Manny ending his career to Mayweather

With Manny Pacquiao possibly about to end his career in November, his promoter Bob Arum of Top Rank is determined to try and put together a mega fight with undefeated Floyd Mayweather Jr. In an article by the Associated Press, Arum says “That’s the fight people want to see, and that’s the fight I’m going to do my darnedest to make happen. My first goal is to make that fight happen, but we’re not going to negotiate this thing in the press, because if we do, given the egos, it’s never going to happen.” That’s nice to hear. It’s too bad that it took this long for that to happen.

The time to have made the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight was in March, not now. If they had stuck it out longer and got a little more movement from Pacquiao on the random blood testing, the fight would have been easily made. Now things aren’t going to be so easy. Mayweather is now the one that is in the position of power with his one-sided 12 round decision over Shane Mosley earlier this month and the previous agreements that were made during the last negations, like purse split, might not hold this time.

It’s hard to imagine Pacquiao agreeing to take less than 50-50. But it’s more difficult to see Mayweather agreeing to fight Pacquiao unless he gets what he wants with the random blood testing. Mayweather might even want more than a 50% cut of the revenue and he would have the better numbers from his last fight against Mosley to justify asking for a bigger cut. This could really get in the way of putting together a fight. Arum isn’t saying whether Pacquiao will give in on the blood testing that he wants.

But hopefully Arum can persuade Pacquiao to at least agree to take the random blood tests up until two weeks before the fight. That would make putting together a fight with Mayweather much more doable. 24 days is a nonstarter. That won’t work this time. Pacquiao is probably going to have to give in on this issue if he wants to get the money fight with Mayweather. It won’t work if he stubbornly sticks to the 24 days, refusing to have the testing within that time frame.

In the past, Arum and Pacquiao’s trainer Freddie Roach said there would be no concessions during negotiations, which was kind of a strange thing to say given that Mayweather is perhaps the most popular fighter in boxing. I could see them saying that if this was one of their typical opponents that have been dug up to fight Pacquiao, but not Mayweather. That seemed very strange and not productive to putting a fight together. In a way, it seemed like they didn’t want the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight to happen.

I could understand why they wouldn’t because Mayweather would have an excellent chance of ending the gravy train by beating Pacquiao. Now, however, with Pacquiao possibly fighting for the last time in November, there is a sense of urgency from Arum that wasn’t present last time. If the fight can be made, it will be a huge payday for all involved, even if Pacquiao gets totally dominated by Mayweather.

Mayweather, Pacquiao Strive to Strengthen Communities

Mayweather started The Floyd Mayweather Jr. Foundation in mid-2007. This foundation is a non-profit organization that helps build community alliances, youth leadership, strong family relationships, and healthy neighborhoods, in addition to the work they perform to help combat hunger, poverty, and at-risk youths. Mayweather routinely helps provide food to the homeless and working poor, and it has become a tradition for him and his foundation to provide hot meals every Thanksgiving to people in both his hometown of Grand Rapids, Michigan and in his adopted home in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Mayweather Jr. steps up the efforts during the holiday season. As the superstar boxer said, “The holidays are the most important time to give back. No family should have to go hungry on Thanksgiving and no child should go without a toy on Christmas.“ Mayweather Jr. Foundation also holds different events to support Toys for Tots and help raise gifts for the less fortunate during what can be the most stressful time of year for loving parents and guardians without the means to give the gifts their loved ones deserve.

This is far from some sort of publicity gimmick, as most of this organizations efforts go largely unrecognized by the national media. It is not something that is only done during a filming of HBO’s popular 24/7 series, but operates on a year round schedule and more often than not, flies below the radar.

Helping combat hunger is only a part of this amazing foundation though, as Floyd Mayweather Jr. is also known to speak to at-risk youths. During the fourth of July weekend in 2008, Mayweather held a high-profile event in Grand Rapids which included a family friendly carnival, a car show, and a film premiere cloaked with celebrities. The carnival included many free activities for the little ones, including inflatable play areas.

