By Cliff Eastham

Floyd Mayweather may have screwed the world out of perhaps the best fight in ages, certainly the best buildup to any fighter ever. He may think he is all that, but he is not.

I did think he was the greatest, as I documented right here in this same room. I wish to retract that statement at this time, because the greatest fighter in the world would not screw the public.

Boxing will go on as it did after Ali, after Tyson, after Lennox Lewis. The beat goes on. As I pen these words, there is no doubt a great fighter honing his skills in a gym in a town not far from you. Who he is we don’t know yet. When the time is right he will step forward.

Pretty Boy Floyd is the most gifted fighter I have seen in a half-century of watching, judging and reviewing fights. Flat out, the most gifted ever. You guys told me he had no heart. I didn’t believe you, I chose not to believe you.

Floyd lifted the veil himself with all the nonsense about the blood testing. That was the biggest pile of bull to ever be served up to the boxing community. When he had pushed Team Pacman to the wall and was reaching for the vaseline, the BS meter went off inside somebody’s head.

Bob Arum had seen enough. I don’t like Arum, I never have. The fact is though, he was correct in calling this one as he saw it.

Mayweather picked, gouged, and smeared Manny until there was nothing left for him to do but finally call an end to the fiasco. Then he had the testicle fortitude to say it was Pacquiao’s fault and he “wanted to whip his punk ass.” Well there you go, a little late now isn’t it, Money?

Fighting should be done inside the ropes and not inside the head of everyone involved. Visions of Apollo Creed pop up in my head. I can see him ordering 200 roses for the mayor’s wife, trying to market the fight the best way he knew how.

Floyd should know how to market a fight by now. Forty fights is a decent amount of wars to engage in. He is no longer a novice and cannot be held to standards befitting a novice. He needs to concentrate on the fighter, and not circumstances surrounding an upcoming fight.

With this fight apparently on the shelf, PBF should ride into the sunset without looking back. If the knowledge that he could beat anyone out there is enough for him, fine. I for one would like to have seen some proof as it were.
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