Floyd Mayweather vs. Manny Pacquiao

[Guest bigmatt]

suck it up big matt....you don't want to be the only human not to see this

I did. As soon as they were getting their final referee instructions I had no more worries. So much adrenaline was flowing I could have fought both of them.

 

Mayweather was supreme.

[Guest Kontrolled]

@bigmatt with all that adrenaline would you have been able to get past the shoulder roll??

I'd asked if you could have beaten Pac-man but he just looks like a shell of the fighter he once was. I don't want to doubt a man's motivation but he just looked like he was happy to be there. Maybe there is truth to the shoulder injury, but if Mayweather was not 100 percent he would not have fought, so I understand not wanting to let everyone down, or willing to walk away from the hype, but he had to know at 100 percent, Mayweather was gonna give him problems. He did boxing no big favors by going in there sub-par.

[DC 536]

Does anyone (other than the man himself) believe Amir Khan has a chance against Mayweather?

[Guest John Hancock]

The only fighter close in weight with a prayer against Mayweather is Golovkin after a cut, and that fight is an impossibility until the day someone either beats Golovkin, or Mayweather goes bankrupt. Financially solvent Mayweather doesn't fight undefeated Golovkin, so he'll most likely retire undefeated. The only question is whether or not he extends his contract just to beat Rocky's record.

[Guest bigmatt]

Does anyone (other than the man himself) believe Amir Khan has a chance against Mayweather?

 

Several fighters (including Ricky Hatton) do. Khan has speed to rival Mayweather which makes him interesting to a lot of people.

[Guest Kontrolled]

the problem is you have to be willing to get hit, which lends itself to you losing rounds, so if you do not have an iron fist the fight is more than likely gonna end up in a decision for Mayweather, and does anyone really think he is gonna put himself in the ring with someone like that? Check my post I have said before that the only real threat for Floyd is Triple G, could you just think about the shit Golovkin would have to do to appease the Mayweather camp..... lose 15lbs... can't wear punchers gloves... your shoes can't be blue.... you can only train from 4am to 6am on the third sunday of the month!!!!!

I do how-ever wonder what would happen if Mayweather's opponent stood in the ring and never tried to chase him down? Do you think than the judges would have to acknowledge how much running he does???

[Guest BENZ79]

REAL TALK!!

[Evil Gringo 279]

The judges in Boxing Assign points to the boxers, based on punches that connect, defense and knockdowns. Therefore Mayweather, by resetting in another before slipping and sliding is actually defending and probably scoring points.

 

I'm not a huge Mayweather fan but what is so different to him moving away from punches and contact so the opponent tires and then counter punching then when Ali did it? Granted Ali didn't do it every fight but what's the difference?

 

It's MMA that awards points for aggression, the idea of boxing is the actual skill of the boxer and his ability to hit without being hit - in that respect Mayweather is pretty much the ideal boxer.

[Guest Kontrolled]

I understand how boxing is supposed to be judged @Evil Gringo the problem with that is there are judges who do award the more aggressive boxer(how I would judge), and others who don't. So just like picking a jury, you can stack the judges either way.

The issue is there is no clear cut way to judge, it is up to how the judges see it or are told how to see it. I know how it looks but a block is just as good as a slip, so when Mayweather rolls out of the way, counters but his shot is blocked, most judges and people re-act like he has scored. The pure boxing rules were great, and is what makes the sport great and way different than the octagon, but that was before there were 25 cameras covering every angle. In order for boxing to steam roll back to the respect it has and does deserve, than when there is a fight that is billed..."fight of the century"... "5 years in the making"... the more aggressive boxer needs to be award rounds. Taking chances need to be rewarded!!

[Kam 243]

From COW:

 

Boxing is dead, UFC reigns, and WWE keeps plugging along

[Guest Jack]

I can't understand the negativity about the fight, honestly. Maybe it wasn't a thrilling fight, although I enjoyed it, but that's just what you get from the pinnacle events in all sports. World Cup or Champions League finals are never brilliant games either, just because both teams are so good, are capable of taking away sttrengths of the opposite teams and play more cautiously. The same goes for rugby and compare the New Zealand/Australia cricket final to the game earlier in the tournament. Finals very rarely up to the hype in sport and in boxing, the last superfight which was a great fight was probably Hagler/Hearns. De La Hoya/|Tito, Mayweather, Pacquiao, Mosley, Chavez or Whitaker weren't great fights. Tyson/Holyfield, Lewis, Holmes and Spinks weren't great either. Leonard had a couple of really entertaining fights against Duran and Hearns in their first fight, but the rematch with Hearns, the other two Duran fights, the Hagler bout etc. weren't great spectacles either. It just very rarely happens when fighters are that good. I don't ever think there's been a series of fights as good as Vazquez/Marquez but whilst world champions, they were a notch below Pacquiao and Mayweather and that extra level of skill quite often results in less entertaining fights.

