I’m one of likely millions who were more or less disappointed with the result of the much-anticipated Mayweather-Pacquiao fight. To no surprise, Mayweather won via decision after 12-rounds, like he’s won the five fights prior to Pacquiao, which I pretty much predicted, if he didn’t outright knock him out in an early round.
I don’t know much about the technical aspect of boxing, but it’s still a sport that I enjoy watching, so I’m sure I’m very subject to criticism about my thoughts that I’m writing now. But the fight was boring, because of the uber-defense tactic employed by Mayweather, and the fact that he fired basically fewer than 50 strikes, as opposed to only throwing punches in counter to the numerous blows fired by Pacquiao.
The fight was pretty much decided by the fifth round, when the constant updates of the score gradually updated Pacquiao’s inability to connect with blows in spite of throwing so many, and the monumentally higher accuracy in which Mayweather was connecting, because he only threw punches in defense basically. It was agreed upon with the people I was watching with that if Pacquiao didn’t outright knock out Mayweather, it was just a ticking countdown until Mayweather was going to be declared the winner. And naturally, Mayweather turtled himself to victory by basically dancing around Pacquiao for the remaining 21 minutes.
It was a boring fight, and led me to wonder what would happen if Floyd Mayweather fought himself – would a single punch even be thrown?
However, looking past the supposed fight of the century, it begs to wonder what lies ahead for the sport of boxing. It’s no secret that boxing has and still is losing continuous ground to the overwhelmingly growing popularity of MMA, and as far as I’m concerned, Floyd Mayweather versus Manny Pacquiao was pretty much boxing’s last hope at remaining relevant, and frankly they blew it.
Not only did they blow it, it’s almost as if the sport itself tried to tastelessly use the fight of the century as a ploy to promote future boxing events, such as Floyd Mayweather’s next and last contractually-obligated fight, which if he wins, would put him at 49-0, which ties the great Rocky Marciano’s record.
Furthermore, Mayweather himself has come out and said that he would gladly fight Pacquiao again, on the news of Pacquiao having fought him with a bum shoulder.
Conveniently, this would set the stage for Mayweather-Pacquiao II, where a likely 49-0 Floyd Mayweather puts pretty much everything, from his titles and the chance to be the only 50-0 boxer in history, on the line to face a presumably fully healthy Manny Pacquiao who wants redemption from the shit-show that was MayPac I.
This is the kind of set up that rings very reminiscent of professional wrestling. Obviously, boxing is “real,” but this kind of scripting seems so very convenient, and reminds me of pro-wrestling. Pacquiao is actually hurt during the fight of the century, so the egomaniacal Mayweather agrees to an eventual rematch, so that he can delete the asterisks and silence the what-ifs, and face Manny Pacquiao at full strength. Conveniently while he’s 49-0, and on the cusp of immortality, meaning there will be potential billions of dollars at stake in promotions and buildup for.
Hopefully by then, a fully-healthy Pacquiao can break through Mayweather’s turtle tactic and become the 1 in 49-and-1, and this is truly boxing’s last chance at relevance.
