FLOYD MAYWEATHER JR. (LEFT), MANNY PACQUIAO
If this is The Fight of the Century boxing Is In worse shape than I thought. I’m having trouble generating much enthusiasm for the so-called fight of the century that will take place in MGM’s Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas on May 2 between welterweights Floyd Mayweather, Jr. and Manny Pacquiao.
I’m a big fan of boxing so many folks naturally assume that I’m going to be one of the first in line to shell out $90-100 to watch the event on pay-per-view. There was a time when the likes of Marvin Hagler, Sugar Ray Leonard, Mike Tyson and Evander Holyfield were in their primes that I gladly paid the price to watch their biggest fights on pay-per-view and host a party at my home to catch the action live. But, it’s been many years now since there has been a fight I’ve had enough interest in to pay to watch and Mayweather-Pacquaio is no different.
It might have been if the fight had taken place four-five years ago when both men were closer to their primes. But, for whatever reason and despite all the interest on the part of boxing fans worldwide the match wasn’t made until now and it was beginning to look like it would never happen. Well, now that it is going to take place, the participants are 38 and 36-years-old respectively.
The 38-year-old Mayweather is still undefeated with a record of 47-0 but he’s clearly slowed a bit and 36-year-old Manny Pacquaio will carry a record of 58 wins, five losses and two draws into the ring. He was knocked out as recently as December 8, 2012 by Juan Manual Marquez.
The ages of 36 and 38 are ancient in boxing years, especially for fighters plying their trade in a lighter weight division where speed of hand and foot is so critical. But, while these two men are no longer at their best they are relatively close in age and will present a contrast in styles that often makes for an interesting fight.
Pacquaio will undoubtedly be the more aggressive of the two and will throw the greater number of punches. You can expect him to press the action. He’d like nothing more than to have Mayweather go toe-to-toe with him.
But, don’t expect anything like the classic all-out three-round war that took place between Marvin Hagler and Thomas Hearns in 1985. That’s not Floyd’s game. Mayweather is a highly skilled slick defensive fighter who’ll fight a cautionary fight. He’ll make Manny miss and pile up points with pinpoint counter punches and I’ll be shocked if he doesn’t earn a unanimous decision over the course of what I believe will likely prove to be a relatively uninteresting and uneventful evening.
For the sake of boxing, I hope I’m wrong and the fight is a classic. The sport could use a good boost but I don’t think it’s going to come from this fight.
But, that won’t keep the two participants from making out like bandits. The event is expected to produce a gate of greater than $72 million with ringside seats going for $7,500 a pop. When all is said and done and all the proceeds from the live and pay-per-view attendance figures have been added up, Mayweather is expected to receive a pay-day of as much as $120-180 million while Pacquiao is expected to walk away with somewhere in the range of $80-120 million. Not bad night’s work for a couple of welterweights in their late 30s.
I hope people won’t be too disappointed if the so-called ‘Fight of the Century doesn’t live up to expectations. The good news is that it undoubtedly won’t be the last of this century.
There was no less than five world title fights tagged with that moniker in the past century. The first took place on Labor Day in 1906 in Goldfield, Nevada between lightweight champion Joe Gans and “Battling” Nelson. Tex Rickard promoted the fight that went an incredible 42 rounds under a blistering hot sun before Nelson was disqualified for a low blow. The purse for that fight was a record figure of $30,000.
The next ‘Fight of the Century’ occurred only four years later in Reno, Nevada when former 35-year-old heavyweight champion, and white-hope, James J. Jeffries was lured out of a six-year retirement to fight the first black world heavyweight champion Jack Johnson. Rickard promoted this one as well and the interest and buildup for the racially charged event was unprecedented.
Jeffries would have done well to remain in retirement. While he was well paid for his services, he proved a shell of the fighter he’d once been and took a bad beating before his corner stopped the fight in the 14th round of the contest.
The result of that fight produced rioting in many cities across the nation. Hundreds of people were injured and several killed. As a result, films of the fight were banned from being shown out of fear they would produce further rioting.
Apparently, suffering from a lack of imagination, or feeling as though he was onto a good thing, Rickard promoted yet another “Battle of the Century” in 1921 when he matched a light-heavyweight Frenchman named Georges Carpentier with the great American world heavyweight champion Jack Dempsey before more than 80,000 fans in Boyle’s Acres outdoor arena in Jersey City, New Jersey.
This one was additionally billed as the hero versus the slacker. Carpentier had achieved acclaim as a fighter pilot in World War I, while many had labeled Dempsey as a slacker for avoiding military service when he was granted 4A status. Rickard offered Carpentier $200,000 and Dempsey $300,000, as well as a share of the film profits.
The fight proved a gross mismatch and Dempsey knocked the Frenchman out early in the fourth round.
It was another 17 years before another Fight of the Century came along in the form of a rematch between German heavyweight Max Schmeling and world heavyweight champion Joe Louis in Yankee Stadium on June 22, 1938.
Louis was the title holder at the time but Schmeling had removed Joe’s cloak of invincibility two years earlier when he’d knocked out the seemingly unbeatable contender in a big upset.
When the 1938 title fight took place Adolf Hitler was at the height of his power and Schmeling was viewed as his champion and a symbol of Aryan supremacy.
Joe dealt a huge blow to that ideal when he knocked the German out just over one minute into the fight.
That brings us to the fifth and final ‘Fight of the Century,’ the world heavyweight title contest that took place on March 8, 1971 in New York’s Madison Square Garden between Joe Frazier and Muhammad Ali. Each man was guaranteed the unprecedented figure of $2.5 million dollars for the content.
Both men had a legitimate claim to the world title at the time. Ali had been stripped of his crown in 1967 after refusing induction into the armed services on the basis of his religious beliefs, while Frazier had eliminated all others from serious consideration for the title.
This was a fight that actually lived up to all its advance hype. It went the full 15 rounds and Frazier was awarded a unanimous decision after knocking Ali to the canvas in the final round with a big left hook.
Of course, Frazier would go on to lose his title to George Foreman in 1973, and Ali ultimately shocked the world when he knocked out Foreman in Zaire, Africa on October 30, 1974 to gain the world heavyweight title for the second time.
Many believe that boxing is a dying sport. I don’t know that I agree, but there’s no argument that it was much healthier in the past century and is presently in dire need of some marquee performers to restore some of its lost luster.
