Pacquiao Pulls Mayweathers’ Trump Card

A bluff taken seriously is more useful than a serious threat interpreted as a bluff.

—Henry Kissinger

How'd Jay-Z put it?

“Young and eternal, my youngins'll burn you, ‘The Blueprint' birthed you, homie I earthed you, you can't be serious.” The card lies flat on a Las Vegas table of glass and your shoes have mirrors. Dude, we see that club. It’s not exactly raining but I need Columbo's funky trench.

You uh, you needed Oscar De La Hoya and he gave you HBO 24/7 and a superfight past his best. We agree? A'ight whatever. You got a prime Ricky Hatton and his huge London fan base, and he gave you a superfight beyond his best weight of 140. You were magnificent under pressure in that fight, but we know you had to see him come up to 147lbs and basically lose to Luis Collazo before agreeing to fight him at welterweight. Right?

You needed Juan Manuel Marquez to show up Manny Pacquiao. Because at a time when he was considered the world's unquestioned best fighter, your envy of his stature just wouldn't allow you to pass on an opportunity to upstage what he'd done to Ricky Hatton, at his best weight of 140lbs, where Pac massacred “The Hitman” right, Floyd?

You were spectacular against Marquez, but the problem is “Dynamita” was a desperate and bloated lightweight drinking his own piss to beat you. An all-time great you forced to come up to a 144lb catchweight to fight you, even though you came in at 146lbs and gladly paid him $600,000 to do it. Right “Mr. Level Playing Field”? Didn't you start accusing Pacquiao of possible PED use after he defended his pound-for-pound preeminence and upstaged the win over his rival Marquez by annihilating Miguel Cotto?

Didn't you back out of a superfight between the two of you scheduled for March 13, 2010, while you were both in your absolute prime? Didn't you watch Pacquiao turn Joshua Clottey into an Everlast heavy bag thinking, “Damn… that could've been me?” Did that happen, Floyd?

Did you retire after being rocked by a 38 year-old “Sugar” Shane Mosley (who told yours truly that he didn't train for you at all) before coming back to deliver perhaps the greatest exhibition of boxing in your entire career? Did you come back and test your reluctance or readiness for Pacquiao by getting in there with an emotionally unstable and highly flawed southpaw hitter Victor Ortiz? Did you sucker punch KO him after he started apologizing for kicking your ass? (Well, like, he did deserve to get chipped up for getting tender after going Mike Tyson on you. I'll admit.) But wasn't that you nervously telling the world, “Pacquiao, you're next!”, nearly eight years ago to this very day? But then, wasn't that you telling the world immediately thereafter that “I never said that. I never said that at all” in front of those same reporters present when you said it? Don't worry Floyd… we have the tape.

No one was satisfied with May 2, 2015. Not even you, because you spent most of 2016 telling the media that there would never be a Mayweather Vs Pacquiao 2, even though that's you studying Pacquaio more closely than Jessie Vargas at UNLV inside of the Thomas & Mack Center in November 2016, right? You spent most of 2017 telling the world you'd never fight again, but just couldn't resist a XXX-rated “Money” promotion for an exhibition over Conor McGregor. Then, you spent most of 2018 being adamant about Mayweather Vs Pacquiao 2 happening, only to decide for most of 2019 that it would never happen again. Even though we saw you studying Pacquiao more closely than Keith Thurman from ringside inside of the MGM Grand on July 20, Floyd. We even have you on the record stating that you were (eh mm) “happily” retired, while angrily and emphatically declaring that Mayweather Vs Pacquiao 2 would never happen again, right Floyd? And it was and has been Pacquiao who's been “clout chasing”, right Floyd? And now, you want to actually stage “an exhibition” against a man you'll be linked with throughout the annals of history because you're afraid he'll officially defeat you and end any debate over who was greater?

I thought Pinocchio level deception was a Trump Card reserved for the president on CNN?

It’s been said that this era of welterweights, in arguably boxing's deepest division (it says here, however, that that division is lightweight, where pound-for-pound #1 Vasiliy Lomachenko just happens to reside at outside of his best weight of 130, I'm just saying Floyd) isn't quite as good as the one dominated by all-time great legends Manny “Pac-Man” Pacquiao and Floyd “Money” Mayweather, and they may have a point. Because Senator Pacquiao is no longer really”Pac-Man” and is a 40 year-old politician who just beat up Keith Thurman “One-Time” (and, we should mention named his dog after him folks) and “AB” (who, Pac said, was really “About Beatings”), there is some validity to this.

But none of this is because of “Pretty Boy” Floyd, “Money” Mayweather or “TBE”. They passed on Thurman for Andre Berto, right Floyd? Remember Keith and his famous slogan: “You better. Not. Duck me. Son!”

You see, Floyd hasn't fought any of the current crop of elite welterweights and (seemingly) wouldn't dare risk his precious “0” to find out if unbeaten IBF welterweight champion Errol Spence Jr was indeed “The Truth”, would he? Do we believe Floyd would want to hear Jimmy Lennon Jr telling the world its “Showtime!” against a grimey WBC welterweight champion Shawn Porter? Nah. Here in New York, we don't believe Floyd wants none of that smoke. But we know Pacquiao, who should qualify as a-lying-ass-politician-only-he-doesn't would.  Ego didn't stop Sugar Ray Leonard from wanting to find out about himself against Terry Norris, did it? He's not loved any less. Officials needed a spatula to remove Roberto Duran from the canvas after Thomas Hearns detonated him; that same Hearns was carried out of the ring by those same officials after Hagler got to him. An older Hagler carried a grudge out of the ring against a Leonard before Hearns, Norris and Hector Camacho got to him much later.

We love them, Floyd. They weren't afraid to lose so they won over our hearts in defeat.

What kind of “TBE” tries to gimmick his way into a rematch with his greatest rival through an exhibition? You do realize that Manny Pacquiao isn't Tenshin Nasukawa, right Floyd? I just can't see Muhammad Ali wanting Joe Frazier to come to Manila for an exhibition after calling him all kinds of Gorillas and God knows what else. Matter of fact, there's an idea Floyd. Fight Pac in Manila. “TBE” isn't capable of Trumping B-Hop at 43? He would have tried Gennady Golovkin, Errol Spence, Terence Crawford or even Andre Ward at that age if he could, despite any of them being significantly younger. It’s been said that we rise in glory or we sink in pride — you can actually beat him, Floyd. It’s just that right now, you're making it seem like you're not playing with a full deck.

Anyway to all of you Pactards out there, don't be Pacturd, I got a book to write about these two. I owe you one.

PUBLISHER NOTE: Please click here, to support Gatling's book-writing effort.