The so called “Fight of the Century” between Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr went down last night in Las Vegas amid unprecedented hype, even for the boxing world. At the end of the night, the judges gave a unanimous decision to Floyd Mayweather Jr. All the talk aside, what played out for all the world to see was a ho-hum affair that saw neither fighter come close to hurting the other man or to finishing the fight. Afterwards in the press, Pacquiao alternately excused his lukewarm performance on a bad shoulder, but also declared that he thought he won the fight. Mayweather was already looking ahead to one more fight, then signaled at retiring.
There is an old boxing quote that is credited to George Foreman, and that is something like “Boxing is like jazz, the more sophisticated it gets the less people that like it”, and Mayweather and his crew will be telling everyone that listens that what we saw was a masterpiece from “TBE” (The Best Ever). Well, most everyone remains unimpressed by this performance, and the idea that this fight delivered for people who paid a lot of money for it is ridiculous. Mayweather should just retire now.
The highlight clips before the fight showed Mayweather knocking out Victor Ortiz. That is how bad things are with this “master of skill” that they have to show him hitting a defenseless man to have him dropping someone. No, Mayweather should not be called a cheater for his KO of Ortiz, who was hands down and looking to hug and apologize while the match was going on. But to show that as one of your highlights is like showing knock outs from the street knock out game.
And of course, there is the lost generation of older Mayweathers, all toothless with their new T-shirts shining and the glazed look of war veterans. Roger and Jeff Mayweather are eager to tell anyone that will listen how much they know about boxing and how every one else “don’t know s–t”. Well for years now, and for this fight especially, they promised a knock out, with one of the Mayweather’s own stating the fight will not go past five rounds. Well, by the fourth round it was pretty clear Mayweather was not capable of a knock out. So who don’t know “sh*t”?
