We often casually toss around the expression “public demand” for a particular fight.
In my five decades around big-time boxing, I’ve either been a part of or borne witness to huge, visceral public demand to just a few titanic bouts.
The public demanded Muhammad Ali-Joe Frazier I and it went down at Madison Square Garden on March 8, 1971. One of my personal, never bound for Ebay treasures is my ticket stub, the souvenir of my $150 ringside ticket directly behind now in failing health crooner Aretha Franklin.
What makes that stub special is not only the enormity of the event but that I got in free, courtesy of an “Annie Oakley,” a punched ticket given to me by Muhammad the night before the Monday fight.
Years later, there was public demand for Thomas Hearns, the huge puncher, against Sugar Ray Leonard, consummate boxer. That went down in 1981 at Ceasars Palace and the roles were flipped as Hearns outboxed Leonard early and then Ray outpunched Tommy late to win the fight.
Fast forward to 2011 and the pent-up public demand worldwide remains strong for Floyd Mayweather-Manny Pacquiao. Some Manny fans let Mayweather hear it, chanting their hero’s name recently as Mayweather and his hulking bodyguards shopped and walked around the new Cosmpolitan Hotel-Casino in Las Vegas.
There are 60,000 Youtube views and counting…unfortunately, Mayweather shows no reaction to the chanting. Plaudits to “Sariwang Bata” who seems to have shot and posted the illuminating chanting which put more shame in Mayweather’s game.
But notice there’s no audible response by Floyd as the vox populi chorus goes on.
Maybe that’s a good reason for Floyd not to fight Manny…because he is deaf, I don’t know.
Will the Big Fight happen this fall or will it go down in boxing history along with such other monstrous matches–Roberto Duran-Alexis Arguello and Mike Tyson-George Foreman come quickly to mind–that just never got put together.
Either way, Mayweather can expect more chanting, more derision and more questions about why he seems to be ducking Pacman this year.
They may not chant “Manny, Manny” at the black barber shops or in the soul food restaurants but there’s nowhere Mayweather can hide from what the public wants, what the public demands.
I hope serious chanters will turn up outside the Vegas courtroom on Jan. 24 when Mayweather appears on the “Baby Mama drama” criminal case.
The message must be loud, it must be repetitive.
And let it continue to be good-natured and nonviolent like this encounter was. I had to laugh at the young fellow heard saying, “I don’t want to get punched!”
How long can Mayweather keep turning a deaf ear to the demand and ignoring the $40 million paynight?
Not long, not long.
Keep on chanting, fight fans.
Maybe this will goad Mayweather into the ring against Pacman.
The economic lure and public humiliation may do the trick
