Life Beyond “The Fight” [Mayweather-Pacquiao]

By Ryan Dunn: Perhaps the most surprising factor in this entire Floyd Mayweather vs. Manny Pacquiao soap opera is the alarming rate at which fan interest has fallen flat on its face (much like “The Fight” itself). Aggressive discussion about who will win and who will lose when they enter the squared-circle has been replaced by instant apathy and downright angst at all involved parties. The fans have had enough. It is time to look forward, and stop living in the fantasy hypotheticals of a superfight in March that is no longer happening.

With a myriad of NEW fights on the horizon — from Mosley vs. Berto to Cotto vs. Foreman to Pacquiao vs. Clottey to Mayweather vs. Whoever-the-hell-Floyd-wants — there’s plenty of action to go around in 2010. It might not be “The Fight” right now, but we are a patient group.

Besides, until both parties can get through these interim fights and come back to the table with cooler heads and wiser requests, this fight is about as real as a Floyd Mayweather apology (or a Manny Pacquiao training camp with less than forty people). Perhaps Floyd decides to take proactive steps and approach the Nevada Athletic Commission with a convincing case as to why blood testing is important for the sport. Perhaps Manny will deliberate on the opportunity he squandered on the basest of human emotions: Pride.

Or maybe not, on both accounts.

But if anything good has come out of the entire debacle, is that the world is now watching, and the expectation is on the shoulders of both fighters to come up with a way to make the unthinkable, thinkable.