The Mayweather Foundation has paid for prizes for achievement, improvement, and attendence at Stocking Elementary School in Grand Rapids Michigan, which included calculators, books, jump ropes, and gift certificates to bookstores. On April 2nd of this year, the Mayweather Jr. Foundation will be holding its first annual “Fight for our Future” benefit dinner. The evening will include a silent auction, special guests, and entertainment. “The purpose of this dinner is to continue to make strides towards helping our community” according to a statement made by Mayweather.

Manny Pacquiao, also fights for the underprivileged. He started his own non-profit organization, The Manny Pacquiao Foundation. It is hard to decipher when this was officially founded and began charity work on its own. Its official website contains a piece from February 2009, stating it was still in the start up phase, at that time.

One of the original goals of this foundation, is to help Filipino boxers and their families. As Pacquiao described in a 2007 interview with Eastsideboxing.com “it is my hope that the foundation can give Filipino boxers pensions and their children scholarships.” This doesn’t coincide with the dates on the web site, but that could be due to the problems and red-tape establishing such a massive undertaking is prone to. During the time it took to get started, Pacquiao obviously decided to widen the Foundation’s interests and areas of work, greatly increasing the number of lives it improves. It is unclear whether Manny has been able to establish a pension for Filipino boxers, but there is no doubt that through his personal generosity and his Foundation, that many youth are granted scholarships which allow them to continue their education. Thus, through their own hard-work, the youth can provide a better live for themselves and their families.

This foundation has already touched many lives through its work. Some of there work include helping victims of Typhoon Ondoy (Ketsana) in 2009. This natural disaster caused over $2 million (US) of damage and displaced hundreds of thousands of people in and near Manilla. Pacquaio’s foundation helped with food, clothing, money, and in countless other ways, including the simple and too often overlooked gesture of just showing care, by being there to help with one’s time and energy.

In March of 2009, he held a Fil-Am (Filipino-American) Celebrity Showdown basketball game. Most of the money went towards the underprivileged in the Philippines. Pacquiao explained, “This is for the foundation. We are giving money to medical missions, schools, and others.”

The Monday following his May 2, 2009 knockout win over Ricky Hatton, Pacquiao held a celebration and benefit concert in LA to help raise funds and awareness of the foundations work. The proceeds helped his good will work which includes a cancer and research center in Mindanao. Other notable activities of the Manny Pacquiao Foundation are other medical missions, scholarships for children, and raising environmental awareness.

Though the Manny Pacquiao Foundation is still in the early stages, the Pacman has long been involved in giving back. He has helped raise funds for various other non-profit organizations, and helped the less fortunate on his own. Manny is known for his generosity and giving of cash assistance and bags full of groceries to those in need. In fact, Pacquiao was named “Person of the Year” in the Philippines in 2003, a reward that is even more noteworthy than the numerous boxing awards he has won, including Fighter of the Decade for the first 10 years of this millennium. The Philippine’s House of Representatives passed a resolution which recognized Pacquiao as “a people’s champ” “for his achievements and in appreciation of his of the honor and inspiration he has been bringing…to the Filipino people.” Manny also owns a lottery outlet in the Philippines for the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes. This is the charity branch of the government and the proceeds go towards good causes some of which are reinvesting in health care, public services and welfare. By attaching his name to this, Manny has ensured it does better than it otherwise would.

In a very ambitious move, Pacquiao is running for a congressional seat in his home country, the Philippines. Manny has made it clear, that his reason for running is his desire to help his fellow Filipino citizens. The election is scheduled for May 10, 2010 and could factor in Manny’s decision rather to continue boxing or to retire from the ring and focus all of his energies on helping those in need.

For information, including info on how to donate, visit the official websites, which are http://tfmjf.org/ for Mayweather’s foundation and http://mannypacquiaofoundation.org/ for Manny’s.


Both Mayweather and Pacquiao are not only two of the greatest boxers in recent memory, but also two outstanding role models. Regardless of who is someone’s favorite boxer and their thoughts on Mayweather or Pacquiao’s skill or choice of competition, I think it is safe to say, that EVERYONE wishes both the best of luck with their respective foundations.

