2010 Ring Fan Polls: The non-Event of the Year

A non-event, the failed Manny Pacquiao-Floyd Mayweather Jr. negotiations, is the Event of the Year. UPSET OF THE YEAR VOTING RESULTS

Pacquiao-Mayweather failed negotiations: 60 percent
Pacquiao-Margarito fight: 21 percent
Death of Edwin Valero: 12 percent
Mayweather-Mosley fight: 6 percent
Pacquiao-Clottey fight: 1 percent


Today's poll: Knockout of the Year. Vote at Yahoo! Sports by clicking here


The 2010 Ring Fan Polls Event of the Year is an event that hasn’t taken place.

As the year started, Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr. were about to go into mediation after they failed to reach an agreement on a fight on March 13 that would’ve been the richest fight in the history of the sport.

The key obstacle was Olympic-style blood testing, which Mayweather demanded. The fighters agreed on the testing but couldn’t find common ground of a cutoff date, the reason they turned to a mediator in attempt to save the fight.

Alas, mediation bore no fruit. The fight was off. Naturally, each side blamed the other and the fans -– dying to see the most-compelling possible match-up in the sport –- were left forlorn.

The fighters also went their separate ways. Pacquiao turned to Joshua Clottey, who he easily outpointed at Cowboys Stadium on March 13. Mayweather did the same to Shane Mosley on May 1.

Round 2 of “negotiations” began shortly after the Mayweather-Mosley fight, when Bob Arum, Pacquiao’s promoter, announced that he would do everything possible to make Pacquiao-Mayweather for Nov. 13.

Then, after months of what we presumed were ongoing negotiations, Arum gave Mayweather a deadline –- in the form of a countdown clock on his Web site, to agree to terms or his fighter would go a different direction.

Of course, that deadline came and went without a word from Mayweather. That was that. The fight everyone wants to see was off again. And, again, baffled writers and fans, unable to fathom how two men could pass on such a lucrative proposition, expressed their disgust.

Then it got weirder. Mayweather’s camp issued statement shortly after the fight was pronounced dead that negotiations never even took place –- even though they certainly did –- which left everyone scratching their heads.

And that’s where we stand on Pacquiao-Mayweather.

We might yet see the fight because of the money involved. However, there are still powerful forces working against it -– the blood-testing issue, Mayweather’s mounting legal woes, the monumental egos involved, exasperation.

At least we’ve grown accustomed to disappointment on this issue. The sides could go back to the table, announce that nothing was accomplished and no one would blink.

Indeed, at this point, no one will be surprised if Pacquiao-Mayweather never happens.


Round of the Year: Khan-Maidana 10

Prospect of the Year: Saul "Canelo" Alvarez

Comeback of the Year: Juan Manuel Marquez

Upset of the Year: Jason Litzau-Celestino Caballero