A word of advice to any fighter out there who still does not get the message fully: Don’t you dare try to knock out Floyd Money Mayweather. Sugar Shane tried. Sugar Shane came somewhat close. He delivered a monstrous right, twice and both times, particularly the second time, Floyd’s knees buckled. And he paid for it. Sugar Shane that is. He paid for the audacity of coming closer than anyone else ever did to putting the Money man on his ass on queer street.

Floyd is a badass. He is the baddest boxer alive today. I love Pac man, I love Sugar Shane, but there is no doubt in my mind, that when he decides to fight, there is no one and nothing like Floyd Mayweather in the ring. He is amazing for both his offense and defense, and his unequalled efficiency. There is not other fighter that I have ever seen who so clearly understands just how much they need to do to win a fight. He never does, Floyd that is, more than he absolutely needs to do to win. Last night he got lazy for a couple of minutes in the second and almost got knocked out. But the correction he made was amazing. He was untouched for the rest of the fight!

There are some things Floyd does which must just be frightening to an opponent. He is one of the few fighters who will counter the opponents in progress punch every single time. Every single time? Is that some badassitude or is that some badassitude? He will get out of the way and ring your bell at the same time, every single time. He can follow up on a jab, as his opponent steps away from a jab with such blinding speed that the over hand right typically scores. He is stronger, much more so than he looks. And for all the trash talk and attitude, there is not a more studious and serious fighter in the ring.

I like Shane Moseley a lot. From where I sat, it seemed to me like Shane never expected to win. He was surprised that he almost did in the second. The effort and emotion around that event drained him. Once Mayweather made the adjustment, Shane was unable to figure out what to do. There was a moment, I think in the ninth, when I really thought his corner might stop the fight. I am glad they didn’t. Shane is far too good a guy and fighter to have that happen to him.

Pacquiao, if the fight can be made, better bring his lunch. And so should Floyd. Pacquiao is relentless and he hits awfully hard, but I would not be surprised if Floyd knocked him out around the 7th round. Speaking of, I will never understand why Pac’s camp cannot agree to the drug test. In fact all of boxing should be thanking Mayweather for what he is doing for boxing, creating the true image of a dope free sport. If they are concerned about the effect the drawing of blood will have on their fighter, why not just stipulate that both fighters should be tested at the same time? Fairly or not, we can’t help but wonder if they are not trying to hide something. Pac Man’s camp that is. But what a fight it will be when it happens. What a fight! What badassitude!

I love Floyd and I love the Pac Man. These are 2 baddest, coolest fighters I have ever seen, and I have seen many. I remember Ali, Frasier, Foreman, Hagler, Leonard, Hearns, John the Beast Mugabe, Pryor, Agueyo. I remember Hands of Stone Duran. Tyson, Lewis, Arturo. I remember Roy Jones, Pernell Whitaker, to name but a handful. I remember them all. Badasses one and all. Many with badassitude to spare. There were pretenders who came along, inordinately hyped but we fight fans understood what was up. Remember Prince Nassim? Remember Popo Freitas? I remember them all. Was a fan of many, didn’t think much of a few!

Then came Floyd. The quality was beyond belief. The only fighter I have ever seen who always only fought only as much as he needed to.  The guy chose and decided how he wanted to win fights. He had badassitude to spare. He carried his badassedess in a way few could or can. I loved the guy, love the guy still. Remember when he knocked out the pretender from Man City? Toyed with him for a while, got bored and decided to end the fight. Now remember back to the night he decided to fight. The night he fought Arturo. It was frightening to see. As a guy who loves Arturo, it was sad to see.

Then came Manny. The Pac Man. For the longest time he fought primarily with the quickest right-left combination ever and a crazy abundance of energy and determination – he came to fight. Then he found Freddie Roach and learned how to box and the combination became lethal. Remember the abuse he heaped on Oscar? The way he dismissed the pretender from Man City? How he embarrassed Cotto?  But he was and is a nice soft-spoken dude, almost embarrassed by how badass he was. He showed a tone of badassitude.

Both guys walked through opponents like knives through butter. In their different ways, one brash, confident, often loud, and the other soft spoken and humble, they were both off the charts on the badassitude scale. The were venom to an opponent. Think of them as twin venomous serpents from a different mother. It came to pass that the only fight we really wanted to see and really want to see is  the fight between Floyd and the Pac Man. We all thought we would see this fight like now. Then what happens? We get 2 competing fights with semi no-names because the principals (methinks it’s more the punks who represent the principals) got into a silly pissing contest about who was may or might or was rumored to have used PEDs.

Prior to this silliness you couldn’t find 2 fighters with more badassitude. These boys were badasses and they knew it. It showed in everything they did. It showed in every way they carried themselves. It showed in their fights. It showed. It just showed. They had badassitude to spare. You could run a charity badassitude enterprise on their left overs.  Then, poof, just like that, they both punked out at the same time pretty much. They gave in to the pettiness (hint – pettiness drops your score on the badassitude scale), silliness (hint – silliness drops your score on the badassitude scale), stupidity (hint – stupidity drops your score on the badassitude scale – by a lot), bullshit (hint – bullshit drops your score on the badassitude scale), lying (hint – lying drops your score on the badassitude scale – below the floor).

We are watching the 2 best fighters on earth today contrive to sabotage potentially the biggest fight ever on earth and it boggles the mind. Completely boggles the mind!