Mayweather/Pacquiao – One Boxing Fan’s Destiny

By Boxing News - 04/28/2015 - Comments

pac567By Chad Oliver: There are three types of boxing fans.

The first is just your ordinary sports fan. They know about the mainstream fighter and the big fights, and if pressed, could muster a point of view, albeit not a very good one. Then there is the casual boxing fan. They know the big players – a few names across the popular divisions. Generally informed enough to have a real opinion about both popular and not so popular fighters. Then there’s me –- a self-anointed serious boxing fan.

Recently converted from casual realm thanks to a group of friends. Names, divisions, belts, match-ups, styles, breakdowns, promoters, venues — the entire boxing sub-culture. I’ll confess, I’m not as serious or as knowledgeable as some, but I’m headed there.

The transition wasn’t hard. As a kid, I remember knowing and understanding who, and in many respects, what Mike Tyson was, along with the other greats from that era. I had an uncle who kept VHS’s of all of the big heavyweight fights. As a teenager, I was pretty close to being serious. I’d catch the occasional no-name on Friday Night Fights and religiously watch HBO Championship Boxing on those lucky Saturday nights. Jim Lampley, Larry Merchant, Emanuel Steward, Harold Lederman, and George Foreman. Those were my pastors in the boxing church.

Somewhere along the line though, I completely lost interest and the sports fan took over. Then 2011 came and I found myself in cahoots with a group of serious boxing fans. My fear of being left out (strange cousin of only-child syndrome, which I also have) kicked in. I was back!

The transition was not a difficult one. Although I didn’t appreciate the sport fully at that time, I understood it. I understood basic boxing strategy having seen and listened to enough of it growing up. I understood the basics of the business (mostly treachery). And more than anything, I understood the history, mostly through my interest in the titans of the sport who’d become historical in their own right — Ali, Louis, Marciano, Patterson, Robinson, Leonard, Tyson, to name a few. These days I do what serious boxing fans do. I reading boxing blogs, follow boxing analysts on twitter, and I’ve managed to attend two big fights with more to come. Boxing fan me is real and it’s here to stay. It’s one of my proudest selves…but I’ve been known to be overly-sentimental about these things.

Which is probably why I feel like Mayweather-Pacquiao is part of my destiny. It’s like I’ve been training my senses for these past few years just so I could really and truly appreciate what’s going to be happen on May 2nd. This monstrously huge, important, supercalifragilistic, intergalactic match-up. This meeting of incredible atmosphere-sucking forces. This overly anticipated, long overdue yet somehow right on time clash of boxing talents, wills and personalities. This sh*t right herrrre! I’m ready.

So who’s my pick to win?

Around 2009, when the super fight was first discussed, I was a Pacquiao guy. I’d missed his ascent, but I became a fan somewhere at its peak. I had no real reason. I was a victim of the hype, which back then he always seemed to match with not just knockouts, but beatdowns. He was amazing. Fast, powerful, relentless, fearless, exciting and a host of other superlatives.

But I also appreciated Mayweather. Plus most of my friends were fans of his. So I started youtubing the fights I’d missed. He was pretty amazing himself, and I identified with him more. He was a part of my culture. It annoyed me that he spent his money ridiculously, but I reconciled that it was necessary. It was how he became who he was – by making himself the villain. That’s not to say I don’t think some of his persona is actually him. I just happen to think that if it is, he’s earned the right. It’s boxing! We pay to watch human beings fight. The ship the moral high-ground was on has long sailed.

The boxing analysts helped me to appreciate Floyd the fighter. As a casual fan, it’s easy to be impressed by speed and power on TV. You can see when a guy is clearly better than his opponent. But it really takes a boxing enthusiast to fully appreciate greatness. Skill, ring generalship, balance, movement, toughness, instinct, intelligence, and I can keep going. He had it all. Pacquaio was a fans dream (at the time), but Mayweather was a boxing savant. I switched teams.

Now here we are, days before the fight of the millennium, and I’m still on the Money Team. I don’t just want Floyd to win…I want him to knock Pacquaio out. No decision. No close fight. An 8 round KO, after which the boxing world crowns him the greatest of his generation and enters his name in any serious conversation for greatest all time. (Relax, I said in the conversation. By the way, it was funny last week the way every media outlet got in an uproar about Mayweather’s thoughts on Ali and Sugar Ray Robinson. You try winning every fight you ever fought and not thinking you’re the best ever. Sure they’re other fighters with unblemished records, but can you say any of them were better than Floyd?)

But that outcome is probably not realistic. If I were to put on an objective cap for a paragraph, I’ll still pick Floyd in a decision for the simple fact that he has more to lose. Manny Pacquiao wants to prove a point. That’s plenty of motivation. But I think it’s the kind of motivation that gets him carried away (Marquez anyone?). Floyd’s entire career and persona is invalidated if he loses. The stakes are higher. Not to mention that Floyd’s speed and smarts make him extremely well-equipped to step to Manny’s right and land that famous straight right hand (more on that here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Z5Mnf9nkB0 and here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtH9G_Fo8j4 ). Sugar Shane Mosley didn’t come close to beating either fighter (save for the first 2 rounds of each fight), but I believe when he says if he can slip Manny, so can Floyd. But I have a better chance at being Kevin Hart than a reputable boxing analyst, so I’m moving on.

‏With just a few days left, I am as eager as anyone else. I imagine my week will be spent on boxing blogs reading repetitive fight breakdowns and re-watching old fights. In typical fashion, I’m still working out where I’m watching the fight, but that should be nailed down by Wednesday. I actually tried getting tickets, but the way my bank account is set up…



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