiao, the seemingly unstoppable force cutting through class fighters like he was fighting David Diaz every night. The potential for a bit of an ugly style clash was there, but so was the potential for a fight where both would be tested like never, ever before, by fellow fighters whose skill level was as good as it gets.

It isn’t to be, apparently. Mayweather would not budge from his set demands for Olympic-level blood testing requests, and while Pacquiao was willing to give in a bit, it just wasn’t enough for Floyd.

[…]

the short-sighted nature of boxing’s promoters and fighters has reared its ugly head once again. I worried initially about what boxing would do after this fight; now, we have to wait to see if this fight will be made in September or something.

And even if it is, it won’t be the same.

This entire fiasco has seriously damaged the credibility of boxing as a sport. The two will now move on to different fights on back-to-back weekends in March. Floyd Mayweather looks like he’ll fight Paulie Malignaggi on March 13. Pacquiao will face Yuri Foreman on March 20.

It’s a sad commentary on the state of boxing that a truce between the two camps couldn’t be brokered in time, but alas, that’s the way it goes. For Bad Left Hook’s full coverage, click here.