Pacquiao’s Perfect Performance

Joshua Clottey was a caricature of a boxer that night – too bad to be real and too real to be believable.
That, however, just proved a point that The Event was never about the punching bag that was Clottey. It was, after all, about the whirlwind of a man in his opposite corner.

Perhaps that was also the reason Clottey appeared comical – not quite as being held down by the weight of his inneptitude but by the approaching onslaught that appeared to be perpetual. Across him was a man who’s really that good – make it great. At times a blur but almost always an exclamation point of force, Pacquiao was (in Clottey’s mind) one punch away from knocking him down.

Of course Clottey never went down. He was never knocked out. Nobody is expected to knock out a punching bag. Not even Pacquiao. And not even in Dallas.

The Event was a one man show. And we could not blame Pacquiao when it turned out a bore because in boxing, as in dance, it takes two to tango.

In Clottey’s defense – all pun intended – he’s also not entirely at fault. He was simply outclassed. (Big time because it happened in Dallas where, you know, everything’s big.) His failure to perform could be attributed to Pacquiao’s performance. Pacquiao, after all, is such a great fighter known to make even elite fighters look mediocre, if not downright bad. Why should Clottey be the exception?

Clottey was standing when the final bell rung. That must be, in Clottey’s mind, an accomplishment by itself. With Pacquiao’s recent run of havoc, it must indeed be. Congrats to Clottey also but we don’t want more of that.

“He had a good defense, but defense isn’t enough to win a fight,” Roach said of Clottey. He might as well have said it to goad another fighter.

The Event, for all its pomp and glory, was found wanting. It all goes back now to the fight we truly wanted. Everything now depends on Mayweather. If he survives Mosley and answers the call, he could – in spite of himself – really save boxing.

It will be a hardest fight for Manny

Clottey is tough in that he sticks around for the full 12 rounds in his fights and lands an occasional nice shot during the first half of his bouts. He can land with some power with his left hand and make for a rough fight during the first six rounds, but after that Clottey becomes much less effective as he tires out.

Pacquiao seems not to care whether he knocks Clottey out or not, saying “It doesn’t matter to me. I do 30 rounds everyday in the gym, and the fight is only 12 rounds, so going over 12 rounds is not a problem for me.” 

That’s a refreshing perspective by Pacquiao. At least he’s not putting pressure on himself to have to try and stop Clottey, because a knockout might not come in this fight. Clottey can take a heck of a shot, and doesn’t leave himself open all that much because of his high guard that he uses. Clottey mostly puts his energy on defending, and isn’t the type that takes chances like Ricky Hatton, who Pacquiao destroyed in two rounds last year in May. Hatton tried throwing hooks and was taken out by Pacquiao. 

Bob Arum of Top Rank, who just happens to be promoting both Pacquiao and Clottey in this fight, has this to say: “It’s going to take all that. Manny has to beat Clottey, no less knock him out. I would be much more surprised if Manny knocks him out. I look for this to be a distance fight. I don’t know how you knock Clottey out.” Arum says that he would seek an immediate rematch between Pacquiao and Clottey should Clottey be able to pull off a huge upset and beat Pacquiao.

Pacquiao knocks out JKL audience with a live musical performance

Tonight, boxing champ Manny Pacquiao appeared on late-night talk show “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” revealing his aspirations to run for public office, his thoughts on fighting Floyd Mayweather Jr., and how he’s preparing mentally for his upcoming fight against Joshua Clottey. Pacquiao concluded his late-night interview by serenading the live studio audience with a rendition of the love song, “Nothing’s Gonna Change My Love For You.”

Pacquiao-Clottey: How can 45,000 be a sellout when the stadium holds 80,000?

If the stadium is sold out, then it means that 80,000 fans purchased tickets for the fight, not 45,000. I’m not even all that impressed with the 45,000 figure. I keep hearing that it’s near that total, but they don’t give the exact totals for the tickets that are currently sold. Why not? 

That just makes me not trust any of the numbers. Whatever the amount of tickets that do eventually get sold for the Pacquiao vs. Clottey fight, I don’t expect it to be anywhere close to 80,000 fans, and I’m now thinking that it won’t even get to 45,000 either. My guess is that it will be lucky to bring in 30,000 fans, which will seem kind of ridiculous in a huge stadium like the Dallas Cowboy Stadium.

