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February 1st, 2010 | by Felix Strunk
 “Pacquiao is an easier fight for Mayweathr than Shane is,” commented Tony Morgan, trainer of WBC welterweight champion Andre Berto, as he shared his thoughts on the recent news that Shane Mosley and Floyd Mayweather have agreed to fight each other. Pacquiao easier than Mosley? Say what? According to Morgan, it’s a matter of styles and facts. “I’m going to break it down real simple for people. You look at two things. Styles make fights and facts are facts,” he continued.
“Okay. Cotto’s got a good jab and Floyd has a great jab. Cotto hit Pacquiao whenever he wanted to hit him with it,” Morgan would explain. “Cotto has good defense as far as movement and if anybody who watched that fight will see, whenever Pacquiao threw punches and Cotto was moving, he was picking everything off that Pacquiao threw. Cotto’s got good movement and Floyd’s got great movement, so Floyd will hit Pacquiao when he wants and Pacquiao can’t hit Floyd in his butt (laughing). He won’t even hit him. It will be a boring fight and Floyd will be on the go, but he will make it look easy.”
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January 22nd, 2010 | by Felix Strunk
 In a recent interview, Floyd Mayweather’s adviser, Leonard Ellerbe, said that negotiations for a showdown with Shane Mosley were going good. “Obviously we’re looking at a couple dates in early May and it’s a breath of fresh air. We’re having good conversations with Richard and Judd Burstein,” he would tell FightHype’s Ben Thompson. On the surface, it does appear like things are running smoothly, however, given Mosley’s prior eagerness for a bout with Mayweather, one has to wonder why negotiations have taken this long in the first place.
“Obviously, with this being a fight of this magnitude, a megafight, these things take quite some time because there are a lot of particulars involved,” Ellerbe added. Particulars? Exactly which “particulars” are taking “quite some time” to resolve?
The purse? Doubtful! Despite his impressive resume, Shane Mosley has never made more than $5 million for a purse. Considering that Mosley holds two victories over Oscar De La Hoya, that’s a shocking revelation, but one that would explain why Mosley is eager for an opportunity at a megafight with either Mayweathr or Pacquiao. Surely money won’t be an issue in a fight that’s guaranteed to earn Mosley the biggest payday of his career.
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January 20th, 2010 | by Felix Strunk
 “It’s gonna be a good fight. Part of me says Clottey’s too big and part of me says Pacquiao might be too fast, so it’s a toss up for me on that one,” stated former jr. welterweight champion Kendall Holt as he shared his thoughts on Manny Pacquiao’s upcoming WBO welterweight title defense against Joshua Clottey. Holt was originally hoping to fight on the undercard of the event, but he recently learned that he will instead be fighting Kaiser Mabuza (22-6-3, 13 KOs) on February 27th in Atlantic City. Although he thinks Pacquiao’s bout with Clottey will be competitive, he had a very different take on what would’ve happened if the megafight with Floyd Mayweather would have taken place instead on March 13th.
“I see it being competitive early and then Manny getting frustrated and Floyd putting a whoopin’ on him in the later rounds because if you see when Cotto boxed and moved and hit him with a jab… when Cotto jabbed, he hit Manny flush and when he moved a little bit, he frustrated him,” Holt remarked as he gave his take on how the fight would’ve played out. “Imagine Floyd doing that. I mean, it’s hard to see Manny, a guy that doesn’t have that much balance, a guy who jumps in with leaping punches from all over the place, landing those blows on Floyd.”
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January 18th, 2010 | by Felix Strunk
 In a recent interview, Shane Mosley shared his thoughts on the controversy regarding Floyd Mayweather’s demands for Olympic-style random drug testing leading up to his highly-anticipated clash with Manny Pacquiao. “They could test me anyday they want to. I’m so clean. I’ve always been clean, till I was tricked, but it’s all good though. They could test me any day of the week. They’ve already tested me for the CBC blood test; okay whatever, let’s do it,” he stated when asked whether or not he would submit to the same type of testing if Mayweather requested it. “When they talk about steroids, they could test me right now. Matter fact they could test me when I retire. I’ve never taken steroids ever, ever. I would never knowingly take steroids ever. I don’t do that.”
