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Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao unveiled Monday they will fight on Sept. 19 at the Sphere in Las Vegas, broadcast globally on Netflix.
This would have been awesome … in 2011.
Instead, we get what looks like a cash grab built on nostalgia — mostly of what never was. It is equal parts depressing and telling about the state of boxing, including the fact that even after two rich and illustrious careers, both fighters apparently need money this badly.
Mayweather is 49 years old; Pacquiao, 47. A decade and a half ago during their prime, they should have fought two or three times, producing a series or trilogy for the history books; two of the greatest to ever step into the ring meeting to crown the best fighter of their generation.
The offensive relentlessness of Pacquiao against the defensive genius of Mayweather. It could have been Muhammad Ali-Joe Frazier-type stuff.
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Boxing fans salivated over it, debated it endlessly and pleaded for it to happen. Instead, a combination of politics, caution and accusations and who knows what else kept it from materializing between 2010 and 2012.
They finally met in 2015, with Mayweather defeating Pacquiao by unanimous decision in a mostly listless affair. It set box-office records because of the pent-up demand, even though Pacquiao had already begun to fade considerably.
Now we get a sequel to a bad movie. This isn’t even “Caddyshack II.” At least the original was a classic.
“Floyd and I gave the world what remains the biggest fight in boxing history,” Pacquiao mentioned in a statement on Monday. “The fans have waited long enough — they deserve this rematch.”
“Biggest” in terms of suckers spending money on what they hoped to see, not what they did. As for boxing fans, they don’t deserve this — haven’t they suffered enough? Few, if any, were asking for a run back.
The first fight grossed an estimated $400 million, at least, yet despite that payout, and all the others in their careers, both fighters are still scrambling. Mayweather earned an estimated $1 billion in his career but was reportedly sued earlier this month by a Miami jeweler for bouncing checks on an alleged $1.675 million shopping spree (15 gold watches, 26 luxury watches).
It’s the likely motivation for not just this fight, but an even more farcical April 25 exhibition match against 59-year-old Mike Tyson, which reportedly will take place in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Mayweather doesn’t need 26 Rolexes to tell him time is ticking.
At its best, there is nothing like a great prizefight, the anticipation, the danger, the buildup. It’s primal and it has captivated audiences for centuries.
What the sport has descended into though is make-believe, too few breakout stars, too few real fights. It’s led to too many circus acts that dress up as the real thing, which sell the illusion but fall short once the bell rings.
There are still moments, but the best current fighters in the world have struggled to break through, at least in the United States.
Floyd Mayweather, left, faces Manny Pacquiao in September, in a rematch few were calling for. ESPN IlustrationOleksandr Usyk, the unbeaten heavyweight champion and ESPN’s No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter in the world, remains mostly unknown outside of boxing, his fights occurring mostly in Europe and Saudi Arabia. No. 2 Naoya Inoue is a whirlwind of a junior featherweight — and a four-division champion — but suffers the same fate, mostly competing out of Japan, where he’s one of the most popular athletes in the country. Terence “Bud” Crawford retired. Canelo Alvarez is on the backend of his career. If anything, it’s the women’s game with Claressa Shields, Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano who have delivered.
In the U.S., Jake Paul has smartly stepped into the void, serving the market for big fights — and even risking his own jaw for it. For all the commercial success and needed attention it brings, that isn’t boxing at the highest level.
The popularity of combat sports has always been contingent on the rise and fall of big stars and big personalities. Boxing has endured droughts before, but there is always a belief that a fresh wave of talent and charisma and rivalry would come. Lately though, the downswing has felt more pronounced. The mechanisms to make fighters into household names have weakened. Alternative entertainment options have multiplied.
The worst part of Mayweather-Pacquiao 2 isn’t that it is happening, but that it can happen since there aren’t enough compelling fights or must-see fighters who the market is ripe for is such a shameless spectacle.
It’s that the sport can’t provide the Sphere and Netflix with something real.
Instead, we get the sequel no one asked for, born from an original that came too late, featuring two middle-aged men who have apparently squandered enough of their fortunes that, like the sport they once dominated, have no other options.
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