Manny Pacquiao of the Philippines and Joshua Clottey of Ghana

attend a news conference in New York City to promote their upcoming fight

It is 7:13 a.m. in Los Angeles and Manny Pacquiao, the world's best pound-for-pound boxer, is jogging on a public high school track. There are palm trees in the distance, and the low hum of traffic on I-10 is starting to turn into a low roar as the Filipino boxer, clad in a red tracksuit, dashes around the dirt oval despite a painful shin splint. A handful of early-arriving students hang on the chain-link fence surrounding the track and watch him do his work. The Pac-Man is preparing for his March 13 fight against Joshua Clottey, a dangerous but relatively unknown welterweight from Ghana. The $49.95 pay-per-view fight is billed as "The Event" but could easily be called "The Letdown."

Just three months ago, boxing was preparing for its version of the Super Bowl. Fresh from his mega-fight win over Miguel Cotto, Pacquiao had begun negotiations with Floyd Mayweather Jr., a brash welterweight whom non-sports fans know best from his appearance on Dancing with the Stars. The proposed battle was being compared to some of the greatest matchups in boxing history. Even people who had given up on boxing or hadn't really thought about it much were talking about the Pacquiao-Mayweather fight, which would probably earn each boxer $40 million, the most lucrative match ever. 

But negotiations became so acrimonious that they descended to the level of bad soap opera. Mayweather insisted on Olympic-style random blood testing, which Pacquiao refused, saying that drug-testing rules should be decided by boxing commissions, not individual fighters. Though suspicions were raised that Pacquiao was on some sort of performance-enhancing drug, the Filipino boxer — who has won an unprecedented seven belts in seven weight classes, putting on 40 lb. throughout his career — has never tested positive for banned drugs. He says he is willing to submit to random urine testing.  

Pacquiao's camp says the boxer refused the blood testing because he is superstitious and doesn't want to give blood so close to fight time. He was blood-tested a couple of days before his fight with Erik Morales, and lost. "It made me weak," says Pacquiao, who is suing Mayweather for sullying his reputation. There is speculation in some boxing gyms that Mayweather knew about Pacquiao's aversion to pre-fight blood testing and used it as a tactic to duck him. But Mayweather insists that he simply wants to reform the sport's drug policies. "I am taking a stand," he says, adding, "I should get to choose who I want to fight." But by allowing the negotiations to collapse, Pacquiao and Mayweather quickly became defined as the boxers who wouldn't fight each other. "I think Floyd is scared of Manny," says Freddie Roach, Pacquiao's trainer. "I think the public is disgusted by the controversy, but they still want the fight to happen."  

To fill the vacuum and assuage dissatisfaction, each boxer decided to take on formidable interim opponents. Pacquiao will fight Clottey, and Mayweather will battle "Sugar" Shane Mosley on May 1. The hope is that if Pacquiao and Mayweather both win their respective fights, they will work out their differences and fight in the fall. "My nails are going to be bitten down to the bone waiting until May 2," says Ross Greenburg, president of HBO Sports, which is hoping to televise the Pacquiao-Mayweather spectacle.

Pacquiao doesn't seem to be taking his current opponent for a pushover. Clottey has a 35-3 win-loss record, and 21 of those wins were by knockout. He stands 5 ft. 8 in. tall to Pacquiao's 5 ft. 6 in. and has a strong chin and the muscled body of a boa constrictor. But Pacquiao came into his training camp in great shape, and his sparring at the Wild Card Gym in Hollywood has been crisp and lively; Roach predicts a knockout. Still, it could be a tactically riveting duel, because Clottey likes to lean on the ropes, while Pacquiao will probably try to dive in close, hit him with combinations and then get out of the way of Clottey's uppercuts. 

Mayweather (40-0, 25 KOs) also has a tough opponent. Mosley is a wily 38-year-old who twice defeated Oscar De La Hoya. (Both Mayweather and Mosley have agreed to random blood testing.) Richard Schaefer, CEO of Golden Boy, which is promoting the fight, predicts that HBO will sell 3 million pay-per-view buys to make it the biggest fight in boxing history. It will also be shown in theaters nationwide.

While waiting to meet in the ring, Pacquiao and Mayweather will compete at the box office. Pacquiao's last several fights have been at Las Vegas' MGM Grand, a 17,000-seat venue, against marquee opponents. His bout against Clottey will be held at Texas Stadium (45,000 seats for the event, and ticket sales have been brisk). But because Clottey was a last-minute replacement for Mayweather with no natural fanbase in the U.S., HBO declined to feature the fight in its popular 24/7 series (it did so for several of Pacquiao's previous matches), and the media tour was shortened to only two cities. Bob Arum, Pacquiao's promoter, chose not to sugarcoat it. "To be frank, we had to overcome disappointment," he says. "People were looking forward to a Pacquiao-Mayweather fight." 

Mayweather's match will be staged in the smaller MGM Grand, but it will get the full buildup with a four-episode Mayweather-Mosley 24/7 series on HBO. Mayweather spent last week on a three-city media tour, generating interest in his bout with outlandish theatrics, which included a shoving match with Mosley. Some of the crowd at the Los Angeles event chanted, "Manny! Manny!," but they were drowned out by "Money! Money!," Mayweather's nickname.

Yet both fighters' handlers, as well as Mayweather and Pacquiao themselves, appear unwilling to compromise on the blood-testing issue. Meanwhile, fans descend upon Pacquiao's training gym every day in hopes of catching a glimpse of him. He has had to spend more time than he wanted answering questions about blood testing, steroids and Mayweather — a nemesis who has clearly gotten under his skin. "I have never seen him so angry," says Roach. 

If a Pacquiao-Mayweather détente can somehow happen, it needs to be soon, while the men are still at their prime. Pacquiao, who is 31, is running for Congress in the Philippines and starting to hint at retirement. Mayweather, 33, has already come back from one retirement. If Pacquiao can beat Clottey and Mayweather is victorious over Mosley, then the fight for the two men's legacies will begin again — at the negotiating table.