Despite admitting in 2007 that he inadvertently took two designer steroids before his rematch with De La Hoya, Mosley insists that he’s never taken any steroid and would be more than willing to submit to blood testing 30 days before a bout. To paraphrase what Mosley would say in an interview with Boxinqtalk, he basically believes that the fact that Pacquiao is unwilling to do random blood tests leading up to the fight makes him look “questionable.” That being said, he did admit that he would prefer to take a test 30 days out as opposed to taking one the week of the fight. Perhaps to avoid also being named in a lawsuit, Mosley also made it clear that he was not accusing Pacquiao of using anything.
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January 12th, 2010 | by Felix Strunk
 As the topic of performance-enhancing drugs continues to dominate the headlines in several sports, world-class trainer Freddie Roach shared his thoughts on the recent revelation that Floyd Mayweather Jr. has used the painkiller Xylocaine in previous fights, a fact that he’s known for quite some time. What may come as a surprise to some people is that Roach himself has also used the painkiller in the past and doesn’t consider it to be performance-enhancing. “I’m familiar with Xylocaine because I broke my hands many times in my life and I used Xylocaine as a painkiller also. It kills the pain in your hands and it’s not legal, but it’s not a performance-enhancing drug. It just takes the feeling away,” the world-class trainer revealed in a recent interview.
In fact, Roach is so unconcerned about Mayweather’s use of Xylocaine that he wouldn’t even care if he needed to use it in a bout with his star pupil. “You know, I know Floyd has bad hands and so forth, but I’m not worried about him using Xylocaine. He can use whatever he wants. He can’t beat my guy. I don’t care. It’s okay. We’re going to pass every drug test there is because Manny Pacquiao is a clean liver and he doesn’t believe in enhancing drugs,” added the honest and soft-spoken trainer.
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January 11th, 2010 | by Felix Strunk
“Felix Sturm and I just struck a deal. Felix is a 160-pounder who’s going to come in. He’s not that Clottey type of fighter so much, but he’s a very clever boxer and I think when you’re sharp with guys like that, you’re sharp with anybody,” commented Freddie Roach, world-class trainer of pound-for-pound champion Manny Pacquiao. With the Filipino icon set to begin training for his March 13th bout with Joshua Clottey, Roach has already begun lining up sparring partners for his star pupil and it apears the WBA middleweight champion may be one of them.
Sturm is the latest addition to Roach’s stable of world class fighters. The two hooked up last month when Sturm met Roach on in England, where the 2009 Trainer of the Year was working with jr. welterweight champion Amir Khan. Sturm had just parted ways with former coach Michael Timm after his split with Universum Box-Promotion. “It is a dream come true for me to work with Freddie,” commented Sturm when the two quickly came to terms.
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December 31st, 2009 | by Pleas Lucian Kavanaugh
 There are two distinct possibilities which most succinctly clarify the recent controversy regarding Manny Pacquiao’s unwillingness to submit to Floyd Mayweather Jr’s request for random blood testing. The first, being the more palatable and tedious of the two, places the pound-for-pound bests together quite deliberately, hashing out the details of all the ways they plan to empty their freshly fattened bank accounts come March 14th. Imagine. Negotiations were surprisingly smooth and the lemonade was just a tad too sweet for summer, when suddenly, amidst allegations of illegal drug use, Team Pacquiao initially agrees to the opponent’s testing requests and then turns an about face for no apparent reason whatsoever. If the book of Revelations is any measure, this just might be the last days and the two greatest fighters in the world just might be feigning impasse before they have their real conflict in the ring.
Ever the businessmen, the scent of a collective decision to amp up the prefight hype has clogged the newsroom like a jammed press. The upside being that if such is the case, then boxing aficionados can sleep soundly, confident that the most anticipated fight in recent memory rests just a few pay-per-view dates away, despite every newsman’s allusion to the contrary. After all, it wouldn’t be boxing if there weren’t at least a little controversy.
Our alternative is undoubtedly the harder pill to swallow.
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December 27th, 2009 | by Andre Zurbrug
Given all the controversy over the Olympic-style blood testing, the megafight between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao is in serious jeopardy of never happening at all. Monday is the final deadline that promoter Bob Arum has given for Team Mayweather to accept their final offer to accept the bout under the normal guidelines of the Nevada State Athletic Commission. With Sunday all but over, the clock is ticking and everyone is speculating whether or not the two sides will come to terms before the deadline passes.
