Well, I was off on holiday for the last week and a bit, enjoying a good 10 days away from the internet, meaning no more hourly checks on my phone on the latest boxingscene updates. What is amazing is that there has apparently been enough to require Saddo to create a whole new sub-section before the fight is even signed, despite the fact that there has been little progress since the last time I checked, apart from that bizarre Freddie Roach interview on doghouse.

Anyway, I'll leave most of my views on the Pac/PED scandal aside for now, although from what I've read, Killer, Miles & Kirkland have articulated most of how I feel (and the opposite goes for the handful of posters who appear to have lost their minds, and their credibility here, over it). I'm more concerned with how this has affected boxing as a sport. On the one hand, I've never heard so many people talking about it & should the fight take place on March 13, then we could be looking at truly unprecedented PPV figures. On the other hand, the damage to Manny Pacquiao's reputation, and through his clear position as one of the sport's current two poster boys, boxing's rep as a whole has been bad. I met quite a few people on my hols who we would class as casual sports fans, and they all seemed to think that Pacquiao is on something.

I think the most comparable event to how this whole scandal has hit Pacquiao is the Duran 'No Mas' incident against Leonard. I know people will talk about Tyson and a number of his actions, but those things essentially confirmed the ideas the general public already had about him. Duran was the epitome of a tough, he was huge off the back of the first fight with Leonard, so for him to quit as he did in front of the world was a massive shock to fans, and for years it was immensely damaging to his reputation. You could argue that only through being brutalized by Hearns, and engaging in those fights with Hagler and Barkley did he do enough to redeem his reputation a bit. Like Duran, Pacquiao is a non-US fighter who has captured the imagination of the American public. He's the nice guy who destroys men in the ring. His image was founded upon this, and this whole PED issue has hit him in a similar way to Duran, in that his actions are in complete contrast to the image we have of him.

Like I said, those above have basically expressed my opinion, he needs to take the tests (all of them) or there will always be heavy doubts. For me, there already are and on a personal level, I need him to take the tests and show me he's clean. Seeing him knockout Hatton live was one the best moments of 2009 for me, in what was a bad year personally. I really felt I'd witnessed something special, so much so that I still try to avoid seeing replays of the actual event, because I want to be able to hold onto my memory of it and more particularly, that final punch. I spent years of savings to go to Vegas and that fight, and I'd feel so cheated if I didn't know it was legit. Sadly, those doubts are already there.

Anyway, hopefully this mediator gets things signed and this forum goes back to normal and in March/May/Whenever, we get to see the defining fight for our generation.

PS. Sorry for another thread on this topic, hopefully there was at least some slightly new slant to it.