Boxing Socialist: Mayweather's body of work trumps Pacquiao's

from: Michael Marley, Boxing Examiner

Fans continue to fantasize about

 Mayweather vs. Pacquiao, which 

could happen next year (this is a 

recording, lol)

Credits: Pacland

This will shock some of you out there.

This will amaze others.

But, your very own "White Gorilla" has just discovered that there is some civility, some rationality in the rancid jungle that is internet boxing sites and fan forums.



Amir Khan's steady emergence as a real, budding superstar in our sport had me thinking about where the Bolton Wanderer should be ranked on the always mythical but generally fun Pound for Pound Fighter list.
So I spoke with that well-known "Boxing Socialist" Kevin Davis, aka "Karceno 4 Life" out in Chicago.

Now, when it comes to the top of the list, Davis and I have a gentlemen's disagreement if you will about who occupies the lofty perch.

Davis doesn't wave pom poms or wear a Team Mayweather letter jacket but he also does not hide his super strength admiration and respect for Floyd Mayweather, Jr.

To Davis, Mayweather is the alpha and the omega of the P4P list.

I put Manny Pacquiao in that position and, where Davis contends Pacquiao can only replace "Money" as the Numero Uno if the Pinoy Idol either whips FM in the ring or Mayweather retires for good.

My response is, quite naturally as Sugar Ray Leonard likes to say ever eight seconds, is that short of some boxing burglary, Mayweather is the second story man unless and until he whips Da Pacman or the Fighting Congressman hangs up the gloves.

But Davis, who is not one of the lunatic fringe freaks running a boxing website (meaning that he did not learn how to whisper in a saw mill), then hit me with a counterpunch when I pressed him about who should be ranked third, fourth and so on.

"There's no reason for a list. Pound for Pound is one guy, one fighter. It started with guys like Henry Armstrong and Sugar Ray Robinson but it's all about one supreme fighter, not about a list, a pecking order.

"I respect Pacquiao but his overall body of work doesn't equal or exceed Mayweather's. Nobody else approaches Mayweather's body of work, either.


"But I don't get caught up worrying about if Sergio Martinez is Number Three and so on. Clearly, Manny is the guy behind Mayweather."


I may lose my Pacman Fan Club perks by saying so but Davis makes sense.

Of my alltime baseball idol (did you know he was half Mexican, most people don't) Ted Williams of the Red Sox, it was said he was the game's best hitter.

Nobody worried about who was baseball's second best hitter.

Of course, with his ambition and ego, Williams wanted a higher status. He frankly admitted he wanted to be known as the greatest hitter who ever lived.

He wanted people to say, as he walked down the street, "There goes the greatest hitter who ever lived."
In my eyes as a former baseball writer (New York Post, two seasons then lowly Mets, one year with Dick Howser's Yankees), Teddy Ballgame is all that a bag of tortilla chips.

Neither Mayweather or Pacquiao will go down as the greatest fighter who ever lived.

But Chitown sage Davis is correct in that first place in this category is all that really matters.

He says "Money," I say Pacman.

Everybody else is stuck in third place and, when you dwell on it, even second place is nothing to scream about.

But Davis is not a screamer anyway.

He's polished and civilized and can disagree without venom.

I knew there was a guy like that out there in the jungle.

Maybe "Karceno" can soothe some of the more savage beasts...White Gorillas excluded of course.

(mlcmarley@aol.com)