Muhammad Ali versus Bruce Lee.
If Ali and Bruce Lee were in their primes and weighed the same and fought each other, you might get the equivalent of Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao. A bout so titanic, and yet so fleeting, that our civilization is carving it in stone to preserve its significance for future generations–that humans yet unborn might discover the zenith of our era’s gladiatorial contests.
As fans, we may vicariously live through Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao. Secretly, we may wish we are them: that only if we possessed their glorious lives, driving their fancy cars, and dwelling in their beautiful mansions, our own lives might be more complete. It’s a dream that may manifest itself through countless hours of idol worship on YouTube’s comments section and Twitter.
Mayweather-Pacquiao has the power to re-write our myths, and arouse our collective psyche.
Both Are Gods
“I’ll tell you a secret,” said Achilles, in his ephemeral words from Troy. “The Gods envy us ?. because we’re mortal, because any moment might be our last. Everything is more beautiful because we’re doomed ?. We will never be here again.”
In modernism’s cult of personality, both are gods: Pacquiao, like Achilles, the Greek hero of the Trojan War and the greatest warrior of Homer’s Iliad, who charges at the enemy with abandon. And Mayweather, like Mars, the Roman god of war, tearing through the sacrificial offering of lesser warriors, imposing his will through precision and mental dominance. With his challenge, Pacquiao is marching towards–and invading–the Pantheon of boxing’s capital (the MGM Grand, with a lion symbolizing its preeminence), guarded by an immortal, 47-0 god.
Like a Colossus
The rivalry between Mayweather and Pacquiao reminds us of Cassius’s lament in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar:
Why, man, he doth bestride the narrow world
Like a Colossus, and we petty men
Walk under his huge legs and peep about
To find ourselves dishonorable graves.
In this passage, Cassius bitterly complains to Brutus about Caesar’s immense power and influence, and disdains the possibility of finding for themselves (Cassius and other conspirators) inconsequential lives and “dishonorable graves.” Consider Mayweather’s and Pacquiao’s disdain for each other, and how the fall of one’s enemy will result in a god-like status for the other.
The Oracle at Delphi might have said there is no substitute for this Biblical armageddon between an immovable object versus an unstoppable force of nature. Thus, May 2nd represents the apex of competition in our time, transcending sports to define our generation’s culture wars.
Re-writing Our Myths
It’s as if Jordan’s ’95-’96 Bulls were matched against Magic’s ’87-’88 Lakers. Or better yet, Genghis Khan and his barbarian cavalry riding to meet Julius Caesar and his Roman legions. Or MacArthur or Patton leading a charge against Napoleon Bonaparte or Erwin Rommel. With fantasy matchups, we can only salivate how history’s greatest would have done against another of its greatest.
Except that with Mayweather-Pacquiao, it’ll come to life–by way of an eruption of punch volume–and spillage of blood–that will surely arouse an entire planet. “Money,” on behalf of pugilistic perfectionism and urban materialism; versus “Pacman,” on behalf of a chivalric code and a monk-like way of life. Opposing forces in our universe; what religion might mystically refer to as archetypes of god and devil; of good and evil.
Mayweather, with the domineering, tactical brilliance of a Darth Vader; and Pacquiao, with the wisdom and mystical strength of a Yoda. Mayweather-Pacquiao takes place on May 2nd in La Vegas.
Modern gods who are shaping our civilization and re-writing our myths.