 

Like I said though, I didn't hate Mayweather/Pacquiao at all. I thought it was an intriguing, captivating spectacle and whilst I wouldn't pay for a rematch, that doesn't mean it was a flop by any means. This idea that boxing is "dead" because the fight wasn't great is an odd one considering it's an accusation people have levelled at Mayweather since he moved up to 147lbs. Mayweather's fight against Baldomir in 2006 was so bad, because he was running the entire fight, that people booed and left early, yet his popularity has only risen. If boring fights resulted in less interest, he'd have been a star 130lbs and nobody would be watching him now but that's obviously not the case.

 

For what it's worth, the fight has already matched the numbers of Mayweather/Canelo and is expected to go a lot higher. Kevin Iole thinks it could get over 5m PPV buys in America alone.

[Guest John Hancock]

I think most of the reaction comes for the majority of people seeing this fight having seen more Rocky films than they have boxing matches. And that's not a put down to casual fans, because I'm about as casual a boxing fan as you'll find, but this is what happens when sports break through into the ultra-mainstream and everyone starts watching; if the excitement isn't immediately visible, people will wonder what all the fuss is about. People wanted the greatest boxing match of all time, in a marketing, hype, money sense, to be the greatest boxing match of all time in an in-ring, dramatic sense, which is obviously an unreasonable expectation, but it's a common one.

 

I'd say the difference between this and a tournament is that, in something like the World Cup, the insanity of the group stage is as much a part of the spectacle as the final. If you go into a World Cup as a casual fan or someone who's here to see what all this-here soccer's about, you're going to see a good game, you're pretty much guaranteed that, unless you dislike football as a concept, you're going to see something that resonates with you, and that depends on what you like. If you come into boxing with that attitude, especially a Mayweather fight, especially this Mayweather fight, you're going to be disappointed, because you're going to see a defensive fighter fighting defensively. As excellent fighter, possibly the best in history, but you aren't going to see any knockouts, you aren't going to see any comebacks, you aren't going to see any underdog victories, you aren't going to see any back-and-fourth, you aren't going to see any take-one-to-give-one madnesses, and those are the sorts of things most people like, and, maybe more importantly, they're the things most people think boxing is. In the mainstream world, boxing is three things; Rocky, Ali's comeback, and Tyson knocking people out. Mayweather is never an underdog, he doesn't ever need to make comebacks (nor does he let his opponents make them) and he doesn't knock people out. To the kinds of people who are watching one fight a year, this just wasn't what a boxing match is supposed to look like, especially the boxing match of a generation.

 

Add on to that the fact "the bad guy" (who I prefer actually) won, and that the hype coming in was so ridiculous that, honestly, only a comeback, last round, Manny knockout was ever going to make people think the fight lived up to it's own hype.

 

As for boxing being dead, it's a little dramatic, as a phrase, but I agree with the sentiment by which I mean I don't see where boxing goes from here, and, by "here", I mean Mayweather. I don't know who that next guy is, and I don't see how boxing keeps doing the business it's doing in America without someone like him, because, without him, it's Mexicans and Russians, and no one treats Mexicans and Russians how the American media have treated Mayweather. I guess it was supposed to be Adrien Broner, but he didn't really work out so well. I just look at boxing right now as being the like WWE in the early 90s, with Hogan on the way out, and roster full of Diesels.

[DC 536]

the last superfight which was a great fight was probably Hagler/Hearns.

Would you class either of the Eubank v Benn fights as superfights?

[dsrchris 190]

I don't think they really mattered to anyone outside the UK, so not really.

[Evil Gringo 279]

In this country yes, worldwide then no.

 

Same with Collins v Benn and Collins v Eubank, even though Collins had more exposure in the US then Benn or Eubank.

