Orlando Sentinel

Marquez KOs Pacquiao-Mayweather super-fight

George Diaz| Orlando Sentinel Sports Columnist

7:39 AM EST, December 10, 2012


There are things that went plop in night other than Manny Pacquiao in Las Vegas late Saturday.

Like the most-anticipated fight in boxing history in decades.

Pacquiao-Mayweather is dead.

Stick a fork in it.

It was killed by the usual suspects in boxing _ ego, money and lack of adult supervision.

Professional boxing _ a sport which professes to employ the toughest hombres on the planet _ sure has a curious way of allowing top fighters to pick and chose who they want to tussle with, and when. Without any central governing body, any boxer can duck another.

And that’s what went down with Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao.

This is mostly on Mayweather, whose list of demands have included a greater share of the revenue and silly demands for drug testing. I don’t think Pacquiao skates on this either in terms of ducking and dodging, but Chicken Mayweather sure certainly bear the brunt of the blame.

And in doing so, they’ve hosed millions of boxing fans who wanted to see what promised to be an epic battle between two of the top pound-per-pound boxers in the world and the richest fight in boxing history. How does a $200 million purse sound?

Now, all it would be is a fight between two aging fighters, including Pacquiao (33), who got tagged with a second left in the sixth round by Juan Manuel Marquez Saturday night, thereby destroying much of the market value.

“The world wants to see these two guys fight again more than it wants to see Mayweather, fighting in his style," promoter Bob Arum said of Mayweather. "I can't predict that fight's dead forever, but I can tell you right now nobody's talking about Mayweather."

I suspect Mayweather got what he wanted by ducking Pacquiao _ a clear path to an undefeated record.

Too bad buddy, there will always be an asterisk next to you name.

A cowardly one.

Ain’t that a hoot in a sport where testosterone usually rules.

