By King J (Featured Columnist) on July 26, 2010 341
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Jeoffrey Maitem/Getty Images Would You rather be Labled:
Juicer
Chicken
Chicken Juice
Submit Vote vote to see results Back in March, when the then-Pacquiao vs. Mayweather dream fight first began to fall apart into a downward spiral (yes, the first time), allegations were made against Pacquiao using performance-enhancement drugs and although these allegations have still yet to be proven many started to label Manny a steroid user because he refused to commit to Team Mayweather’s then-random drug testing agreement for their fight.
From that point on, many fight fans flooded the forums weighing in on whether Manny Pacquiao indeed uses performing enhancement drugs.
The publicity from this even got rival fight promoting company figures such as Golden Boy and credible media boxing figures such as Teddy Atlas weighing in as well with their own opinions and alleged inside information.
There was a severe backlash and Pacquiao’s almost unblemished public image was significantly tarnished with many fight fans and even fellow fighters and media all taking their sides giving Manny the label of being a “juicer.”
So for several months, many casual fans started to hate on Manny, questioning all his past achievements because of this new label of being a supposed “juicer.”
Then flash forward four months later to today, and ironically much of the public has either forgotten or does not view Manny to be “juicer” anymore, but instead they are labeling Floyd Mayweather as a chicken.
Primarily for not meeting Bob Arum’s supposed deadline from two weeks ago.
Much of the media including journalists from ESPN, and other credible boxing figures are labeling Mayweather a chicken for not responding to Bob Arum’s alleged deadline.
Floyd has however been on vacation in Puerto Rico and his team have stated that there were never any actual negotiations going on and there was never a contract presented to them.
Whether this is true or not or a stretch of the truth the media and public have now labeled Floyd a chicken and a coward for ducking Manny Pacquiao.
Now the real question of the hour is would you rather be considered and labeled a: “juicer” or a “chicken”. In the world of boxing both of these labels are obvious career killers and probably two of the worst things that a fighter can be known as.
I remember when I was in college and we all had to write this monster final project research paper. I asked Sergio a classmate of mine who had finished the course last year if I can read some of his paper and he showed me this award winning dissertation written by some Ivy League scholar who looked like he was writing in some foreign language. I then asked him where the hell did he get this paper from? Then I realized this was his actual paper and I thought for sure he had plagiarized the whole thing for it seemed like something he was never capable of writing. At first it may seem quite insulting to Sergio that I strongly disbelieved he could ever write this paper, but he responded to me, “Well thanks, this is the biggest compliment ever…. you are basically saying my paper was so exceptional.”
Ironically this is a unique way of viewing Pacquiao and his still unproven PED usage. Many began to believe the rumors were true about Pacquiao using PED’s because of his exceptional accomplishments in the ring which made him appear simply on a different level from all of his recent opponents.
However, when thinking of Floyd Mayweather being labeled a chicken, I cannot seem to twist that label into anything positive at all. It reminds me of a time growing up in Chicago in the early 1990’s when the gangs were really out of control back home.
There was a war going on between two of the biggest gangs of Chicago always fighting and killing each other every where you went.
Finally, the leaders of these rival gangs decided to settle it once and for all with an old fashion rumble in the forest preserve in the middle of the night on a Saturday.
Word had spread like wildfire that these two big gangs were going to have a big mother rumble and everyone in the civilian world started weighing in on who would win this rumble.
One gang reached out to their affiliates another even bigger gang in Chicago to team up and fight with them on their side for the rumble where the other rival gang pretty much remained very mysterious and quiet.
Finally that Saturday night came and the first gang showed up hundreds deep at the designated location with all intentions to win this war once and for all.
But the only problem was that the rival gang never showed up and so you had hundreds of gang members fired up and ready to fight and kill but nobody to fight and kill that night.
So shortly after that night this rival gang began to spread word that they never knew about this rumble ever taking place. They kept claiming that had they known they were supposed to rumble that Saturday night then it would have gone down for sure.
If you can imagine this gang started to lose a lot of street credibility and their reputation was pretty much done for many of their rivals began to lose respect for them and started to take them lightly.
This pretty much is what happened in Floyd Mayweather’s case. I personally do not think he is really scared or the chicken that everyone is labeling him these days however I can see how the general public may view him as that.
Had someone from Mayweather’s team expressed their thoughts or made a statement prior to the deadline then it would have helped maintain Mayweather's reputation instead of waiting until Bob Arum’s deadline, legit or not, came and passed.
So again if you had to chose. Would you rather be labeled a “juicer” or a “chicken”?
I personally would prefer to be labeled a juicer for the reasons I explained earlier in this article, for only greats who compete on a whole different level are often being accused of juicing. You never see a loser being accused of juicing.
How about you? “juicer” or “chicken”?
This article is making me hungry; time for dinner.
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