Media Monster

Does Manny Pacquiao Duck Black Fighters?

Future boxing Hall-of-Famer Bernard Hopkins thinks that Manny Pacquiao is ducking American-born black fighters, according to comments he made to Fanhouse.com’s Lem Satterfield.

This afforded Chris Broussard and Skip Bayless the opportunity to have a conversation about race on “First Take,” something that “First Take” likes to do quite frequently.

First, Hopkins’ comments:

“Maybe I’m biased because I’m black, but I think that this is what is said at people’s homes and around the dinner table among black boxing fans and fighters. Most of them won’t say it [in public] because they’re not being real and they don’t have the balls to say it,” said Hopkins, a 45-year-old future Hall of Famer and a multi-division champion.

“Listen, this ain’t a racial thing, but then again, maybe it is,” said Hopkins. “But the style that is embedded in most of us black fighters, that style could be a problem to any other style of fighting.”

Now, onto the “1st and 10″ debate. Broussard brings up the most salient point of all when it comes to Hopkins’ charge against Pacquiao, pointing out that there simply aren’t a whole lot of black fighters in the weight classes that Pacquiao generally fights in.

Floyd Mayweather Jr. really is his best option, and host Jay Crawford wondered aloud if this was a ploy on Hopkins’ part to get Mayweather fired up for a possible mega-showdown (“You need to do it for us!”). We can only hope that Hopkins’ race-baiting gives us the fight we all want.

[Hopkins: Manny Pacquiao beatable] ESPN