Fans blame Floyd Jr. for Pacquiao fight impasse

Fight fans are blaming Floyd Mayweather Jr. for derailing his March 13 gig with Manny Pacquiao and forcing their camps to undergo mediation to salvage the mega-bout, results of an online poll showed. According to 73% of the 9,730 respondents in the Los Angeles Times’ poll “Who do you blame for the Manny Pacquiao-Floyd Mayweather impasse?" the flamboyant American is at fault in the impasse brought about by his demand for an Olympic-style drug testing. The Mayweather camp, suggesting that Pacquiao has been using performance-enhancing drugs, has demanded that the two undergo random, Olympic-style drug testing to be supervised by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency.

Pacquiao and his promoter Bob Arum have rejected the idea, but are amenable to do blood and urine testing under a certain period of time and to be handled by the Nevada State Athletic Commission. The issue got worse when the Pacman sued the Mayweathers and Golden Boy Promotions executives Oscar De La Hoya and Richard Schaefer for defamation over the dope insinuations. The two fighters’ representatives met for nine hours before a mediator, retired federal judge Daniel Weinstein, on Tuesday in San Diego, California (Wednesday in Manila) but apparently did not reach an agreement yet. A gag order has been issued on the two parties but ESPN Deportes’ Jaime Mota quoted one lawyer for Top Rank as saying: “Mediation is still ongoing." It was not clear whether the two groups will again meet up Wednesday (Thursday in Manila) for a new round of talks. For most fans (at least 7,085 of the voters who answered the poll as of Wednesday 6 p.m., Manila time), though, it wouldn’t have reached this point if not for Mayweather. A total of 1,779 voters (18% of the respondents), meanwhile, pinned the blame on Mayweather’s promoters and managers while 615 (6%) pointed to Pacquiao and 251 (3%) tagged Arum at fault. One of the respondents, Art C, described Mayweather as too demanding. “He wants to impose his own rule into the boxing world... Why not stick into Nevada (Commission) rules? He's into psy war...he wants his opponents to fall into it... Poor Mayweather!!! Come on!... Face Manny Pacquiao inside the ring...," he commented. Another respondent, using the moniker el mejico, called Mayweather’s demand as a show of fear of the Filipino ring icon, who comes off a masterful 11th round TKO of Miguel Cotto. “He’s a coward. Especially after Pacquiao’s fight with Cotto, (Team Mayweather) thinks of any strategy they could think of to their advantage because there’s no way they could beat Pacman when it comes to true boxing, fist to fist, toe to toe. (Mayweather) knows what he’s doing. In order to retain his undefeated record, he tries to find a way to avoid the fight. "But it comes to a point where he has no choice but to choose a loss for the sake of money," he said. However, some find Mayweather’s Olympic-style dope testing within reason. “I don't see the problem with Mayweather's request and although I understand Manny's posture as well, blood testing should be added to the sport since urinalysis is not enough to ensure a level playing field as evidenced by Shane Mosley who never tested positive in a urinalysis but was rather discovered later in the BALCO list (which shoots down Manny's argument that he has never failed a urine test ... neither did Shane)," voter jv said. The Pacquiao-Mayweather duel is projected to be the richest fight in history, with both fighters standing to earn $25 million, according to the Associated Press. Should the mediation fail, Team Pacquiao has expressed its desire to tap junior middleweight champion Yuri Foreman for a fight on March 20, giving the Filipino pride a shot at a record eighth division title while Mayweather could lock mitts with Paulie Malignaggi at the MGM Grand on March 13. - GMANews.TV with reports from AP