Mayweather-Pacquiao

[2001mark]

That fight was all sorts of rigged.

All Mayweather did was run from and hug Pacquiao and he still went away with the win.

Just no. Floyd landed nearly(?) as many, & the judges couldn't give a flying fadoo if that live crowd, who obviously knew nothing about boxing, started orgasming at Manny's round by round flurries.

[Cujo]

S**t, you could buy a Super Bowl ticket for that, and at least you wouldn't face the risk that it could be over in 10 seconds.

[See Red]

That fight was all sorts of rigged.

All Mayweather did was run from and hug Pacquiao and he still went away with the win.

Just no. Floyd landed nearly(?) as many, & the judges couldn't give a flying fadoo if that live crowd, who obviously knew nothing about boxing, started orgasming at Manny's round by round flurries.

I can't find the stats at the moment, but I think in the 10th or 11th round ESPN tweeted Mayweather had landed considerably more punches and I presume he threw a lot less. I didn't watch, though. It's pretty typical in his fights, though -- the opponent looks like he's getting a nice flurry in until you realize nothing's landing, which I would assume you can't really tell from the stands.

[Lights Out]

That fight was all sorts of rigged.

All Mayweather did was run from and hug Pacquiao and he still went away with the win.

He easily outpunched Manny, 148-81. You clearly either weren't watching the fight or you were blinded by personal dislike for Floyd.

[Lee Noire]

I really hate May's style, but he did it again. Geez.

[See Red]

I really hate May's style, but he did it again. Geez.

I get a kick out of everybody complaining about it being boring. Have they never seen a Mayweather fight? That's how he fights! What kind of fight did anybody expect?

[Lee Noire]

Double post

[Lee Noire]

Double post

[Lee Noire]

I really hate May's style, but he did it again. Geez.

I get a kick out of everybody complaining about it being boring. Have they never seen a Mayweather fight? That's how he fights! What kind of fight did anybody expect?

I know that's how he fights, but I've never been fond of that overly defensive style. I prefer more offense, and I was hoping that Manny's aggressive nature would bring that out of Floyd. Oh well.

[See Red]

I wasn't talking about you -- I didn't mean for it to come off that way. I just quoted you because you mentioned his style, which does make for some boring fights. You seem to realize that's just his style. I just suspect everybody complaining on my Facebook feed expected a completely different kind of fight.

[2001mark]

He says he's only fighting one more time, will not try for 50-0.

I think that's a bit nutz... a boxer on the brink of that history, & doesn't go for it.

[Lee Noire]

I wasn't talking about you -- I didn't mean for it to come off that way. I just quoted you because you mentioned his style. You seem to realize that's just his style. I just suspect everybody complaining on my Facebook feed expected a completely different kind of fight.

No worries man. Most people fell for the hype and it backfired. I think I drank it a little myself. It seemed like so much was on the line, and ultimately both guys looked like they went for a light jog.

[pmoehrin]

The fight went very close to what I said in the prediction thread.

The only thing that surprised me was how much energy Manny still had at the end of the fight.

The way the rest of the fight went did not. Pac gets in a good shot or two which stuns Mayweather and sends him back to the ropes and that's all Manny can do against him. The second the fight goes back to the center of the ring Mayweather distances himslef with jabs and Pacquiao can't counter punch him or work his way inside beyond some brief flashes peppered throughout the fight.

By round six it was pretty clear that Pacquiao was not going to outpoint Mayweather. The fight may have been pretty even by that point, but I don't know if there's ever been a second half fighter better then Floyd Mayweather. Trying to outpoint Mayweather in rounds 7-12 is like trying to knock out Mike Tyson in round one.

Only chance Manny had at that point was to land a lucky shot and hope for the best. He did get a couple of shots in and even in round 12 I thought still had enough energy in him to put himself in position to knock out Mayweather. But the knockout punch just never came.

Maybe a younger Pacquiao finds that punch, but nine times out of ten I think you get a very similar outcome to what you had last night.

As for a rematch I don't really see the point unless your going to change the number of rounds from 12 to 8 or 10 which isn't going to happen for a number of reasons. Pacquiao trained well and came in with what I thought was a pretty good strategy. He just got beat by a better fighter plain and simple.

With the possible exception of Henry Armstrong, last night I thought Floyd Mayweather proved himself to be the greatest welterweight of all-time.

[2001mark]

As for a rematch I don't really see the point unless your going to change the number of rounds from 12 to 8 or 10 which isn't going to happen for a number of reasons. Pacquiao trained well and came in with what I thought was a pretty good strategy. He just got beat by a better fighter plain and simple.

I don't see a rematch, & it's not even because Floyd only says he wants that one more bout in Sept or whatever.

It's because while decent, last night's fight didn't excite anyone once it got under way. There'd be no real outscale demand to pay to watch that fight again.

[Alex Houston]

I was very surprised at the amount of non-sports people I saw on my FB feed who were interested in the fight. Especially considering boxing has lost much of the social awareness it used to have decades ago, it took me back to see it. It's a shame the fight wasn't as close as it could've been in the later rounds, but I wonder if any of these people posting statuses about it will watch boxing more regularly.

