Can you even think of a scenario in which the two teams simply walk away, each claiming bragging rights as world champs without actually settling the matter on the pitch?
The idea seems too ludicrous to comprehend, but that is exactly the situation facing boxing if Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather fail to slug it out.
Most boxers spend their career aping their heroes, hoping to become the best. There have been many cheap imitations naming themselves after icons such as Mike Tyson, Muhammad Ali and Sugar Ray Leonard.
But Pacquiao and Mayweather have stamped their own identities on the game. Pacquiao is an unstoppable assailant in the ring; Mayweather is the untouchable defensive stylist. It's a match made in heaven.
Fate seldom allows two, or more, superstars to co-exist in the same era and weight class. Leonard, Roberto Duran, Thomas Hearns and Marvin Hagler fought each other in amazing battles during the 1980s, but only Leonard and Hearns naturally came from the welterweight division. Duran started out at lightweight and Hagler was a middleweight.
By this point, Pacquiao and Mayweather should have been gearing up for a third showdown, not still drifting miles short of a first-time collision.
And time is running out. Pacquiao is nearly 32. Mayweather, 33, faces the possibility of jail time after allegedly assaulting a former girlfriend.
Football and some other sports are big business nowadays, but if you ever needed proof that boxing has allowed greed to dwarf its sporting prowess, this is it.
The major stumbling block has been the Filipino's refusal to accede to Pretty Boy's demand for Olympic-style dope-testing. I would be surprised if Mayweather's intent was without gamesmanship, but there is no legitimate reason why Pacquiao should avoid procedures regularly imposed on stars such as sprinter Usain Bolt and swimmer Michael Phelps.
The underlying problem is boxing's failure to adopt global anti-doping rules. And the reason for that is that the sport has no single controlling body; just the fragmented mess we know today.
Sadly, fans of each boxer appear to have resigned themselves to the fact that what could be the world's richest rivalry might never get settled in the ring. Each camp believes its fighter has done enough to earn bragging rights and world championship status.
Comparisons have been made through Pacquiao and Mayweather fighting the other's victims, though Pacquiao has also bulldozed into territory Mayweather seemingly feared to tread, like Miguel Cotto, and, at the weekend, Antonio Margarito, who got a fractured right eye socket for his troubles.
Pacman fans are reading too much into their star winning world titles in an unprecedented eight divisions. Though a super welterweight crown was at stake in Saturday's fight, Margarito had to weigh in a few pounds below the limit. What's the point of weight limits if fighters are not allowed to stick to them? But that's just another one of boxing's anomalies.
Fans can argue for eternity about the outcome of a Pacquiao vs Mayweather bout, but there is only one way to find out: they must face off in the ring.
If they don't, then boxing has failed as a sport.
Source: http://www.timeslive.co.za
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