Pacquiao, Mayweather need each other

Boxing is the most basic sport. Two guys (or women) come together to decide who can beat up whom. It's that simple.

You imagine boxing going all the way back to prehistory when one guy defended his cave against an intruder. Not having the benefit of a referee, they probably fought to the death. Unlike most sports, boxing is unmediated aggression. There are no balls or nets or bases or yard lines. There is nothing symbolic and very little to interpret. You put gloves on two fighters, tell them a few rules (no biting) and let them have at it. I prefer to write boxing more than other sports because the issues are clear and what's at stake is stark and serious.

On Saturday night Floyd Mayweather Jr. defeated Shane Mosley by decision.

Although Mosley hurt Mayweather in the second round, made his legs shiver, Mayweather out-boxed and out-punched Mosley, a worthy opponent, and showed his pedigree and demonstrated again why he is the best fighter in decades.

Mayweather has a blank space in his curriculum vitae. He has not fought Manny Pacquiao and until he does people will wonder: 1) if he is better than Pacquiao; 2) if he is afraid of Pacquiao.

The protocol of boxing is clear. Great fighters must beat great fighters. If you don't beat a great fighter, you can't back up your claim. Sugar Ray Robinson beat Jake LaMotta, and Cassius Clay as Cassius Clay beat Sonny Liston, and Muhammad Ali as Muhammad Ali beat Joe Frazier and George Foreman, and Sugar Ray Leonard beat Thomas Hearns.

Mayweather must beat Pacquiao — and Pacquiao must beat Mayweather — or each is incomplete and poorly defined. Each can shout he is the greatest but in boxing, words mean nothing and inarticulate men like Joe Louis have been brilliant with their mitts.

Mayweather is making a big squawk. He won't fight Pacquiao, he says, unless Pacquiao agrees to urine and blood testing up until fight night. This is called Olympic-style testing. Pacquiao says blood testing so close to a fight would weaken him. They are at an impasse.

According to boxing logic, Mayweather does not want this fight. The man who makes conditions, the man who utters the phrase "yes, but," is the one afraid of losing the fight. And Mayweather keeps saying "yes, but," yes he'll fight but only with Olympic-style testing.

For what it's worth, I spoke to a fighter who knows someone in Mayweather's camp who said Mayweather does not think he's ready for Pacquiao. This was a few months ago after Mayweather had come out of retirement and was re-learning his body and his reflexes. I don't know how much that insight is worth. Call it highly second hand.

Still, that is how I see Mayweather — putting up obstacles as fast as he can. Imagine him in an action movie. He's in the back of a truck and the cops are pursuing him on motorcycles and he throws down big oil drums to knock them off the cycles. He's throwing oil drums at Pacquiao.

Except for one thing. Pacquiao is highly fishy. I write that with trepidation because he is a national hero in the Philippines and he is a gentleman from what we can tell and he's almost certainly a great fighter, although he needs to beat Mayweather as proof of greatness.

It's just that Pacquiao started as a junior-flyweight and junior flies weigh 106 pounds. We're talking jockeys here. Pacquiao grew and grew like someone in a fairytale who took a magic potion. Except Mayweather doesn't think it's fairy dust what Pacquiao took. Mayweather thinks it might be performance-enhancing drugs, maybe even Human Growth Hormone.

A certain amount of circumstantial evidence backs up Mayweather's suspicion.

How does a guy go from 106 pounds to 147 just like that?

Pacquiao now is a welterweight and welterweights are not little guys. They walk around at, say, 160, and when you see a welter you don't think little guy. You think regular guy. A welter is someone you look straight in the eye and when you shake hands the grip is firm.

Pacquiao's growth is miraculous and something else is miraculous, and this is Boxing 101. He is a hard puncher — a real whacker — who brought his punch with him from 106 pounds to 147 pounds. This is the real issue. When boxing people see a fighter who moves up the weight classes they always ask, "Did he bring his punch with him?"

Think of the punch as an enchanted gift that must be forfeited as a fighter gets bigger. Fighters do forfeit the gift. It is rare for a small fighter who hits hard to hit hard when he gets bigger. Pacquiao has brought his punch along a 41-pound journey and this is worthy of thought and consideration. And you can bet Mayweather is thinking and considering and wondering what in the world is going on with this guy who defies natural laws.

That being said, everyone who knows anything about boxing expects Mayweather and Pacquiao to make the fight — all that money will speak. And as proud athletes, they understand the overwhelming imperative: Something in the world needs to get settled.

For more on the world of sports in general and the Bay Area in particular, go to the Cohn Zohn at blog.pressdemocrat.com/cohn. You can reach Staff Columnist Lowell Cohn at lowell.cohn@pressdemocrat.com.