[DG_ThenNowForever]

I went out to dinner last night so I missed the fight live. I was hoping to watch it when I got home, but some dick the table over announced to his companion that Mayweather won, so that was that. Also, put your smartphone away when you're at restaurants. Or at least restaurants that aren't Applebee's.

[2001mark]

Little Pac vs. Money Mayweather... relive the fight NES Punch Out stylez.

[CS85]

Just as a precursor to this rambling, I am not a boxing expert, nor a fan, nor a historian of pugilism. If most of what I say is wrong, I blame the schools and Barack Obama.

I honestly don't know what people expected. I think boxing has been so far out of the realm of the public eye for so, so long that we've had our definitions of what makes an exciting showdown warped by things like WWE, UFC, and movies. My little brother, college-aged, texted me last night saying his only frame of reference for boxing was various Ali/Tyson clips he'd seen on YouTube and Cinderella Man.

Hell, even if this WAS an entertaining boxing fight it's not the fault of boxing - it's simply not a fascinating pastime in America anymore. It had it's time; it's time is up. Boxing in all its shapes and sizes was a great representative of America across the years, from two barrel-chested oafs spraying one another's brainpans across hay-matted fairgrounds to Ali's battles with Foreman, Frazier, and others making the sport transcendental. Media and culture were different beasts at the time, and there was so little to connect the world besides the still-dominant newspapers and radio along with the burgeoning television networks on a smaller scale. A fight could be built up for months and years. It became the central talking point across the entire country. There weren't hundreds of distractions from the internet or 100+ channels. The big fights were brilliantly promoted to be more than just a boxing match, and thanks to that golden era of heavyweight talent it was a glorious time.

Things all changed in the 80s, at least from what I perceive and remember (being born in 1985 I obviously remember a lot of it, trust me), for not only boxing but American television culture. PPV became The Thing, and a lot of people were more than happy to shell out $X to watch Tyson or whomever basically murder some other poor bastard, and for awhile it seemed like as long as there were ways to promote the ever living hell out of the fight, you could harbor it on PPV for an outrageous price, shill it as an uber-exclusive event, and people would pay just to feel involved, much less witness any payoff in the ring.

Yet things changed with cable. Boxing became more prevalent on channels like USA, Showtime, HBO, etc, plus the WWF became a national thing, further absorbing some of their audience. People had more and more options that would guarantee entertainment for themselves at a lower price, whereas with "The Big Fight" of the year you'd pay out the ass for something which may or may not last 5 minutes. Now we are on the cusp of an even stranger new media world where consumers are starting to slowly point their money away from cable television altogether, preferring instead a more convenient form of online on-demand entertainment. Society very rarely gets together anymore for events that are larger than life, and when they do the payoff is virtually never there. Plus as a society we're becoming more enamored with head trauma and the severity of concussions on living a full life. There will always be a portion of humanity that will take great pleasure in observing one meathead stoving in someone's skull, but awareness of the real cost of punching a guy in the head has made boxing look even worse.

This fight was boxing's last great opportunity to remind the population why it was held in such high esteem and what makes a great bout. Instead it was between two old guys who are really both detestable pieces of trash in their own ways, each getting paid absurd amounts of money, each delaying the fight for about 10 years for reasons related to steroids/hgh testing, and they failed to put on a show. The world was watching, and it was more like a wake to the sport's funeral, the casket slowly lowering as people turned their backs, returning to the warm comfort of their phones and Netflix.

Boxing is dead. It died a long time ago, but yesterday everybody gathered to throw a few roses into the unmarked grave.

[DG_ThenNowForever]

Every buy fight is the end of boxing. I've been hearing it since the first Tyson/Holyfield fight.

I think people are reacting to the fact that Mayweather fights are generally boring -- he'd all defense and that isn't much fun to watch for several rounds.

People just paid $100 on PPV and $100k in seats. They'll do the same for the rematch. Boxing will be fine.

Also, PEDS are hitting UFC hard, and their two biggest stars are in WWE or angling to be in WWE.

[2001mark]

Purests, including many former pros, will actually point to the Olympics as the death knell of boxing.

No longer were gold medalists & bluechippers from the Olympics placed on a pedestal & their careers followed by mainstream sports fans.

It's fitting in a way that, the mess of boxing met its demise at the hands of the most prestigious & influential 'pure' sporting organization in history.

Every buy fight is the end of boxing. I've been hearing it since the first Tyson/Holyfield fight.

I think people are reacting to the fact that Mayweather fights are generally boring -- he'd all defense and that isn't much fun to watch for several rounds.

People just paid $100 on PPV and $100k in seats. They'll do the same for the rematch. Boxing will be fine.

Also, PEDS are hitting UFC hard, and their two biggest stars are in WWE or angling to be in WWE.

The only way boxing will be fine is if competitors & their handlers cease over-protecting their win-loss records. The best have to start fighting the best, not just who makes it easiest.

I can remember back during the post-Tyson jail days, ppl were wondering what to do with boxing. Many favoured having a proxy global tournament, deals be damned. A heavyweight boxing bracketed tourney played out over 2-3x years or whatever.

Naturally, it never got out the door.