From coast to coast, fans all over the country and the world are sharing their thoughts on Mayweather’s controversial request for random blood tests, a policy that has never been instituted even with fighters who actually do have a history of steroid abuse.
“So, what has Pacquaio done to be treated like a suspect for a crime? All he did was do his job of beating guys in the boxing ring. Now the sore losers can’t accept that and demands that Pac be subjected to tests outside of regular procedures. Come up with some sort of evidence to make a case and not rely on the suspicion of an old drug addict and liar, Floyd Sr. Maybe we should subject Floyd Jr. to a complete biological test to prove he is human and not a chicken.” - Sugar, Philippines
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December 27th, 2009 | by Felix Strunk
Sir Walter Scott summed it up best when he wrote, “Oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive.” Through the use of a carefully worded press release and a number of well-prepared interviews, both Golden Boy Promotions and Team Mayweather practiced the art of deception, making it appear as though Manny Pacquiao’s success might be due to some type of performance-enhancing drug. The request for Olympic-style drug testing was baseless, but it was a request that was made nonetheless. Nice try Floyd, but there will be no extra blood tests, for Manny has consistently passed with flying colors every test required of him by any and all boxing commissions.
For 8 years, Pacquiao has fought in Las Vegas, passing each blood test required every time he renewed his boxing license. In total, 11 fights in Sin City, meaning at least 22 pre and post-fight urine tests that have all come back negative for any banned substance listed by the Nevada State Athletic Commission. This isn’t the first time that the subject of performance-enhancing drugs has been brought up in the sport of boxing. Evander Holyfield, James Toney, Roy Jones Jr. and even current champions Wladimir and Vitali Klitschko have been linked to steroids within the past 10 years. That said, to this day, there has never been a change in any rules governing drug testing in the sport. Guys like Shane Mosley and Fernando Vargas, who have actually been caught in the past using steroids, have never been required to take any additional drug tests other than those regulated by the Athletic Commissions. In fact, ironically, after admitting to using steroids, both Mosley and Vargas fought each other twice in Las Vegas and yet neither one ever asked the other for additional testing.
So why now? Why, for this particular fight, would Manny be forced to do additional tests? The answer is simple…Mayweather is nervous! Never before have they ever seen the path of destruction that the Filipino icon is carving through the divisions. Never before has any fighter, not even ones who have been caught and suspended, had to subject themselves to additional testing to prove that they were not cheating. Mosley and Vargas never tore through names the manner in which Pacquiao is doing. Fearful that there’s actually a threat to his undefeated record, it’s the only explanation that Mayweather could come up with and thus, so began the campaign to tarnish Pacquiao’s legacy and perhaps avoid a fight that could earn him his first loss.
Unfortunately for Mayweather, the plan has backfired. With nothing to prove and, more importantly, nothing to hide, Pacquiao is standing firm on his position to follow the exact same rules of the Nevada State Athletic Commission that he has always followed throughout the years. Now the decision rests with Floyd as to whether or not he truly wants to step inside the ring with the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world. But make no mistake, Pacquiao’s continued success throughout the years has come from nothing more than hard work and dedication to his craft. It is that hard work and dedication that truly concerns Floyd Mayweather, as he realizes that now, there’s no more protecting that unblemished record.
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December 27th, 2009 | by Felix Strunk
Like a game of chess, Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather have been making strategic moves throughout the negotiation process to put themselves in the best possible position for their showdown on March 13. Every detail discussed was like a coordinated move and, thus far, Pacquiao has maneuvered brilliantly around the board.
When it came to the gloves, Mayweather wanted the 10-ounce pillows. Pacquiao wanted the 8-ounce puncher’s delight. The final verdict, 8-ounce gloves, scored a piece for Manny as rook took pawn!
When it came to the weight, Mayweather wanted the heavier 154-pound division. Pacquiao wanted to defend his newly acquired 147-pound title. The final verdict, 147 pounds, scored another piece for Manny as bishop took rook!
With Mayweather quickly down to his final few pieces on the board, he tried a desparate move to try to back Pacquiao into a corner. Mayweather demanded that Pacquiao take an unrequired blood test, giving the impression that his recent success might be due to some type of performance-enhancing drug. Pacquiao calmly countered, stated his success was due to his hard work and dedication and then began the process of filing a defamation lawsuit. Another piece picked up by Pacquiao as knight took bishop!
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