Fight that didn't happen underscores boxing woes

In boxing, 2010 will be remembered more for the fight that wasn't made than for the good bouts that were made, a sad situation that defines one of boxing's biggest problems.

November 13 was the date set aside for Manny Pacquiao to face Floyd Mayweather Jr., but while HBO Sports head Ross Greenburg tried quietly to bring together Top Rank, which represents Pacquiao, and Golden Boy, which promotes Mayweather, no deal was reached. In fact, Golden Boy CEO Richard Schaefer still maintains no negotiations took place despite Greenburg's assertion that they did.

"I guess Ross and me have a different definition of negotiations," Schaefer said recently. "It doesn't really matter. This is like water under the bridge and we all move on to bigger and better things. The only thing I can say for fight fans is that, hopefully, that fight eventually is going to happen between Floyd and Manny."

Mayweather called it a year after beating declining Shane Mosley in May. Rather than seeking a more compelling challenge, Pacquiao agreed to fight Antonio Margarito, who also is promoted by Top Rank's Bob Arum. Margarito was suspended more than a year ago by California when it was discovered his former trainer put illegal padding in his gloves, but Texas licensed him for the Nov. 13 date.

"We live in a perverse society," said promoter Lou DiBella, who approached both the Pacquiao and Mayweather camps to see if they had interest in meeting his middleweight champion, Sergio Martinez, at the light middleweight limit of 154. "I expected Margarito to be licensed to fight again, but to be rewarded with the biggest fight in the world specifically because you're an outcast and a cheater is what I find so perverse."

Martinez wasn't the only one who approached the Pacquiao and Mayweather camps when their proposed bout fell through. Promoter Dan Goosen tried to match his former welterweight champion, Paul Williams, who has beaten Margarito, against either of them.

"It's his promoter more than Pacquiao," Goosen said of Arum. "We need the mentality of our fighters to be the way it was with Hagler, Leonard, Duran and Hearns."

DiBella said he also tried to match Martinez with 154-pound champion Miguel Cotto but was turned down by Arum. Goosen and DiBella agree the tendency of Top Rank and Golden Boy to stage "in-house" bouts, matching two fighters they control is hurting boxing.

Speaking of Arum, Goosen said, "Unfortunately, the mindset is 'Heads, I win, and tails, I win.' Once you have those type of percentages, it's tough to walk away from it. But if you don't walk away from it, the fans are deprived."

Some believe Mayweather-Pacquiao didn't get made because of problems between Top Rank and Golden Boy, but Schaefer said, "I would never want to stand in a fighter's way to not make a fight because of personal feelings about promoters."

In the end, the best matchup of the year belongs to Goosen and DiBella, who put together a rematch of Williams' controversial majority decision win over Martinez last year at a 157-pound catchweight for Martinez's WBC middleweight belt on Nov. 20 in Atlantic City. Financially, it doesn't approach what Pacquiao or Mayweather can do, but from an artistic standpoint, it beats anything Top Rank and Golden Boy were able to produce.