This is just hype for a fight that doesn’t have two stars. I think they wasted the stadium on this fight. They could have easily fit the same amount of people that will be attending the fight in the MGM Grand by putting in outside seats. This is like way overboard for a fight that isn’t that big of a deal.

You got to have to an opposing big star if you want to fight in a huge stadium like that. In this case, it’s just Pacquiao versus some guy that nobody has heard of except for hardcore boxing fans. And what makes this even worse is that Clottey lost his last fight. How does that look? Pacquiao just finished fighting Miguel Cotto, who was had recently been torn apart by Antonio Margarito.

Pacquiao also fought Ricky Hatton, who also was beaten up and taken out not long before he faced Pacquiao. Oscar De La Hoya, another Pacquiao victim, had lost three out of his last six fights going into his bout with Pacquiao. What is up with that? Is boxing so bad off that those guys have to be selected as Pacquiao’s opponents? Why not Floyd Mayweather Jr. or Shane Mosley? Don’t tell me. I already know.

But as far the Pacquiao-Clottey fight being called a sell out if 45,000 tickets being sold, I think that’s the silliest thing I’ve heard before, because the stadium holds twice that total. If you have a stadium that you can retrofit at a moment’s notice to fit any number up to 80,000, it’s ludicrous to call it a sell out when they’ll keep selling tickets up until 80,000 tickets are sold. I mean they’re not going stop selling tickets when 45,000 tickets have been sold, are they? Of course not, which is why it’s crazy to say the fight is nearly a sellout.

Can Clottey make Pacquiao submit?

Look for Manny Pacquiao to fold under the heavy pressure from Joshua Clottey on March 13th. When this fight was first signed, I thought this would be simple cut and dried case of Pacquiao being too good for Clottey. But after seeing how good Clottey is looking in training and doing some research into his last fight against Miguel Cotto, I think Clottey is going to batter Pacquiao like a rag doll and ultimately make him submit or have his trainer Freddie Roach step in for him to yank Pacquiao from the fight.

It’s going to be a shocking loss, to be sure, but when you look at how big and powerful Clottey is, and how much motivation he’ll have for this fight, it’s not going to be that surprising. Pacquiao is already rich beyond belief in the Philippines, and doesn’t need to work another day in his life if he doesn’t want to.

In contrast, Clottey is still a struggling fighter and has yet to get the huge paydays that Pacquiao has grown accustomed to getting. As a result, Clottey is going to be fighting at a level that we’ve never seen him fight before. If any of you are familiar with the James Buster Douglas vs. Mike Tyson fight in 1990, you’ll notice that Douglas, a good fighter, fought well beyond his normal ability in that fight and surprised Tyson, dominating most of the fight with his high energy attack and eventually taking Tyson out in the 10th round.

Douglas probably would have lost to Tyson under normal circumstances, but the motivation and adrenalin that Douglas was able to summon up for that one fight alone was enough for him to pull off the upset and capture Tyson’s IBF/WBA/WBC heavyweight titles. Unfortunately for Douglas, he wasn’t able to sustain this high level for long, as he was immediately beaten in his next fight against Evander Holyfield, losing a 3rd round knockout in October 1990.

But that doesn’t matter for Clottey, just as long as he fights well above his ability in this one fight, I think he can beat Pacquiao, capture his WBO title and set himself up for big money in a rematch with the Filipino star in the future. Clottey has everything to gain in this fight, while Pacquiao is likely looking past this bout for a potential big money bout against the winner of the May 1st bout between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Shane Mosley.

For Clottey to beat Pacquiao, he’s going to have to stay off the ropes, resist covering up for long stretches at a time and to make sure he goes after Pacquiao constantly to try and wear him down. Clottey will have to also depend on his chin to be able to take a certain amount of punishing shots from Pacquiao, because he won’t get far if he’s getting dropped left and right like Pacquiao’s recent victims Ricky Hatton and Miguel Cotto. Those fighters were never able to really challenge Pacquiao because they were almost immediately in trouble in the fight and found themselves getting knocked down repeatedly.

