Pacquiao, Mayweather on course for 2009 fight

By BERNARD FERNANDEZ

So, who’s really No. 1?

In Washington, a Texas congressman, Joe Barton, has introduced legislation that would prevent the NCAA from proclaiming a football game as being for the national championship unless it’s the final of an eight-team playoff.

In Las Vegas, the debate as to who deserves the unofficial but prestigious designation as the premier pound-for-pound boxer in the world began in earnest Saturday night with junior welterweight Manny Pacquiao’s two-round demolition of Ricky Hatton.

Pacquiao had assumed the mantle of P4P best upon the retirement of the previous claimant, Floyd Mayweather Jr., 16 months ago, and his rout of Hatton only served to buttress his supporters’ claim that the Filipino southpaw still is king of the hill. At a Friday press conference in Vegas whose timing was anything but coincidental, Mayweather (39-0, 25 KOs) announced he is ready to return to the ring and give fight fans “another dose of the Mayweather experience.”

That first dose comes on July 18 at the MGM Grand Garden when Mayweather (39-0, 25 KOs) squares off against Juan Manuel Marquez (50-4-1, 37 KOs) in a catchweight bout with a contract limit of 144 pounds.

Mayweather’s comeback and the latest demonstration of Pacquiao’s dominance are as interlocking as it ever gets. Consider the following:

UPacquiao is 1-0-1 against Marquez, the victory by the narrowest of margins, so a rout by Mayweather on July 18 would support his stance that he remains “The Man.”

U“Pac-Man’s” crushing of Hatton was even more devastating than Mayweather’s 10th-round technical knockout of Hatton on Dec. 8, 2007.