Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Saul Alvarez will be fighting for more than just ?Canelo’s? RING and WBC junior middleweight titles this Saturday. The belts are just physical symbols for prevailing on fight night and for that they will provide instant gratification. But beyond the temporary thrill of victory there are prizes the winner will enjoy for decades to come and for historians to assess for the rest of time. Like the great battles of the past, the final result will shape resumes, alter perceptions and affect legacies.
For Alvarez, a win over Mayweather will cement his place as a worldwide superstar. His flaming red hair and pale complexion already sets him apart as a unique character ? redheads make up only 2 percent of the world’s population and an even smaller slice of the Mexican pool ? but a victory over an American who also is the reigning pay-per-view king will vault Alvarez into a stratosphere previously occupied by Julio Cesar Chavez. In today’s media environment Alvarez will become a brand whose price tag will soar into eight figures for each performance, and, at age 23, Alvarez has the potential to become that rarest of commodities ? a billionaire athlete. But for that to happen, he’ll have to win, and keep on winning.
For Mayweather, his 45th victory will be just another in an unbroken string of successes. He will collect his second WBC 154-pound belt (he won his first from Oscar de la Hoya in 2007) and his third strap in the division overall, as he beat Miguel Cotto for the WBA title two fights earlier. That’s in addition to the titles he won at 130, 135, 140 and 147 pounds and a win over Alvarez would extend his championship arc into an incredible 16th
year, as his next fight won’t take place until 2014.
Another accomplishment he certainly would relish is if this fight breaks the all-time record for pay-per-view buys, for if that happens Mayweather would be the perceived “A” side of the bout, a spot De La Hoya occupied when he and Mayweather set the current mark of 2.4 million buys six years ago. It would be the ultimate answer to those critics who say he piggy-backed on ?The Golden Boy’s? star to create his own.
Finally, there is a cherished numeral that Mayweather and Alvarez dearly want to keep ? 0. That’s the figure that occupies both men’s loss columns and in this day and age it carries enormous power and prestige. This is especially true for Mayweather, who has invested his entire self-worth, reputation and place in history on it. His legion of critics have paid thousands of dollars in pay-per-view money to see him lose that zero only to leave frustrated while Mayweather’s vocal supporters have used it as a weapon to bludgeon their adversaries.
Mayweather’s ?zero? has a mystique like the Boston Celtics had at the Boston Garden before it was torn down, the Montreal Canadiens had at the Montreal Forum before it was torn down and the New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium before it was torn down. Alvarez hopes his fists will act like wrecking balls and tear down Mayweather’s ?zero,? and, with it, his mystique.
Michael Spinks wasn’t known for his public speaking but before one of his most historic battles against a fellow unbeaten he coined an immortal phrase in boxing ? ?Somebody’s ?oh? has got to go.? It was a poetic and succinct description of what?s at stake when two unconquered boxers square off. Barring a draw, one will continue his pristine journey at the expense of the other, and unless he puts up a heroic effort in defeat, the loser’s reputation will forever be tarnished.
The following two-part article will detail 10 of boxing’s most historic ?Oh Must Go? fights in which resumes were built and broken. The 1970s rock group Three Dog Night often sung ?One is the Loneliest Number? and in boxing that is particularly true. After all, everyone loves a winner ? but only one who wins every time.
