Boxing In Trouble Following Mayweather/Pacquiao Fight
Boxing fans across the United States and the world waited six years for the megafight between the pure boxer Floyd Mayweather and the Filipino slugger Manny Pacquiao. What we got last night was a complete dud.
In case you have been living under a rock the past 14-16 hours, Mayweather won a unanimous decision over Pacquiao last night. One judge had it 118-100 for Mayweather while the other two had it 116-112.
To be perfectly honest, the judges scoreboards were completely right.
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The fight just wasn’t competitive. Aside from a few flurries from Pacman in the fourth and sixth rounds, Money Mayweather controlled the fight throughout.
Like so many others, I thought we were going to get one hell of a show last night. A defensive-first fighter throughout his entire career, Floyd has shown ability to open up and take more chances in his recent fights with Miguel Cotto, Canelo Alvarez and his two contests with Marcos Maidana.
What we got last night was a Mayweather we have seen throughout most of his a career, a man who took zero chances and was content with playing defense the entire evening. Pure boxing fans, myself included, have long known that about him, but for a good portion of the public who don’t watch a lot of his fights, a lot of them were upset by how Floyd fought.
May 2, 2015; Las Vegas, NV, USA; Manny Pacquiao (Yellow/Red trunks) arrives for his welterweight championship bout against Floyd Mayweather at MGM Grand Garden Arena. Mandatory Credit: Joe Camporeale-USA TODAY Sports
Now, this is not to put the full blame on Mayweather for last night’s disappointing fight. Some of it has to go on Pacquiao as well.
Late in the fight, when it was clear he was going to need a knockout in order to win, Pacman held back and refused to throw a lot of shots. Granted, Mayweather’s defense, counter punching and Pacquiao’s shoulder injury had a lot to do with that, but Pacquiao look like he had zero interest in taking big chances late in the fight to at least have a shot.
Earlier in his career, we never saw that from Pacquiao. We saw a man who would average 80-90 punches a round and would take chances in order to please the crowd and those paying on pay per view even when he was up big on the judges scoreboards.
To me, that was the most disappointing thing about last night. We saw a Manny Pacquiao we have never seen before.
Following the fight, many have speculated on the future of the sport. Many people, including myself, thought this fight would help the popularity of the sport.
Instead, it probably did the complete opposite. Thanks to a lackluster fight, there are going to be several people in the public who never will pay for another PPV fight again. I can’t blame those people for having that opinion.
When you look at the faces of both fighters following the fight last night, it looked like they were in a glorified sparing session. During the great fights of the past, fighters had their faces beaten to a pulp to a point where they had to have actual stays in the hospital.
For both Mayweather and Pacquiao, both of them could have had photo shoots today if they wanted to. Neither fighter looked they had been in a 12-round bout.
In the end, the sport of boxing is in serious trouble.
For fans like me, who have been lovers of the sport for several years now, we are still going to watch the sport closely. For the casual fan, who may have paid for a fight for the first time last night, those people likely will never pay for a fight again.
For boxing to remain relevant and not be taken over by UFC, they are going to need that casual fan. Last night’s bout between once two elite fighters did serious damage to the sport reaching that goal.