[Guest Kontrolled]

the problem was not the fight nor the outcome... there were 2 major flaws in the fight.. timing and hype... Hype...this fight should have never been seen as the fight of the century. When 1 boxer has to jump threw as many hoops as Pac-man did... when you handicap a boxer by telling him the fight only happens if you do this, this, this and ohhh by the way, you need to wear pillows on your fist not punchers' gloves, the outcome was already leaning to one side, and Pac-man was happy to do so, never countering or comprimising, he chased the $$$$(and who can blame him). Which leads us to timing, 5 years ago before Pac-man lost all the weight this fight goes in a different route(I am not saying the outcome would have been different) but 5 years ago Pac-man punched harder than he does today. The fight would have looked way different.

[DC 536]

I don't think they really mattered to anyone outside the UK, so not really.

I always thought their rematch (which was set up by Don King), was a huge attraction worldwide.

[Guest Jack]

As for boxing being dead, it's a little dramatic, as a phrase, but I agree with the sentiment by which I mean I don't see where boxing goes from here, and, by "here", I mean Mayweather. I don't know who that next guy is, and I don't see how boxing keeps doing the business it's doing in America without someone like him, because, without him, it's Mexicans and Russians, and no one treats Mexicans and Russians how the American media have treated Mayweather. I guess it was supposed to be Adrien Broner, but he didn't really work out so well. I just look at boxing right now as being the like WWE in the early 90s, with Hogan on the way out, and roster full of Diesels.

This argument has validity to it but it's been repeated countless times in boxing history when the big names have retired, so whilst there is reason to be skeptical now, I think boxing history gives reason to be optimistic. I've seen newspaper clippings going back to the pre-gloved era which talk about how boxing is on it's way out because nobody can replace John L. Sullivan. To that era, that opinion was probably right because they held Sullivan up as untouchable and the same goes for those who thought boxing wouldn't be the same after Dempsey, Marciano, Ali, Leonard, Tyson and De La Hoya. They were all thought to be irreplaceable, and it was said after each retire that boxing wouldn't be the same again, but the sport has a knack of reproducing stars.

 

I think the biggest factor in this is the money of the TV networks and Las Vegas. They can both create a star and need to in order to sell PPVs and bring in huge gate money, so even if there isn't a natural heir to Mayweather, the powers that be with put the crown on someone else and they'll ensure they keep winning. It isn't too long ago that Mayweather wasn't a PPV fighter yet as soon as he was endorsed by those who can make a star, he became a huge name. Neither Mayweather or Pacquiao should have been star fighters, and nobody would have predicted it a decade ago when Mayweather was fighting at 140 or when Pacquiao was losing to Morales that they'd become so popular, but I think that exemplifies that with the right backing and promotion, stars can be made.

 

The most natural heir to Mayweather is Canelo though. As I was writing the opening paragraph, his fight started and he won that in the third round of a brutal war where he looked like a million dollars in front of a large live crowd and surely well over a million viewers on HBO. Aside from him, Keith Thurman is a great fighter to watch, talks well and is undefeated, Terrence Crawford has a big following in his home town and is also an undefeated world champion and there's also Deontay Wilder, an undefeated heavyweight knockout artist with the WBC strap. Those three names might not look like much now but they're all in a more promising position now than Mayweather or Pacquiao were a decade ago. I think they could all potentially be PPV fighters and then there are countless hot prospects who could go on to stardom too.

 

Mayweather is a very difficult fighter to replace and I think it's unlikely that the very next guy to replace him will be as successful as he is but 5 or 10 years after he's retired, there'll be a replacement, just like Mayweather replaced De La Hoya, De La Hoya replaced Tyson, Tyson replaced Leonard, Leonard replaced Ali and so on. I just think there's too much money in boxing for there not to be. HBO,

[Guest John Hancock]

I have a question that may or may not be really possible to answer, but, oh well, it's an interesting thought at least.

 

Would boxing be better off for the next ten years if Canelo had beaten Mayweather?

[Guest Kontrolled]

Yes... It may have made Mayweather change his style. Canelo boxes exciting fights. People really can get behind him. His camp does not put ridiculous stipulations into the contract. He is young so he brings young fans. Don't get me wrong, there is something to be said for being a villain, at some point people buy your fights in the hope to watch you lose, but like my great grand pappy used to say... "you catch more flies with honey, than vinegar"