developing against him. maybe he d be lucky to be on the court. people probably would be throwing things at him. what s your take on this? again, is there a double standard in the way he s been dealt with? i mean, there s clearly a double standard. i mean, it s fitting that his last name has joke in it. i feel that s what most of this is. you know, if you want to play by the rules, if you feel very strongly, if you have convictions about a very specific thing, you take muhammad ali. a lot of people like to take the covid stances and compare themselves to someone who did something great. muhammad ali didn t want to fight in the vietnam war. he lost his boxing license. he cleared that time until he could box. he didn t start unsanctioned bar fights. act like it s not me and didn t go. it s a weird thing. as someone who watched who has friends in sydney, australia and watched people live under the some of the strictest of
mayweather. two fans claim pacquiao unfairly kept his shoulder injury a secret. a class-action lawsuit alleges this the fans were ripped off and defrauded because they believed pacquiao was healthy. that includes everyone who bought tickets or purchased it on pay-per-view or made a legal bet on the match. a lawyer for pacquiao tells espn the lawsuit is hogwash. joining me now, former hbo boxings analyst larry merchant. a pleasure to have you on sir. thank you. this is a very big deal because pacquiao could potentially lose his boxing license. i know the investigation is under way, as far as whether or not he hid his injury. my question to you, larry, is it abnormal for fighters to hide injuries before a big match like this? it s not abnormal. sometimes they want to go ahead with a fight because they re
we talk about with mayweather and winston is similar, mayweather being issued a boxing license despite what he s being charged with. they didn t even talk to him when he was initially being investigated because, you know the police department and campus security are very much in bed with each other because of the high profile these athletes have. both of these cases, these are very parochial interests. the tallahassee police department, these communities where college football is the main industry they rely on college football as their economy for a large part of the year. similarly nevada needs floyd mayweather to fight there. that s why it will be at most a slap on the wrist. because if they don t give them a license, california or new york, they will give them that. that s one of the reasons boxing needs national oversight. it comes down to commerce. how much revenue you can generate for an organization or team or community, that s what it s all about.