By Jamie Savin: Since Floyd Mayweather Jr took to Shots and announced to the world that on May 2nd 2015 he will be fighting Manny Pacquiao, corners of the boxing world has been labeling it the biggest fight in the history of the sport. Sure financially nothing has ever come close, but is this fight really bigger than any before it?
Is it a reflection on the social and political issues of it’s time. The world is generally still recovering from the financial crisis of 2008, so 7 years later to have a fight worth a reported $350m depending upon your news source could be seen as signs of recovery and the fight was announced on Social Media, the communication tool of this generation. How does this fight compare to some historically significant fights of days gone past?
Going back over 100 years, Jack Johnson defended his World Heavyweight title against James J Jeffries in 1910, a fight which was effectively being billed as the white man taking back their World Heavyweight title. This was a time when racial segregation was still rife and there was a Colored World Heavyweight Title, a title Johnson had held. Jeffries was the great white hope, Johnson was a false champion in some eyes and that Jeffries was destined to relieve him of the title. It didn’t play out that way and was one of the most one-sided title fights in history, the result of the fight caused riots in America.
Johnson had opened the doors for anyone to fight and hold a world title, it is almost crazy in this day and age to think that a result of a fight could cause people to celebrate across the country in the masses. The result of this fight showed that the boxing ring doesn’t know race, it knows of only two men fighting to see who is the better man.
The biggest fights can represent the attitude of the world in a way no other sport can, fast forwarding to 1938, the world was still recovering from the stock market crash of 1929. This stock market crash had a worldwide affect and was one of the contributing factors to Adolf Hitler rising to power in Germany. Hitler believed that God’s image of man was blonde hair and blue eyes, and that all men which met this requirement were superior. In 1936 Max Schmeling had beaten Joe Louis for the World Heavyweight Title, and then Hitler had seen his Olympic dreams dashed by Jesse Owens, tensions around the globe were heightened by Hitler and his political views.
Despite Joe Louis winning the title back in 1937, he wouldn’t personally recognize himself as the Champ until he had fought and beat Schmeling, this set the stage for a huge rematch in 1938. With tensions around the world rising all the time, with Hitler’s pro-Aryan and anti-Semitic views, the fight was being billed as Fascism v Democracy. Joe Louis put on one of the most emphatic performances of his career in knocking Schemling out in the 2nd round and made himself an American hero. Arguably the first black man to be called an American hero, this statement itself deserves repeating as less than 30 years ago a black man beating a white man had led to riots.
This fight represented the world at the time, Schemling and Louis were whether they liked it or not, the representative figures of two different ideologies, two different sets of beliefs. Differing beliefs and attitudes are dynamics in selling a fight but perhaps once a fight billed as ‘The Fight of the Century’ was actually correct when Muhammad Ali fought Joe Frazier for the first time in 1971. The set up for this fight goes back 4 years when Ali refused to be enlisted in the armed forces and was stripped of his title and arguably the peak of his career. Frazier would go on to win the title and was recognized as the champ, when Ali was allowed to box again.
Frazier was adopted by the conservative America as Ali to them represented the left wing, Frazier never wanted this but it was forced upon him, The fight even had Frazier representing White America with Ali representing Black America, such was the social climate and the backlash of Ali refusing to be enlisted that the Conservative White America would be vocal about a black man to defeat a black man. The fight which Ali lost and then called a ‘White Man Decision’ represented the divide of America at the time, this fight transcended the sport and was front page news all over the world.
Mayweather v Pacquiao is fantastic for the sport as it brings mainstream attention to the sport and that in the main is most important thing. The fight is huge and is rightly being billed as such, but it isn’t really crossing boundaries between the sport and the climates around the world. Perhaps there will never be fights as historically significant as Jeffries v Johnson, Louis v Schemling II and Ali v Frazier I. We live in different times now where people are not judged on race, of course there is always the exception to the rule and there are people with extreme political views but they are not at the fore front of peoples minds.
The legacy of Mayweather v Pacquiao will not be one of changing times, it will be a legacy of PPV buys, which in this economic climate is a fantastic thing. It will likely set a PPV buy rate that will not be matched and for that alone will go down in the record books but on that basis alone it shouldn’t be judged as the biggest fight in the history of the sport.
If you want to share your opinions on this piece, please leave a comment, email me jamiesavin@gmail.com or you can reach me on twitter: @jamiesavin
Comments are closed.