By Norm Frauenheim–
It’s hard to recall when there wasn’t talk about Manny Pacquiao-Floyd Mayweather Jr. Brandon Rios and Mike Alvarado are about to fight for a third time. We’re still talking.
Gas prices fall from $5-a-gallon to less than $2. Cheap talk continues. A German Pope quits the Vatican and a pope from Argentina moves in. Still talking. Maybe praying, too.
It’s almost as if the talk has always been there, embedded in the public conversation. When a time capsule buried in a corner of the Massachusetts State House was opened about a month ago, newspapers were found alongside stuff left by Paul Revere in 1795.
Nobody opened up the old newspapers, which is lot like today’s newspapers. But I would love to see the headlines, just to make sure there was no mention of Pacquiao-Mayweather. I’m pretty sure, too, Revere didn’t shout “the fight is coming, the fight is coming’’ on that midnight ride more than two centuries ago. It just seems like it.
In an era defined by 140 characters, little has a shelf life longer than yesterday’s tweet. But Mayweather-Pacquiao is inexhaustible. It’s a virtual commodity, a little bit like Kim Kardashian’s posterior. It just never goes away, which also makes it hard to know what’s fantasy and what’s not.
The talk is as loud now as it was when it started more than half a decade ago. Other than the volume, however, is any of it real? Or is it just more exasperating buzz in another rhetorical sequel to the same old futility?
I was in Las Vegas last week for Deontay Wilder’s heavyweight decision over Bermane Stiverne at the MGM Grand. It was a good fight and a better story. But all of the talk was about you-know-what. There was more speculation in the media workroom than losing wagers in the casino. It’s happening; it’s not happening.
Anticipation has created a bubble and perhaps boxing’s version of Deflate-gate. There’s a growing sense that the air has begun to go out of the talks.
That said, there’s always another rumor, or maybe a daydream. According to one, the bout could be announced in the grandest style possible, say, during the Seattle-New England Super Bowl on Feb. 1. Buy a 30-second spot of advertising for $4 million and announce the Super Bowl of boxing.
A fanciful reach? Maybe. By now, everything about Pacuiao-Mayweather appears to be a reach. In terms of timing, however, it makes some sense. Pacquiao has said his deadline is the end of January. If he doesn’t get an answer from Mayweather by then, it looks as if he’ll move on, perhaps to a bout with former stable-mate Amir Khan.
Meanwhile, Mayweather loves the big stage and nothing is bigger than the Super Bowl.
He said during a radio interview in Australia that talks were ongoing. But red flags are everywhere. In the same interview from Down Under, Mayweather blamed Pacquiao promoter Bob Arum, his bitter rival, for the apparent stall in the reported negotiations.
There’s also plenty of renewed speculation about a Mayweather rematch with Miguel Cotto, whose talks with Canelo Alvarez for a May 2 bout are off the table. Alvarez promoter Oscar De La Hoya said last Saturday before Wilder-Stiverne that Canelo was looking for a different opponent after Cotto failed to accept an offer by Jan. 16. Now, talk is reportedly ongoing for Canelo-James Kirkland.
Going on, but going where? It’s been nowhere for longer than many can remember, or maybe long enough to just hope that it just goes away.
