Well, it's happening. Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao are set to rematch their 2015 fight, which Mayweather won by unanimous decision. The match is scheduled for September 19th in Las Vegas, and will be carried by Netflix.
Like any red-blooded boxing fan, I hate this. Mayweather (50-0, 27 KOs) and Pacquiao (62-8-3, 39 KOs) are both pushing fifty years old. To say neither is in their prime is an understatement. The fight defines soulless cash grab (and I would know). Rumors have abounded that Mayweather, in particular, has gotten into money trouble, and with the first fight grossing over $400 million dollars, this smacks of a way to get one or both gentlemen's bank account back into the black.
In terms of the fight itself -- well. After all the hype and hullabaloo surrounding the first fight, Mayweather ended up winning quite handily. And while some of that has been chalked up to Pacquiao being injured ahead of the match, I genuinely believe that in their primes and at their peak, Floyd Mayweather was a better fighter than Manny Pacquiao. I was not surprised at the outcome then, and had they run it back a year later with a fully recovered Pacquiao, I would have expected much the same result.
But as I said -- we are now nowhere near anyone's prime. And to the extent either fighter has even gestured at remaining active in the sport, it's Pacquiao. After dropping a clear decision to Yordenis Ugas in 2021, Pacquiao came back to fight Mario Barrios to a draw last year. Sure, Barrios may be someone who a prime Pacquiao would've torn apart, but he's a real fighter, not a total pushover, and Pacquaio at least could still keep up with him. Mayweather's last sanctioned fight (against Conor McGregor) was in 2017, his last fight against an actual boxer was against a basically shot Andre Berto in 2015, and his last fight against an opponent who had any chance of challenging him was ... Manny Pacquiao. Mayweather's been feasting on exhibition-circuit joke fights for a decade, but it's been a long time since he's had to do anything halfway serious in the ring.
The reality is that, while we've got some idea what this version of Manny Pacquiao has for us, we have no idea how much Floyd Mayweather Jr. has left in the tank. During his career Mayweather was known if nothing else for always being in fantastic shape. He may have liked to flash cash and showboat in the runup to fights, but he never let the distractions distract him. Is that still true at 49? Is he fully present? Is he taking this fight because he genuinely wants to be back in the ring and feels he's capable of putting on a show, or because his debts finally piled higher than his pride? (And that doesn't get into the more basic question of whether, even if Mayweather genuinely still has the hunger, is his body still there?)
I'm not interested in this fight. As a boxing fan, it offends me that the most attention our sport gets are these senior circuit tours and whenever Jake Paul steps into the ring. Terrence Crawford deserves all the attention and money of this fight twice over.
But if there is one thing I can say in its favor, it's that I'm genuinely not confident who will win. I guess that's something.
No comments:
Post a Comment