While some people were busy winning money as Calvin Borel rode to his third Kentucky Derby win in four years, I was making the tough decision to give up 65 of my hard-earned dollars to watch what was billed as the boxing match of the year. Pfft … hardly.
Let’s not kid ourselves; we all wanted to see Floyd Mayweather take on Manny Pacquiao, but it didn’t happen. It’s like seeing either LeBron or Kobe in the NBA Finals, but not both.
The 38-year-old “Sugar” Shane Mosley actually jacked Mayweather up in the second round, but “Money” proceeded to take control of the fight and put just about everybody watching to sleep in the process. People say that it’s because he’s so damn good that he has to be boring, but I beg to differ. Mr. Ali wasn’t boring. Not Roberto Duran, and definitely not “Sugar” Ray Leonard. Mayweather sees all of those dollar signs, and he knows that they go away if he loses. But that’s still not an excuse to be boring.
Hell, Money even promised us the week of the fight that he was going to knock Mosley out – or maybe that was just him trying to get more money from us?
These days, boxing just doesn’t seem to stack up. Recently, all of the big-time fights have not failed to disappoint, and the alphabet soup of promotions and organizations and champions is just too damn confusing to keep track of.
Promoters are corrupt, and the sport often becomes a hugfest that turns into a 12-round snoozer.
Even with all of the problems that boxing has, people still watch. HBO officials were projecting 4 million Pay-per-view buys for Sugar vs. Money, and even though they won’t get anywhere near that number, the fact that they were even talking about doubling the PPV record is a testament to the fact that boxing is still a beloved sport in our great country.
Mayweather vs. Pacman needs to happen. It’s the age old adage that if they fight, we will watch. Of course the sticking point is the drug testing that Pretty Boy Floyd won’t step into the ring without.
Pacquiao has said that he is willing to submit to having blood withdrawn for doping tests, but he’s said that it has to be done at least 24 days in advance of the fight for him to agree. He’s a much smaller fighter than Mayweather, he argues. Blood testing would affect him much more than Floyd.
How, exactly, did Pacquaio come up with a timeframe of 24 days? Is that the amount of time that it would take for his body to reproduce that amount of blood, or does he have some sort of cycling plan that could allow him to pass a test 24 days before the fight?
Frankly, I don’t give a damn. Just as much as Fedor Emelianenko vs. Brock Lesnar needs to happen in mixed martial arts (unfortunately, yet another pipe dream), this fight needs to happen in boxing. I’m not about to accept not seeing the world’s two best fighters entertain me for an hour. But what happens when one of them – gasp! – loses? Surely he’ll never be able to step foot inside a four-sided ring without the onlookers snickering with amusement at the man who lost to the greatest boxer in the world.
Or maybe both of them have too much to lose. Money-wise.
