So, absolutely nothing has changed as of November 22nd. Pacquiao is still an explosive offensive fighter, but a lousy finisher. Mayweather is still held to a much higher opponent standard than Pacquiao, and the cold war blame is still more on Haymon and Floyd, than on Arum. I'm not sure what would need to happen to bring Mayweather and Pacquiao together, but anyone who knows anything about the history of Haymon and Arum, it most certainly is not fans imploring. Those two could give less than half a crap what the fans want. It does not factor in at all.
If the fans want their desires heeded, however, they must make it translate into dollars. Stop watching and/or buying tickets for the Garcia vs. Salka style cards, and boycott a network if they put one on their schedule. Don't buy PPVs you are not interested in, and vigorously support the fights you do. Watch them, post about them to casual fans, and show up if they are in your town. Terrence Crawford is taking on his toughest assignments, and gets to do both in his hometown, because he has shown the willingness to do so, and the fans have responded in kind, by buying tickets.
I must say, though, that Arum and Haymon have switched places in the cold war. Arum, a few years ago, was perceived as the old-school 'fighters should shut their mouths and do as they're told' promoter, who was denying the public the biggest fight of the century, because he resented upstarts like Floyd and Oscar, who were the way of the future. Now, it has shifted around. Now, Pacquiao is allowed to fight as many soft touches and needless rematches as he wants to, and no one balks. When Floyd loses 3 rounds against a world-class fighter, he is dismissed as a cherry-picker, who is slipping fast.
Haymon, likewise, once lauded as the best manager in boxing, is now hated and reviled by fans... as the one road block to dozens of great matchups. Not only will Haymon not match his fighters with Top Rank, he won't even match them against each other very often. That leads to the lack of fights that make perfect sense, like Broner-Matthysse, Garcia-Peterson, and Quillin-Jacobs. We aren't even officially getting an announcement for Stiverne-Wilder, as Haymon jockeys for position to avoid even a slight step up for his over-protected charge.
His personal vendetta against new boxing promoter Jay Z's Roc Nation Sports, even caused one of his fighters, Peter Quillin, to vacate a belt. this was done assuming we would get to the Quillin-Jacobs fight, but again, no announcement of that. We must stop pretending we are putting up with crappy cards because they will lead to good ones. Where Haymon is involved, nothing is guaranteed. This is the same man who cost us Forrest-Paul Williams, because it made too much sense. When is Keith Thurman going to step up? the questions are limitless, but fans often forget the hand he plays in Floyd's life. There will never be a Pacquiao fight as long as he is in the picture. Mark my words. Arum will come across the table, before Haymon does.
Chris Strait
www.convictedartist.com
