The psychological gamesmanship underpinning Saturday’s hotly anticipated fight between Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao began years before it was made, with public disputes over drug testing, purse splits and promotional heft meant to impose a sense of dominance.
The latest salvo came on Wednesday in the form of a protest over the protective cup Pacquiao plans to wear on Saturday night. Mayweather’s camp claimed that the full-grain leather cup rose above the Filipino’s navel, prompting an inspection by the Nevada Athletic Commission.
It was revealed Pacquiao met with NAC officials on Tuesday at the Top Rank Gym in Las Vegas to prove the cup was legal, which it was. The gear was then marked and signed off by the commission and the matter was resolved.
“You go back and look at the pictures of that fight of how high [Oscar] De La Hoya’s cup was. It was well over his navel,” Leonard Ellerbe, CEO of Mayweather Promotions, told the Grand Rapids Press. “There are a number of documented pictures that are out there.
“So I contacted the commission, and they came by and took a look at both fighters’ cups that they would be wearing the night of, just so there wouldn’t be any issues, because I know how his trainer is. So I’m pleased with that aspect of it.”
Then there is the matter of the gloves. Both fighters are wearing their preferred brands – Reyes for Pacquiao, Grant for Mayweather – and both were meant to be delivered to the commission earlier this week.
Yet while Pacquiao’s eight ounce gloves were in the commission’s possession prior to the agreed-upon date, Freddie Roach said that Mayweather’s camp had yet to deliver his pair for evaluation. The seven-times trainer of the year said he would like to know more about the padding material: typically foam, horse hair or a blend. “Their gloves are handmade,” Roach said. “I just want to make sure the weight is fair, but his gloves haven’t showed up yet.”
Last May Mayweather threatened to pull out of his first fight with Marcos Maidana after personally inspecting the Argentinian’s gloves and claiming they were insufficiently padded.
These logistical problems notwithstanding, an eerie calm has fallen over the otherwise combustible promotion as the fight draws near, even as swelling crowds have started to fill the casinos along the Las Vegas strip in anticipation of the biggest fight in a generation.
