IN the last hours of his life, as he painted the Indonesian flag dripping with his own blood and waited to be shot dead by soldiers, Myuran Sukumaran told his family he was sad he would miss today?s boxing match between Floyd Mayweather Jr and Manny Pacquiao.
Even on the ghastly death island of Nusakambangan, amid the wails and tears of anguished family members, and with the condemned prisoners about to face their executioners this week, people were talking about the richest fight in boxing history.
?It was something (Myuran) really wanted to see,? his cousin Dharminie Mani revealed in the hours after the reformed drug smuggler?s death.
This afternoon, inside the 17,000-seat auditorium at the MGM Grand Casino, a gaudy, green temple of greed on the Las Vegas strip, Mayweather and Pacquiao will carve up the best part of $300 million as their fight ticks up pay-per-view television records in every corner of the globe. Ringside seats are selling for more than $350,000.
Pacquaio, Asia?s greatest athlete and a man whose sporting success has propelled him to a seat in the Philippines? House of Representatives, took time out from training this week to plead for the life of his countrywoman condemned to die alongside Sukumaran and his fellow Australian Andrew Chan on Wednesday morning.
Pacquiao wrote to Indonesian President Joko Widodo in a bid to save Filipina maid Mary Jane Veloso:
?Mr. President ? I?ll be fighting in Las Vegas, Nevada, against Floyd Mayweather. It is considered the fight of the century. It will be a great morale booster if, in my own little way, I can save a life. I am dedicating this fight to my country and the entire Asian people, to which the Philippines and Indonesia belong. Thank you, Mr. President.?
Veloso was given a last minute reprieve.
Pacquiao and his army of supporters hope he will be the hero again today in what is being portrayed as a morality play in gloves. Mayweather has been the highest paid athlete in the world for the past three years but the trash-talking American seems to revel in his reputation as sport?s most loathsome reptile.
While Pacquaio, 36, an Evangelical Protestant who helps build hospitals and churches in his home country, begins every morning with a Bible reading, Mayweather, 38, allegedly once threatened to have acid thrown over the woman who bore three of his four children.
WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao speaks during a news conference at the KA Theatre at MGM Grand Hotel & Casino.
While Pacquiao has been a guest of the White House, Mayweather has been a guest of the big house, serving time for domestic violence. He was denied a visa to Australia because of it, and has been accused of seven separate assaults against five women.
Both boxers began life in desperate poverty and now inhabit the stratosphere of the super rich
but that?s where the similarities end.
Softly spoken Pacquiao, who often ends interviews by saying ?thank you for having me?, remains modest about the trappings of wealth while Mayweather shamelessly flaunts his $500 million fortune like some bogan prince, posting photos on social media of his Bugatti and private jet.
When Mayweather?s son Koraun saw him beating up the boy?s mother he ran for the police, telling them that his father had arrived at the house in a Maybach, a car worth about $700,000. Koraun has since called Mayweather a coward, despite the boxer buying him a gold Bentley golf cart.
Outside the ring, Pacquiao is quiet and dignified. Inside it he is a blood and thunder warrior, a southpaw who tries to turn every fight into a brawl, win or lose. He has won some thrillers and also been knocked cold. His all-action style has made him a crowd favourite even though oddsmakers have him a heavy underdog today.
Mayweather is Pacquiao?s flip side. His private life is turbulent and erratic and yet inside the ropes he is a cool, calculating strategist, a gifted artist whose fights are masterpieces of timing and patience. He seems utterly unperturbed that his safety-first approach has been labelled boring because he has never lost in 47 professional fights dating back to 1996. His defence is immaculate, sometimes so impenetrable that all action is stymied as he coasts to decision victories behind a snaking jab and right hand lead. He disrupts his opponent?s rhythm, stifling their attack. As one commentator said this week it often appears not that he is trying to punch out his opponent?s lights but rather trying to turn off their switch.
Mayweather?s mother was a drug addict and his father, Floyd Sr, a drug dealer, and boxer good enough to fight world champs Sugar Ray Leonard and Marlon Starling.
The child grew up surrounded by violence and drugs. When Mayweather was not quite two his father used him as human shield when a relative pulled out a shotgun in a fight over drugs.
?I used (him) because if I hadn?t, I wouldn?t be here today,? Floyd Sr said. ?He still shot a big old hole in my leg, and I?m telling you that it would have been in my head or my chest. What would you do with a gun on you??? You need to have the Adobe Flash Player to view this content. Please click here to continue.
Floyd Mayweather v Manny Pacquiao weigh-in
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Mayweather has had a fractured relationship with his father and claimed he was the victim of frequent whippings. Floyd Sr spent five years in jail for drug crimes but was his son?s early trainer, teaching him the trademark Mayweather shoulder roll in which the shoulders are used to deflect punches like body armour.
Mayweather recalls living in New Jersey with his mother and five other relatives in one bedroom surrounded by heroin needles and how an aunt died of AIDS contracted from drug use.
