“Floyd Mayweather wins by surprising knockout over the Filipino fury, Manny Pacquiao.” “The boxing world has found the true pound for pound champion.” “No more questions, we have our answer.” “A Cinco de Mayo for the ages!” Is what the headlines could have read…But, of course not. Floyd continues to skirt around the only true competition left near his weight class. Mayweather is undeniably a phenomenally talented and skilled fighter with outstanding defense and strong, fast, lethal and accurate combinations. He is a great self-promoter, drawing lots of attention to his fights. He is a champion boxer. Nobody can take those things away from him. BUT, his unwillingness to agree to the fight of the century with Pac-Man will be what he is remembered for. Just like Mike Tyson’s bad behavior, and Foreman shilling his grills, the greatness that they achieved inside the ring will be overshadowed by their actions outside the ring.

Mayweather’s new reasons for not fighting are that he will not put his family at risk due to his assumption that Pacquiao takes performance enhancers. He says he’s concerned about his family once he’s too old to box and provide for them. Really, your $35 million purse from Saturday and the other millions from past fights aren’t enough to make sure things are running smoothly at your house for many years?

He says that Pacquiao moved up in weight by taking steroids. But Floyd, you’ve moved up 20 pounds since you started. Did you take drugs too? He says a lot of things; after all, “Money” Mayweather knows how to build suspense and promote. Pacquiao agreed to the needle testing; then Mayweather made an insulting offer of the purse split and opposed the 50/50 division. Pacquiao seems ready, the promoters are more than ready for this fight, but there is one person that is not, and that is the currently guilty of domestic violence, currently running from the biggest competitor he will ever face, recent winner of another decision in Saturday’s fight vs. Miguel Cotto, Mr. Mayweather.

I don’t really want to trash a man who is as talented as Floyd. I just want to see how he will handle Pacquiao’s speed coupled with the power of the famous Filipino. It’s a great matchup, the amazing, punch-dodging defense of Mayweather vs. the lighting jabs and hooks of Pacquiao. It’s a way to breath life into the floundering boxing world with the rising popularity of MMA.

MMA is more like a real fight anyway and infinitely more exciting. MMA is the future of combat sports. There is a glut of talent in each weight class, there are young fighters ready to showcase their skills, and there are few rules. Boxing is never going to be gone from the PPV world, but it may not be as popular when you cannot arrange the best fight to happen due to a fussy fighter. Dana White sets up the fights for his contracted crew of combatants. If he wants a matchup to happen, it usually does.

It’s unclear if it is ego, fear or a combination of both that is preventing Mayweather from taking this fight. Floyd, on behalf of fight fans everywhere, put your “undefeated” record aside, stop making excuses, stop talking to piles of money with 50 Cent, stop flirting with Chili and start training.