Spat before fight is odd, even for boxing

By Tim Sullivan, UNION-TRIBUNE COLUMNIST
Sunday, December 27, 2009 at 2:43 a.m.

File this latest boxing flap under the head-scratching heading of Man Bites Dog.

Prefight controversies designed to expand pugilism’s narrow niche audience are predictable, transparent and generally tedious. Yet when a match as compelling and potentially lucrative as Manny Pacquiao vs. Floyd Mayweather Jr. founders on matters of integrity and principle, well, that’s startling stuff.

This is, remember, boxing.

Mayweather’s insistence on stringent Olympic-style drug testing and his corner’s presumption of Pacquiao’s chemical culpability have clouded their scheduled March 13 megabout and, theoretically, could lead to its cancellation.

Maybe it’s all hype. Maybe the issue is being aired as advertising, as goading gamesmanship or as a calculated effort by Camp Mayweather to establish an excuse for backing out and/or getting beat.

Given boxing’s historic corruption, prevailing anarchy and eroding share of the market for vicarious violence, arched eyebrows are certainly warranted. But with accusations flying like so many left jabs, with Pacquiao threatening a defamation suit and with promoter Bob Arum purportedly exploring alternative matchups, it’s conceivable that the combatants are prepared to leave many millions on the table rather than concede this sticky bargaining point.

Instinct says the two sides will settle, that there’s too much money at stake (perhaps more than $30 million per man) for this deal to die over drug-testing protocols. Moreover, having already scored some points by painting Pacquiao into a guilty-until-proven-innocent corner, Mayweather can now retreat to his corner with a ready-made alibi.

The situation remains fluid. Yesterday, ESPN.com reported the Mayweather camp dropped its demand that the testing be administered by USADA. Meanwhile, Top Rank’s Arum indicated Pacquiao would only agree to blood tests at the unlikely request of the Nevada Athletic Commission.

Stay tuned. Which, of course, is exactly what the promoters want you to do.

Despite an appalling lack of evidence, Mayweather has planted the idea that Pacquiao’s brilliant career has been a fraud, and he has left his opponent with a ponderous burden of proof. If Pacquiao does not consent to Olympic-style testing, which could involve drawing blood on the day of the fight, he will create doubt about all he has done. If Pacquiao backs down, he will do so while playing Mayweather’s game.

Given their ability, egos and financial incentives, it is hard to imagine that the two men who have agreed to fight at 147 pounds won’t eventually do so in the ring rather than the courtroom. Still, this impasse illustrates boxing’s need for a central regulatory body that establishes and enforces the rules of engagement for all contestants.

Individual boxers should not be negotiating drug-testing standards on a bout-to-bout basis, no more than they should be dickering over the dimensions of the ring, the weight of their gloves or the number of rounds. Yet in the absence of any sanctioning body that can be taken seriously, boxing negotiations are inevitably about leverage rather than creating a level punching field.

Anyone who climbs into the ring at the risk of being beaten senseless is entitled to neutral conditions, consistent standards, an unbiased application of the rules and impartial enforcement of policy.

Boxing, however, operates on the premise that everything is negotiable and that most things can be manipulated.

Absent an evenhanded administration, challengers are often compelled to confront champions at financial and strategic disadvantages. Perhaps the champion deserves a bigger share of the purse for putting his title in play, but allowing him to impose competitive conditions runs counter to the basic concept of fair competition.

Distasteful and distrustful as it is, drug testing has become a vital interest of professional sports, and I’m not referring to the comparatively cursory form that exists in Major League Baseball and the National Football League. Absent a reliable urine test for Human Growth Hormone, the primary values of big-league drug tests are appearances and deniability.

Yet that doesn’t mean Olympic-style scrutiny, which entails random, unannounced blood testing, should be enacted on the arbitrary, ad hoc basis Mayweather has demanded. A fighter should enter the ring with a reasonable expectation that his opponent is clean, but drug testing should not be conducted on the vigilante or tactical basis being sought here.

Pacquiao’s problem is how to avoid it now without giving the appearance of guilt.

“I maintain and assure everyone that I have not used any form or kind of steroids and that my way to the top is a result of hard work, hard work, hard work and a lot of blood spilled from my past battles in the ring, not outside of it,” Pacquiao said in a statement posted on his Web site. “I have no idea what steroids look like, and my fear in God has kept me safe and victorious through all these years.

“Now, I say to Floyd Mayweather Jr., don’t be a coward and face me in the ring, mano-a-mano, and shut your big, pretty mouth so we can show the world who is the true king of the ring.”

Because this is boxing, the default expectation is that if cooler heads cannot prevail, cold cash can. Ultimately, Pacquiao and Mayweather must weigh their positions against the largest payday of their careers.

If the money doesn’t win out, file that, too, under Man Bites Dog.

Source: signonsandiego.com