Voicing opinions is the prerogative of everybody, whether they know everything about boxing or very little?
Everybody is free to have their say about the upcoming superfight between Floyd Mayweather. There?s not a person alive, or so it seems, who doesn?t have an opinion about who will win. Some opinions are sound. Some opinions are unsound. But voicing opinions is the prerogative of everyone, whether they know anything about boxing or not.
BoxingScene recently spoke with Larry Merchant, and say what you will about the former HBO stalwart, he?s been around the fight game forever. His remarks concerning The Fight, given his decades-long entrenchment in the sweet science, are valid, more valid than much of the bloviating one hears these days.
Merchant dismissed comparisons between Mayweather-Pacquiao and the first fight between Sugar Ray Leonard and Thomas Hearns, to which it is often compared, ?because Leonard and Hearns were in their primes.?
Assuming comparisons are necessary, let alone helpful, Merchant thinks it?s more reasonable to compare Mayweather-Pacquiao to the fight between Lennox Lewis and Mike Tyson, because of ?how long it took to make the fight and because in a way Mayweather is like the heavyweight champion of America. He?s the guy who has filled the void of real heavyweights as a box-office attraction.?
There?s no arguing with that. Floyd has more or less carried boxing in the United States, but the fight with Manny is overdue, long overdue, and would have been more meaningful, but not more profitable, had they fought years ago.
But unlike the Lewis-Tyson mismatch, neither Mayweather nor Pacquiao is shot. Though The Fight is as likely to disappoint as satisfy, both fighters, while not in their primes, have a chance of beating the other, whereas no one thought that Tyson had a chance of defeating Lewis.
The fight in Memphis, however overhyped, was little more than a public execution. Granted, it made oodles of money, which was of course the point, but its end was a foregone conclusion.
The same can?t be said about the fight between Floyd and Manny. Roger Mayweather may disagree. So may Floyd Sr. That?s to be expected. But the objective, those who are not blood relatives or partisan fanboys from tip to toe, believe the fight is up for grabs.
Intelligent Mayweather may be too much for instinctive Pacquiao. Money will probably potshot his way to a split decision. But Manny, his lack of killer instinct notwithstanding, may be on top of Floyd from the opening bell, giving him no space or time in which to implement an effective counterattack.
But it won?t be a slaughter. It won?t be like Lewis vs. Tyson. It won?t be a beheading.
