Some of you (Family members excluded) may find it annoying that for my second posting, I'm once again reminding you that Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao aren't fighting this year. Like the rest of you, I was disappointed that once again we had been deprived of the opportunity to see two great fighters clash in a bout of epic proportions for reasons that depend on whom you ask on the internet forums. 

If you ask a Mayweather fan, Pacquiao didn't want to fight because he knows he'll get busted in the blood tests (Can someone ask Roger Mayweather why A-Side Meth isn't more commonly used today).

If you ask a Pacquiao fan, Mayweather knows that Pacquiao is the best fighter out there with a chance of beating him.

But I'm not sure why people are getting so upset considering that the hype leading up to the fight (HBO's 24/7 series) will probably have more fireworks than the fight itself. How often have we seen fights that looked amazing on paper and in promotion yet left the viewers shaking their head when it was all over and grumbling about how much they wasted on Pay-Per-View? It's happened before and it will happen again but let's look over some of the more famous cases.

1) Pernell Whitaker vs Julio Cesar Chavez (09/10/1993)-No one looked more invincible in the ring than Julio Cesar Chavez (87-0, 75KOs) when he was in his prime. He would wear you down with his come forward style, take three shots just to land one heavy shot of his own and even if it looked like you were going to beat him, he was still able to come from behind and score a last second knockout (See Meldrick Taylor).

In Whitaker (32-1, 15KOs), you had a fighter who emphasized the rule in boxing of "hit and don't get hit". The Willie Pep of his era, Whitaker posesssed a defense that made him legendary as well as boxing skills that left him with only one loss on his record due to corrupt judging.

So you had two fighters, both undefeated (bad judging aside), champions in multiple weight classes meeting at welterweight.

In the sold out crowd in Texas, it must have been hard to been a Chavez fan while watching him get outclassed by Whitaker; not surprising considering that Pernell's trainers, Lou Duva and Tommy Brooks, also worked the corner of Meldrick Taylor when he lost to Chavez.

But when the final scorecards were read, it was clear that someone had messed with the Texas judges. Scores of 115-113 (In Whitaker's favour) and 115-115 (Twice) made even the strongest Chavez supporter boo the corruption. While there was call for an immediate rematch, nothing ever materialized. Chavez would go undefeated for another five months before losing in an upset to Frankie Randall.

Whitaker remained welterweight champion until 1997 when he lost a decision to Oscar de la Hoya.

2) Lennox Lewis vs Evander Holyfield I (03/13/1999)-This is one of the few fights that when watching replays, actually draws me into the atmosphere of the fight. I can feel the build up of excitement in the crowd when the two champions are making their way towards the ring, Brittish fans rooting for Lewis on one side, American fans on the other rooting for Holyfield. 

And when I saw this fight for the first time, even though I knew the result beforehand (Thank you, Wikipedia), I was pumped. Lewis was a two time champion hoping to establish a legacy by defeating a legend in Holyfield, who three years previous had shocked the world by knocking out Mike Tyson. Also to make the match more interesting was a prediction from Holyfield who claimed God told him that he would knock Lennox out in three rounds. 

Now I'm not a prophet or a priest but I think that the Almighty might have been messing with Holyfield as payback for all that money he lost betting on Tyson in their first fight. But that's just my opinion... 

Lennox dominated from the first bell to the last. He kept Holyfield on the outside with his jab and kept landing his shots while Holyfield did his best to hang in there. By the end of the fight with Lewis raising his hands, everyone knew who had won the fight...except for the judges. 

"The decision is even-a draw," declared Jimmy Lennon Jr who I must commend for not reacting in outrage to his own words. 

Scores of 116-113 (Lewis), 115-113 (Holyfield) and the equally absurd 115-115 made you wonder what fight Stanley Christodoulou, Eugenia Williams and Larry O'Connell were watching in the first place. Evan Christodoulou who scored it for Lewis looked stupid with his score. I don't know how you could give more than two rounds to Holyfield. 

Boos erupted throughout Madison Square Garden and boxing was dealt one of it's biggest black eyes in the past 15 years. A rematch was made eight months later with Lewis getting the victory he deserved in the first fight as well as the undisputed heavyweight championship.

3) Oscar de la Hoya vs Felix Trinidad (09/18/1999)-Boy, did 1999 look a lot like 1981 when this fight was building up. You had a former Olympic gold medalist turned rising star against a knockout artist who feared no one. 

Yes, the comparisons to Leonard and Hearns were inevitable but this was more than just a matchup of two unbeaten stars; it was the boxer vs the puncher, Mexico vs Puerto Rico, Bob Arum vs Don King-the "Fight of the Millennium". 

It was said by experts that to beat Trinidad, Oscar would have to box like he never had before. And he did. He landed first, cleanly and often. It was like watching a seasoned pro sparring an amateur. He was out landing, out boxing and making Trinidad look foolish. And then after nine rounds...he stopped. It was almost as de la Hoya had said, "The only way he can beat me is by knocking me out and he can't do that if I'm constantly moving." 

The movement was there, but no punching from the Golden Boy. Trinidad continued his pursuit but there would be no knockout or knockdown that could help his chances in anyway. 

In the end Trinidad didn't need a knockout. Scores of 115-113, 115-114 and 114-114 seemed to indicate that the fight was much closer than Oscar and members of his corner seemed to believe. Depending upon who you ask, this fight was in de la Hoya's hands and either he let it slip away or the judges took it away. Had he won enough rounds that he could afford to coast the last three or was Trinidad's constant attack enough to sway the judges? 

I've watched this fight five time and each time I find myself coming away with a different answer. But the letdown wasn't so much in the scoring as it was in the fight itself. It showed that de la Hoya was unable to close the show after such a promising start and it showed that Felix Trinidad's ability was a bit overrated; a point Bernard Hopkins would display flawlessly two years later. 

I'm sure some of you are wondering why I didn't list Mayweather/de la Hoya but the simple matter is that I felt like I'm being a bit long winded and should wrap this up. What I'm trying to say is that just because the promotion and clever HBO 24/7 editing makes it look like it's going to be a fight that makes Ali/Frazier I look like heavy sparring in comparison, it doesn't always happen. If you take a look, some of the best fights have been ones that didn't have high expectations, like Williams/Martinez. It's not the promotion that makes a fight great, it's the fighters who dare to make it great. 

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Andrew Schweitzer is a contributing writer for boxing4free.com. When not writing or discussing the sweet science, Andrew is either working, at the gym or back home for a vacation, making his parents thankful that he's only staying for a week and not another 20 years.