Full Mayweather-Pacquiao coverage
It's just over five weeks until fight night in Las Vegas.
Which means it's high time for Teddy Atlas to utter something interesting regarding the soon-to-be goings-on between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao.
The outspoken ESPN2 analyst has already had plenty to say regarding the imminent welterweight unification match, but the one drum beat that's continued to resonate is his suggestion/inference/implication that Pacquiao's 2015 vintage is somehow different than his 2009.
"If you really, honestly break it down, Floyd's a defensive specialist,” Atlas told Boxing Channel's Marcos Villegas. "He doesn't make the greatest fights. He makes big money, but he doesn't always make the greatest fights. And Pacquiao used to make them, but he's a different guy. He's more of a boxer now than a seek-and-destroy guy that he was six years ago. And he's not as big, he's not as powerful as he was six years ago. I don't know why, you'd have to figure that out."
It's not the first time Atlas has made a veiled comment regarding Pacquiao and the notion that his ascension to welterweight supremacy in 2009 -- when he defeated Miguel Cotto by 12th-round stoppage -- was powered by more than just conditioning and skill. In fact, he tossed out the idea on ESPN’s air this month that Mayweather might have avoided the fight for years because of a substance concern.
But no matter how often he says it, the song remains the same to Pacquiao trainer Freddie Roach.
"It’s a free country," Roach told CBSSports.com. "Teddy has the right to be wrong. It’s a right he exercises a lot."
Atlas' other persistent talking point since the fight was announced in February has been a claim that sports fans and boxing observers have been as much in love with the idea of Mayweather and Pacquiao getting together after all this time as they've been because they think it'll be a great match.
"I'm not gonna be a BS artist like some people. I don't know that I'm putting this on my top 10 most anticipated fights," Atlas said. "The timing was right because the fans were, they were lost. They were out in the desert walking around mindlessly, and they're looking for an oasis. The thirst, and they're dying, in their mind, and all of a sudden they look up and they see what they think is an oasis. And they run to it.
"I don't know if the fans are gonna wind up getting water or sand in their mouth. I'm not sure."
On that point, Atlas gets some backing from Ed Berliner.
The current host of Midpoint on Newsmax TV, who's also spent time as a network sports anchor and boxing blow-by-blow man, told CBSSports.com that the prolonged shelf time has dulled his taste for the big event -- a verbal grenade he lobs directly into the "Money" Team camp.
"I fall into the category of a veteran fight fan who shrugs his shoulders," he said.
"Like so many greats of our time, they are fighting years too late when their skills are no longer undisputed. This is a fight that should have been held years ago, but Mayweather's yellow streak -- more like the green streak he knew he could keep going by cashing checks fighting bums and second-raters -- the ridiculous and laughable steroid issue, and once again the stunning greed of promoters managed to make this fight more about who survives than who wins. The fight would have been a can't-miss back around 2007."
To Amy Green, though, the crush remains undeniable.
The Oklahoma-based boxing publicist counts Mayweather Promotions fighter Lanell Bellows among her clients, and she told CBSSports.com that the years have done nothing to diminish how she'll feel come May 2.
"For me, this fight ranks an 8 out of 10 in anticipation, and could edge up the closer it gets to fight time," she said. "There are fight fans who are more enamored with the idea Floyd and Manny are just finally going to meet than those who believe it will be a great fight, but the fight is still what settles everything. Will we see a firefight? Will it be a chess match? That, to me, is where the anticipation is. Boxing is the theater of the unexpected. Anything could happen."
