Boxing News – July 25, 2019

4 lBOXING NEWSlJULY 25, 2019 http://www.boxingnewsonline.net

EDITOR’S LETTER

FURIOUS FISTS:

Pacquiao still

punches with

startling speed

SUSPICIOUS MINDS

Coming

next time

l WE speak

to hot

featherweight

prospect Michael

Conlan and

look ahead

to his Belfast

showcase in

Falls Park.

l RISING super-

welterweight

Anthony Fowler

talks about his

career so far

as we preview

his re-arranged

clash with

former world

title challenger

Brian Rose in

Liverpool.

l ALL the action

from Arlington,

Texas, where

Jose Ramirez

meets Maurice

Hooker in

a super-

lightweight

unification

bout.

l AVAILABLE to

download from

July 30 and the

print edition is

in stores on

August 1.

On the

website

l WE catch up

with Martin

Bowers – the

trainer of

heavyweight

starlet Daniel

Dubois.

l FOR all the

day’s boxing

news, read the

supreme Elliot

Worsell’s Boxing

News At Five.

Pacquiao’s legend gathers pace but so do the accusations being aimed at him

ANNY PACQUIAO
wins again.
Another young
buck defeated,
another
astonishing victory
to add to his long
list of astonishing
victories and, at
the ripe old age
of 40, another
performance
worthy of true
greatness.
For some,
though, it’s
all a little too
astonishing. The
more the Filipino
defies logic, the older he gets while
beating fighters like Keith Thurman,
then the harder it becomes for the
cynics to accept that “Pac Man”, who
started his professional boxing career
24 years ago as a malnourished light-
flyweight, is simply a force of nature.
He’s collected world titles all the
way up to super-welterweight while
gathering speed and increasing his
muscle mass and power. Therefore, say
those cynics, he must have had help in
the form of performance-enhancing
drugs.
The suspicions surrounding Pacquiao
have been common since his peak,
when he soared to welterweight
and savaged the likes of Oscar De La
Hoya, Ricky Hatton and Miguel Cotto.
His form was awe-inspiring and his
victories utterly devastating. A payment

of $114,000 was made to Pacquiao in

2012 after he filed a lawsuit against

Floyd Mayweather when the American

accused the Filipino of cheating.

Still the accusations came as

Pacquiao, approaching his mid-30s,

stopped knocking people out, he lost

to Juan Manuel Marquez and his form

slipped from its highest heights. His

critics suggested that Manny, afraid

of getting caught, had stopped taking

drugs and was no longer the force of

before. Not exactly

watertight stuff.

We can point to

the testing procedures

and pick huge holes in

the process. We must

continue to demand

that the authorities

unite to introduce the

kind of year-round

random testing capable

of ending this kind of

conjecture. Particularly

in a sporting world

where drug-use is rife

and the cheaters go to

great lengths to avoid being caught.

But while doing all that we must also

remember that Pacquiao has never

been caught despite taking countless

tests. Isn’t it something of a shame that

our sport can’t unite to toast a living,

breathing, fighting legend in a similar

way that the tennis world all hailed

Roger Federer’s recent exploits at

Wimbledon?

In truth, the suspicion aimed at

Manny is an admission that boxing,

with its myriad governors and

loopholes and lawlessness, is broken.

Therefore, catching and punishing

someone of Pacquiao’s standing for

cheating would prove that those in

power are least willing to try and fix

it.

Again, it’s all a little unfair on

Pacquiao. Let’s not make him the

scapegoat for a widespread problem

when there’s no evidence to suggest

he’s involved. He’s never had to

blame contaminated

meat or been caught

with an intravenous

drip in his arm shortly

after a weigh-in. He’s

never wished an

opponent dead or

damaged the sport’s

reputation in any

way. For now – in the

aftermath of another

stunning victory – let’s

do the right thing by

Pacquiao and give him

his dues.

Because if we

examine only the facts at hand, if we

look at his supreme accomplishments

and the fighters he has beaten, if

we recognise the fearlessness he’s

exhibited when testing himself against

bigger and younger adversaries, then

the only conclusion to draw is that

Manny Pacquiao is one of the greatest

of them all.

M

Matt

Christie

@MattCBoxingNews

Editor

Cover photography

STEWART COOK/FOX SPORTS &

MARK ROBINSON/MATCHROOM

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Photo: RYAN HAFEY/PBC

HE’S NEVER

HAD TO BLAME

CONTAMINATED

MEAT OR

BEEN CAUGHT

WITH AN

INTRAVENOUS

DRIP