Pacquiao - NO chance against Floyd

Pacquiao would likely have no chance against Mayweather, and would probably get picked apart. It’s good that Pacquiao was spared having to face that kind of a boxer, because by not fighting Mayweather – or even Shane Mosley or Timothy Bradley – Pacquiao can probably retire on a strong note by maybe beating up Miguel Cotto again for the WBA light middleweight title.

There’s also a fight against Edwin Valero, a straight ahead fighter that seems to be made for Pacquiao’s style of fighting. Mayweather, though, would probably be a living nightmare for Pacquiao. Both bigger and faster than Pacquiao, Mayweather would have almost every advantage you could think of in a fight against Pacquiao.

It wouldn’t matter what Pacquiao’s trainer Freddie Roach came up with to beat Mayweather, it wouldn’t likely work at all. Mayweather would beat Pacquiao down, hitting him each time Pacquiao tried to throw one of his shots. Pacquiao wouldn’t be able to take advantage of any of Mayweather’s mistakes, because he wouldn’t be making any.

Mayweather wouldn’t be initiating the action like Pacquiao victims Oscar De La Hoya, Ricky Hatton and Miguel Cotto. Instead, it would be Pacquiao who be forced to come at Mayweather and take his pin point shots to the head. I think it would be just an awful fight for Pacquiao. And what would be really bad is all the people that would see the fight.

The entire world would watch it, and remember it long after. Roach wouldn’t have a clue what to do to help Pacquiao out in this one. It’s beyond what Roach could come up. Mayweather has been trained since he was a small child at boxing, and has learned the craft quite well. And his physical tools make him even better. This fight would be like teacher beating up pupil.

I think it would be a massive slaughter with Pacquiao getting backside kicked by Mayweather. It’s a good thing that they don’t fight. Pacquiao is better off facing Cotto again, winning his 8th world title, and then maybe beating up Edwin Valero for his final fight. Those two fights would be an excellent way for Pacquiao to retire. He doesn’t need Mayweather.

"Manny, my time is now!!!" - Joshua Clottey

Former IBF welterweight champion Joshua Clottey is confident that he has what it takes to beat World Boxing Organization welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao in their fight on March 13th, at the Dallas Cowboy stadium, in Arlington, Texas. In an article at Ghanaweb< Clottey, 32, said “I know its Pacquiao, but I don’t want people thinking that Manny is super, that nobody can beat him. He is a human being like me. He has lost three times and I have also lost three times. We speak, laugh and share jokes together. I promise that I will dethrone him” [Pacquiao].

Clottey doesn’t seem bothered by all the people who are giving him almost zero chance to beat Pacquiao. Clottey has been in against some tough world class opponents during his career, in fights against Miguel Cotto, Zab Judah, Diego Corrales and Antonio Margarito. One problem that Clottey has is that he’s only had mixed results when stepping it.

Clottey has lost to Cotto, Margarito and Carlos Baldomir during his career. There’s no shame in losing to good fighters like them, but Clottey doesn’t have a lot of other wins against notable opponents to make up for his losses against some of the best opponents he’s faced.

In the fights that Clottey has lost, he’s generally fought very well during patches of the fight. However, in almost every case, Clottey has seemed to run out of gas and have his work rate suffer as the rounds progressed late into the fight. Even in some of the fights that Clottey has won, he’s faded late and turned fights that should have been a lopsided win or knockout into a fight that turned to be much closer than it should have.

Pacquiao’s trainer, Freddie Roach, will likely have Pacquiao following a fight plan which involves Pacquiao using quick in and out attacks to avoid getting hit by Clottey. Roach won’t want Pacquiao to stand in front of Clottey and try to slug with him because of Clottey’s bigger size, good hand speed and strong chin.

Clottey isn’t the type of fighter that can easily be knocked out. This is why their March 13th fight could turn out to be a very boring fight with Pacquiao winning it by hitting and running. Roach says that Clottey will make for an exciting fight for fans, but it could turn out completely opposite of that with Pacquiao fighting on the move for 12 rounds.