Pacman vs. Pretty Boy: Will they rumble after all?

To drug test or not, that's seems to be the nettlesome question that's threatening what should be the fight of this century: Manny Pacquiao vs. Floyd Mayweather Jr.

A childish dispute over drug testing looks like a lousy excuse for delaying the bout or for keeping it from happening altogether.

But what's surprising here?

Isn't this simply how professional boxing has been for the better part of 1990s and beyond?

The sport has given its fans this head-fake before. It has stoked interest in a signature match only to let trifling matters undo everything. What should be an easy fight for promoters Bob Arum and Richard Schaefer to make has become more complicated than the U.S. tax code or the "simple" instructions to a do-it-yourself project that promises even a caveman can do it.

Nothing falls into the easy category, however, when it comes to putting together big-time fights. Greed and ego ruin everything, so can stupidity, which is the reason Mayweather might not step into the ring against Pacquiao after all.

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Pacman vs. Pretty Boy: Is their fight on?

You can almost see Manny Pacquiao’s smile.

Check it out.

There his smile is in front of you -- a toothy grin that turns the Pacman’s features into a cartoonist's rendering, a wide and exaggerated visage that indicates he’s comfortable with his circumstances.

Did you see it?

You won't have to search hard for reasons behind Pacquiao's smiling. He has millions of reasons.

Fresh from his demolition last month of Miguel Cotto, Pacquiao learned his performance didn’t scare off “Pretty Boy” Floyd Mayweather Jr., an unbeaten fighter who has to be smiling broadly himself. He got Mayweather's people to agree in principle on a contract; he did so without all the posturing that often attaches itself to Mayweather like Velcro.

Oh, his people had been floating hints that to make this mega-fight happen, they would insist Mayweather earns the lion’s share of a princely purse. They tried to convince everybody that he was the top draw for PPV subscribers, not the pint-sized Pacquiao.

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