Let the Games Begin: Pacquio Vs. Mayweather

The Pacuiao - Cotto fight had a scripted ending. I've always liked Cotto but Manny Pacquiao was riding the crest of a wave. His triumphs in the boxing ring raised him to godly heights, and his resilience in bouncing back from disappointments guided his path to future conquest.

I'm angry with Antonio Margarito for putting a question mark or shadow over Cotto's career. We'll never know whether the gloves were loaded but it is likely they were, making the Cotto defeat even more tragic. That's not to say that Pacquiao wouldn't have won against Cotto anyway. Pacquiao is a superb competitor with a take-no-prisoners attitude. His boxing skills, ring savvy, and control of physical space have developed to a point where Floyd Mayweather Jr. has to be thinking about Pacquiao in the way an up-coming new and hungry fighter thinks about his first chance at a title.

Mayweather, of course, is a great champion. Beneath the obligatory flamboyance, trash talking, and in-your-face attitude demanded by a peculiar boxing tradition, Mayweather is as far better guy than the media gives him credit for. But that works in his favor, too, and builds the gate for another Superfight.

There is also another thing "beneath it all," and it is that Mayweather has the seasoning not only of his own generation of fighters--he has the seasoning of several generations. In spite of whatever public shenanigans he's planning to amuse himself and fight fans, expect Mayweather to be as serious beneath it all as the soldier who marches at the tomb of the Unknown Soldier.