Floyd Mayweather retains his unbeaten run after a unanimous points victory over Manny Pacquiao at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
After Manny Pacquiao lost to Floyd Mayweather he thanked God for his opportunity. Mayweather also thanked God, then as quickly as he dodges punches, he also thanked Hublot and FanDuel.
Boxing is changing.
This fight was billed as the greatest fight of modern times. Two of the greatest fighters the world had ever seen, slugging it out to prove who was the best. Or, was it all about money? The combatants were sharing a purse expected to be in the region of $200m. I contributed to that, and like so many other disgruntled customers, I want it back.
I paid £19.99 to watch the show on pay-per-view. I live in the UK, so that means I had to stay awake until 6am to watch it. The show started at midnight. For the first four hours I watched utter nobodies tickling each other in front of utterly nobody. It’s believed the fight created over £400m in revenue. Couldn’t they have used some of it to give us a decent undercard?
The event brought out the stars like no other. Mike Tyson, Clint Eastwood, Robert De Niro, Michael Jordan, Beyonce and Jay-Z, were just a few of the celebrities able to fork out $100,000 for ringside seats. So with so much talent on display, why did someone hire Jamie Foxx to sing the American national anthem?
Please don’t ever do that again.
The guy was tone deaf.
And what about those ring entrances?
Don’t get me started on the ring entrances.
I was raised watching Chris Eubank and Prince Naseem Hamed strolling towards the ring as if they owned it. These were guys who put on a show. Some of their ring entrances were better than their scraps in the ring. What the hell happened last night? Did Jamie Foxx screw everyone’s hearing up? The music was mute, and the faces on the fighters even worse.
I think the biggest problem with this fight, is both warriors seemed to genuinely like each other. When Chris Eubank was having his wars with Nigel Benn it was hate that fuelled the fight, not hands turned into stupid heart shapes; and Hamed was another fighter who’s opponent’s would have gladly gutted him with a spoon.
There was nothing but love between these two.
It was wrong.
And what about the fight itself?
What a waste of £19.99. There wasn’t a single trade of blows worthy of note. I’ve seen better fights in the schoolyard, and it’s because Mayweather knows how to win a fight, and the secret recipe doesn’t involve a pinch of excitement for the fans.
Mayweather reminds me of the Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho. The pair of them couldn’t give a flying duck about the fans. All they care about is winning. After 47 straight victories, Mayweather knows how to get the job done. He doesn’t want to knock anyone out. He ducks and dives more than a ducky diving thing. It was total control, but it was also total boredom.
Like I said earlier, boxing is changing.
These two are at the end of great careers. There is nobody coming up through the ranks. The characters are gone. Roberto Duran, Sugar Ray Leonard, Marvin Hagler…where are these types of fighters?
Why are we going to continue to watch 12-rounds of one person chasing another around the ring? Why are we going to continue paying good money to watch someone punching someone else on the arm?
It won’t be long before UFC takes over boxing.
If you want to watch two people beating the shit out of each other – and the anticipation and money involved in this fight proves that we still do – then watch UFC.
If you did I can guarantee you one thing.
You won’t have to listen to Jamie Foxx killing the Star Spangled Banner.
