Bleacher Report has concluded, as many other websites have concluded, that crappy success is better than superb failure?
?I believe alien life is quite common in the universe, although intelligent life is less so. Some say it has yet to appear on planet Earth.??Stephen Hawking
Unless one was feeding at the trough, the May 4 fight between Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao was a disaster. Over a decade in the making and at least five years past its expiration date, the Blight of the Century was a setup, and fight fans were the dupes. Mayweather fought as he always fights, his performances as proficient as they are cynical. And Pacquiao fought as he always fights, relying on instinct instead of intelligence, his alleged should injury, healed by either surgeons or Jesus, notwithstanding.
With that debacle behind us and a shrug of the shoulders fight between Mayweather and Andre Berto fast approaching, Bleacher Report, with an eye on Mayweather?s 50th fight, asked over 2000 respondents if they?d buy a Mayweather-Pacquiao rematch, either knowing what they now know, or having learned nothing in the ensuing three and a half months.
The results of the Bleacher Report poll might be surprising, were it not for the avalanche of surprises coming from the likes of Donald Trump, Caitlyn Jenner, and countless other signifiers which suggest that the world is going to hell in a handbasket.
But context is everything, and in that context Bleacher Report?s respondents were regular readers of Bleacher Report, and if I?m not mistaken there?s not a Rhodes Scholar among them. Still, whatever Bleacher Report?s limitations, they?re latched onto a formula that works. They have concluded, as many other websites have concluded, that crappy success is better than superb failure.
Returning to the subject of the Bleacher Report poll, of the 2000 respondents who were asked if they would pay to watch a Mayweather-Pacquiao rematch on pay-per-view, a whopping 60 percent said they would.
Because it was a poll, there was no opportunity for those who want to watch Floyd and Manny do it again to explain. That is probably just as well, given the erosion of the ability to reason, the dearth of knowledge about boxing, and the fact that there are people out there who still insist that Pacquiao won the fight.
There may be a sucker born every minute. It may be that a fool and his money are soon parted. But that 60 percent, who were ballsy enough to go to the ballet box, should be ballsy enough to tell us why they want to see a Mayweather-Pacquiao rematch and what they imagine would be any different.