?We didn?t have electricity,? Mayweather said. ?When people see what I have now, they have no idea of where I came from and how I didn?t have anything growing up. People don?t know the hell I?ve been through.?
In 1979, at about the same time as Mayweather was being used as a human shield by his father, Emmanuel Pacquiao was born in a thatch-roofed hut with a dirt floor on the island of Mindanao.
His Homeric odyssey began when the family was forced to move to General Santos City because of fighting between insurgents and anti-communist militiamen.
They survived on boiled rice and fish guts. Pacquiao?s father deserted the family when Pacquiao was 12 but according to the boxer?s s long-time trainer Freddie Roach, not before he had sated his own hunger pangs by cooking and eating Pacquiao?s pet dog.
On the streets of General Santos City, Pacquiao lived rough, sleeping in a cardboard box and selling fried peanuts, bread and doughnuts.
He also worked as a shop assistant and collected empty wine bottles for a few coins. He was fascinated by boxing and the stories about heavyweight Mike Tyson.
Floyd Mayweather Jr. attends a press conference ahead of his fight with Manny Pacquiao.
Pacquiao?s mother wanted him to become a priest but had no money for him to enter a seminary. Instead he decided to try his luck as a professional boxer, having his first paid fight aged 16 in 1995. He was 45kg.
?He had every excuse in the book to fail,? said filmmaker Paul Soriano, who produced a movie about Pacquiao?s extraordinary rise ?Broken family, no food, no home, nowhere to go, no money, but he still persevered. He is where he is today because of hard work.??
In 1996, Mayweather represented the United States at the Atlanta Olympics, losing controversially to a Bulgarian in the semi-finals. He has been undefeated ever since.
Nineteen years later he has one of the most impressive records in professional boxing history, with 47 consecutive wins and around $500 million in earnings. In most of his fights he has been as hard to hit as smoke, but his knees did buckle against Shane Mosley, he did have moments of despair against Jose Luis Castillo and he looked decidedly uncomfortable despite winning against his last opponent Marcos Maidana. All of those incidents give Pacquaio fans cause to hope and he reassures them that Mayweather has never fought an opponent with so much intensity and desire to win.
Mayweather won his first world championship in 1998 in Las Vegas. He was 59kg.
Pacquiao won his first world title that same year in Thailand at 51kg. The pair have been growing together on their collision course ever since and fight today for the world welterweight (67kg) title.
The free-swinging Pacquiao, who still fights with a sense of hungry desperation, has become an iconic symbol of hope to Asia?s poor. Mayweather is a much more polarising figure.
Pacquaio had his first fight in the United States in 2001 and immediately began to charm the American sporting public with his ferocious style and humble bearing. In the same year the first accusation over Mayweather?s domestic violence surfaced. According to court documents Mayweather slammed a car door into the head of Melissa Brim, the mother of his daughter Ayanna, during an argument over child support. You need to have the Adobe Flash Player to view this content. Please click here to continue.
Manny Pacquiao thanks Floyd Mayweather
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He pleaded guilty to domestic battery and received a suspended six-month jail sentence.
Two years later, Mayweather attacked two women who were friends of Josie Harris, the mother of three of his children. He was found guilty of two counts of battery and given suspended prison sentences. In 2004 he pleaded no contest to misdemeanour assault and battery after being accused of kicking a bouncer in the head. He was fined and ordered to perform community service.
A month after bamboozling the brawler Arturo Gatti in 2005, Mayweather faced court on a felony battery charge after Josie Harris told police he repeatedly punched her, kicked her, and dragged her by her hair.
But at the trial, she changed her story, saying she had been drunk and had taken ecstasy. Mayweather had only been restraining her, she said.
Manny Pacquiao jogs with his dog Pacman in Los Angeles.
He was found not guilty and she continued to live in one of his mansions and flash his 25-carat diamond ring.
In 2011, Manny Pacquiao, a devoted father of five, recorded a syrupy version of the Dan Hill romance song ?Sometimes When We Touch?. He visited President Obama and was escorted to the US Senate floor, representing the Filipino government. At the time Mayweather talked about their potential fight by declaring: ?Once I stomp the midget, I?ll make that —- make me a sushi roll and cook me some rice.??
That same year, Mayweather was sentenced to two months in prison for assaulting Harris again in an attack witnessed by their children. The police report said he told her ?I?m going to get someone to pour acid on you??.
He pleaded guilty but the judge delayed his jail term so the boxer could fight Miguel Cotto in a bout that generated $118 million for Las Vegas.
Mayweather was unrepentant after finally serving two months in jail, saying: ?When you are at this level you get sued for the smallest things.?
This week he was again asked to comment about his long history of abusing women.
?Tune into the fight,? Mayweather replied, as smug as ever. ?Mayweather versus Pacquiao. This is a fight that you can?t miss.??
