Floyd Mayweather Jr. and everyone else calling Mayweather-Pacquiao the biggest fight ever should stop. It is without doubt the biggest fight of the 21st century ? bigger for sure than Mayweather-Oscar De La Hoya in May 2007 and Lennox Lewis-Mike Tyson in June 2002.
It?s probably even the biggest fight since Sugar Ray Leonard-Thomas Hearns in September 1981.
Experts expect their showdown Saturday night at MGM Grand in Las Vegas to bring in somewhere between $400 million and $500 million, which would help the 12-round welterweight fight shatter every revenue record in the sport?s history.
Even if it doesn?t account for more than 3 million pay-per-view buys and $70-plus million in live gate sales, Mayweather, the undefeated five-division champion from Grand Rapids, Mich., and the Philippines? Pacquiao each should make at least twice as much as any boxer ever has earned for a single fight.
Mayweather-Pacquiao clearly is one of the biggest fights in boxing history. But calling it the biggest boxing match ever is shortsighted and untrue.
When Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier fought for the first time in March 1971 at Madison Square Garden, it was an epic event that captivated mainstream America like few fights in the 20th century. Ali-Frazier was so huge, Frank Sinatra was grateful for the chance to take photos from ringside.
While Mayweather and Pacquiao are superstars known far and wide, Ali is one of the most polarizing, famous figures in American history ? not just American sports history.
His fight 3 1/2 years later against George Foreman, “The Rumble in the Jungle,” fascinated millions of Americans, too, even though it took place in Zaire.
Thirty-six years earlier, Joe Louis? first-round knockout of Max Schmeling in their heavyweight championship rematch at Yankee Stadium emerged as perhaps the most important boxing match ever to take place.
It was widely viewed as a symbolic victory for America over Nazi Germany before World War II began in 1939.
No matter what happens in the ring Saturday night, Mayweather (47-0, 26 KOs) nor Pacquiao (57-5-2, 38 KOs) can accomplish anything that?ll touch the societal impact the legendary Louis made that fateful night in June 1938.
That doesn?t mean Mayweather-Pacquiao isn?t an enormous event worthy of all the mainstream attention it has received since Mayweather announced Feb. 20 that he?d finally fight Pacquiao.
It just means that it should be placed in proper historical perspective. It?s one of the biggest fights ever, not the biggest.
