Any lingering misconception that Floyd Mayweather Jnr might be the one occupying the moral high ground has surely been dispelled by Manny Pacquiao's declared willingness to waive any and all restrictions on blood testing if the richest fight in boxing history ever makes it into the ring. By lifting his objection to random drugs tests within 14 days of the first bell Pacquiao leaves Mayweather with no excuse for failing to meet the challenge of proving which of them is the greatest pound-for-pound fighter on the planet - assuming of course that any prison sentence Floyd Jnr might be about to receive does not keep him in captivity beyond his pugilistic lifespan. The concept of Mayweather as the good guy flies against his own carefully constructed, money-making image as boxing's man in the black hat. That has not prevented his camp followers from trying to depict Pacquiao as the villain. Lately, however, Mayweather has been going out of his way to cast into question the sanity of his most earnest supporters. First he launched into a racist rant against the recently elected Filipino congressman who is the best boxer in the world in the estimation of most neutral observers. Then he got himself charged with assault and grand larceny following a confrontational visit to the home of the mother of his two children. For this he faces jail-time if convicted in Las Vegas next month. For Pacquiao, meanwhile, it will be business as usual. Four nights after the Money Man has his day in court, the Pacman fights light-middleweight champion Antonio Margarito for his unprecedented eighth world title in different divisions. Ready to go: Pacquiao takes instruction from Buboy Fernandez (right) and Freddie Roach En route to that appointment with history in Dallas, Pacquiao has cranked up the pressure on Mayweather by categorically agreeing to Olympic standard drugs testing. Richard Schaefer, chief executive of Mayweather's Golden Boy promoters, says: 'I have no doubt that Manny is sincere when he says he will accept testing up to the day of the fight.' That puts Mayweather in a corner, albeit not the one across the ring from Pacquiao, not just yet. Assuming that he escapes with nothing more severe than a short prison term, the pressure will be on the angry American to come to terms with Pacquiao for the fight the world most wants to see. Up for the fight: the abrasive Mayweather If, as some in his camp have indicated might happen, Mayweather quibbles over the purse split when each stands to bank anything up to $50million from boxing's first $200m extravaganza, then the credibility of his claims to ring supremacy will be shot to pieces. That is already the case now with Team Mayweather's unsubstantiated insinuations that the Pacman has used drugs to bulk up the weight divisions. Now the undefeated record which Mayweather cherishes and frets over with such paranoia will count for little if he ducks the most potent threat to that statistic. It is a Catch-22 predicament and it seems Mr Money has not yet been approached even by those closest to him to respond to Pacquiao's declaration. All he wanted to talk about on a radio interview this weekend was to deny the assault charges, how his children are being coached to give evidence against him and how he is looking forward to marrying a lady known only as Ms Jackson with rapper 50 Cent as his best man. That should be a wedding to remember. The only oblique reference to Pacquiao came by way of a protestation that with his unbeaten record he does not need the endorsement of 'just one opponent' to confirm his pound-for-pound majesty. Call me a cynic, but that suggests he is less than eager to risk meeting Pacquiao in the ring. Will the yes-men in Mayweather's camp please nerve themselves to tell him that his only face-saving answer to the real question is to come out fighting.
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