Mayweather-Pacquiao: The Let Down Of The Century

By Boxing News - 05/04/2015 - Comments

1-02By Rod Bautista: Here is the truth straight up. The Floyd Mayweather Jr. – Manny Pacquiao mega fight we all waited for was a mega let down. Over 5 years in the making and the showdown that was tagged the fight of the century ended up being the let down of the century.

Everything about the fight was the biggest money wise of all time from the $90 price tag to purchase the pay per view, to the 9 figure purse that the two fighters took home. Financially it’s the biggest of all time. Unfortunately that’s where the greatness of this fight ends.

Boxing purists will tell you that Floyd imposed his brand of boxing and the result was as it should have been. Truth is eventually the only people that are going to care about this sport are the boxing purists themselves.

Five years ago this fight would have transcended the sport. Five years ago I can guarantee you it would have been an action packed fight. Manny would have thrown 800+ punches and I’m not saying he would have won, but it would have been a much more exciting fight.

Sadly though it’s 2015 and this fight that should have been fought 5 years ago fell horribly flat. The millions of casual fans that tuned into the fight are lamenting not only the money that they wasted on the fight but also the time that they’ll never get back because they watched it. If boxing was near dead as far as being on the major sports landscape before its in a coma now.

Five years ago this fight may have saved boxing, today it will serve to kill it. Five years ago Manny wouldn’t have been one punched by Marquez yet and would have been more willing to take a punch. Five years ago Manny would have brought his punch volume and attacked from different angles and would have made it a better fight. What was supposed to give Floyd problems would have been more evident back then.

Give Floyd credit. This fight happened on his terms, when he wanted it, how he wanted it, where he wanted and last but not least for how much he wanted it. He played it to a tee. He got an older, slower and more damaged Manny to fight. Isn’t that ironic? For all the posturing and bantering back and forth that fight fans have done the last five years, Floyd got to fight a Manny that is shot compared to what he was five years ago. Boxing debate has been full of Manny fought Oscar after Floyd when he was shot or Hatton or Mosley. Now it’s Floyd who fought Marquez’s left overs.

This fight happened ftoo late for all the wrong reasons. This fight encompasses all that is wrong with the sport that was permanently entrenched in the psyche of all sports fans. This fight and its timeline was truly manufactured. As a longtime boxing fan I feel ripped off. As a long time boxing fan I feel betrayed. Don’t mistake this as me feeling bad that Manny Pacquiao lost. This is more about me being mad that there wasn’t a fight last night. It was a clinic on how to efficiently win a boxing match true, but a fight it definitely was not. Don’t tell me the “this is what championship boxing is” BS. I can tell you this, this isn’t the boxing that I fell in love with. I didn’t watch boxing to see guys do just enough to win. I tuned in to watch a sport that brought out all the primal instincts and urges. I watched a sport that embodied the human struggle. This is more about not liking or condoning what this sport has become. The highest paid athlete in the world has made a career of just doing enough to win, and we the paying public have allows it to happen.

If you ask me I’d like to go back to a boxing culture where there was a fight or matchup like this every other month. A boxing scene where I saw the likes Leonard, Hagler, Hearns and Duran fight all comers on what seemed to be a weekly basis. A boxing scene that saw the emergence of legends like Oscar Dela Hoya, Mike Tyson and Roy Jones Jr. A boxing with champions like Julio Cesar Chavez who went 87 fights without a loss yeah you heard me 87 fights.

I yearn for a boxing scene where there were dozens of big names that fought, and fought often, but most importantly fought the best opponents that were available. Somewhere down the line not ever losing and protecting your career became more important that having competitive fights. Maybe I have my head in the clouds thinking that boxing ever had a chance of getting back to where it used to be. Maybe boxing has evolved. In the end if this is the evolution of boxing, I’d rather be in the dark ages.



Comments are closed.