The Fallout From Pacquiao-Marquez

Rafe Bartholomew looks at what happened to Brand Pacquiao after Satruday night's fight:

Pacquiao, on the other hand, underwent a change I never thought I'd see. He began the fight as boxing's favorite son and ended it as the night's villain. Of course, he did nothing villainous over the course of the bout. He fought hard, didn't have a great night, and got the decision, as popular champions often do. But after the decision, after the lusty boos from thousands of disgusted fans muted his postfight interview with Max Kellerman, after MGM security personnel had to hustle him out of the arena while fans lined the aisles to scream, "You suck!" and shower him with popcorn, it was hard to see Pacquiao as the charming philanthropist congressman with thunder in his fists and Peter Cetera music in his heart.
He was no longer the people's champ, but rather Pacquiao, Inc., selling a stunning array of junk: from MP8 cologne and Pacquiao hand sanitizer to the endlessly ridiculed Pacquiao Produce vegetables and his personal line of bogus power-balance bracelets. By buying a bracelet, according to some casino signage, you could "Help Manny Knock Out Poverty!" Pacquiao, Inc. is big business, and after the decision, it was hard to banish the thought that he was simply too valuable to Top Rank and Bob Arum and Las Vegas and the sport of boxing to allow him to lose. Who cares if it felt and smelled a little dirty? We've got cologne and hand sanitizer for that!
It's unfair to blame Pacquiao for winning the decision. The judges chose to give him a close fight. Pacquiao can only do his job, which is to train hard, go into the ring, and try to win. But as the face of boxing, he's going get smudged when fans start feeling like the sport's powers are trying to pull a fast one.
Still, it's unlikely that the public can stay mad at Pacquiao for long. His public personality is too winning and too gracious and he's too talented and exciting of a boxer (even if he didn't look so hot against Marquez) to remain on people's bad sides. Besides, boxing will need him to play hero again if Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather can strike a deal to fight next year. There's no bigger bad guy in sports than Mayweather, and Pacquiao will come into a potential fight with him as a heavy underdog thanks to his underwhelming performance against Marquez.

Maybe this will cause Pacquiao to make sure the Mayweather fight happens.  No more contract squabbles.  One thing is for certain, boxing needed nothing else to taint one of its big draws.