Manny Pacquiao is stepping back in the ring Saturday in another pay-per-view match.
Ordinarily, this would be big news and create all sorts of buzz in Las Vegas, the mecca of boxing.
But instead of fireworks, Pacquiao?s fight at the Thomas & Mack Center so far has generated all the sizzle of a wet firecracker.
Some of that might be the opponent. Jessie Vargas seems like a nice young man (he visited the Alamo City as part of a promotional tour in August) and a capable fighter, but he has zero name recognition.
Fans have grown weary of these kinds of matchups.
Vargas (27-1, 10 KOs) has appeared confident this week. He reminded reporters that he, not Pacquiao, is the champ ? he owns the WBO welterweight belt.
?Dude, I?m champion of the world,? Vargas told the Los Angeles Times. ?What do you want me to say? He?s the challenger.?
Bottom line, does anyone care?
But more than that, Pacquiao?s star power simply has faded.
One of the greatest fighters of his generation, a future Hall of Famer and only eight-division champion in boxing history, ?Pac-man? (58-6-2, 38 KOs) is coming off a victory in April over Timothy Bradley Jr.
But the fight did just 400,000 PPV buys, the same as his 2014 battle with Chris Algieri. Three years ago, that kind of low number for a Pacquiao fight would have been unthinkable.
The other issue? Residue left over from the Pacquiao-Floyd Mayweather Jr. fiasco in 2015.
The ?Fight of the Century? was a dud. Oh, the fighters profited handsomely, but the sport suffered a backlash from the bout ? a boring, uninspiring Mayweather victory on points ? that is still being felt.
The fight that promised so much delivered embarrassingly little to the biggest PPV audience of all-time, 4.4 million buys
No event since has passed the 1 million mark in PPV sales.
Pacquiao being forced to go on his own hasn?t helped. After trying to barge his way onto HBO?s schedule just two weeks before the Andre Ward-Sergei Kovalev showdown on Nov. 19, HBO decided not to do business with Pacquiao and promoter Top Rank, prompting him to go his own way.
The result is no HBO or Showtime and their marketing muscle but a Top Rank-promoted show.
Pacquaio is involved politically now more than ever in his homeland. He?s now a senator in the Philippines, and was granted time off to fight because the Senate usually takes a break in October and November.
He doesn?t need the money ? he?s constantly giving millions away to the country?s poor and less fortunate.
And there are few ? if any ? challenges still out there for him. Plus, he?s 37 now and on the decline.
The Pacquiao camp is not taking Vargas lightly ? Vargas, 27, is younger, bigger and hungrier ? but it has an eye on a do-over with Mayweather.
Simply put, there is little ? if any ? public appetite left for a rematch.
Boxing fans were duped once. They won?t be conned a second time.
Meanwhile, Saturday could be Pacquiao?s last fight.
A first for Filipino duo: Nonito Donaire (37-3, 24 KOs), the second-best boxer ever to come out of the Philippines, fights on the Pacquiao undercard Saturday for the first time. His opponent is Jessie Magdaleno (23-0, 17 KOs).
Shields turning pro: Two-time Olympic gold medalist Claressa Shields will take on amateur rival Franchon Crews in her pro debut Nov. 19 on the Ward-Kovalev undercard at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
