Floyd Mayweather's path to recognition lies through facing Manny Pacquiao

Floyd Mayweather Jr. doesn't have anywhere near the amount of awards or accolades that his rival Manny Pacquiao does, despite the fact that some regard him as the better fighter.

Some of this is undoubtedly his own fault; he's not as friendly with the media as he could be and at times has an inability to self censor his thoughts before he blurts them out.

Good for selling pay per views but poison to many fans and sponsors alike looking for a clean cut and humble fighter that they can get behind.

Equally a part of this is through no fault of his own. Put simply spectators would often rather see a blunt instrument than a precision tool at work. Despite his flawless technique his fights have often been less than enthralling and fighters who consistently bore the fans often need to rely on controversial sound bites to sell their fights.

While Manny Pacquiao is currently in New York receiving his fighter of the decade trophy, Mayweather is on a family vacation in an undisclosed location. No doubt not happy with what he perceives as a lack of recognition for his achievements.

Like many other discussions in boxing at the moment, the choices for the BWAA fighter of the decade award reportedly came down to either Floyd or Manny, and apparently the number of votes wasn't particularly close. While Mayweather is undefeated, he has not always taken on the best opponents possible during his tenure as the top fighter in the sport. Pacquiao by contrast has continued to seek out the highest ranked opponents he could, and has triumphed in two more weight division than Mayweather to date.

There is a way that Mayweather can turn things around and no doubt enhance his legacy beyond even that of Pacquiao though, and that is to take on and beat the Filipino congressman.

Regardless of the eventual terms, which look to have been largely worked out once again, the only way Mayweather will ever get any respect from a lot of fans is to fight Manny Pacquiao. Even in defeat his public image would be greatly enhanced not to mention the talk of him ducking the best fighters will disappear.