By Cliff Rold
With less, if still ample, teeth gnashing than was to be heard when the fight didn’t happen earlier this year, it appears Floyd Mayweather-Manny Pacquiao is unlikely to occur in November 2010.
That means it is unlikely to happen at all this year.
The gracious, overly polite reaction so far of Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum reported from Saturday’s overnight conference call seems a sincere attempt to keep hope alive for the sport’s biggest fight, if not imminently than eventually. Arum left a window for 2010 possibility and a bigger one for 2011 re-examination.
A betting man should still follow the money, placing chips in the circle that says ‘fight will inevitably occur.’ This isn’t the first, or last, time getting two fighters as prominent as Mayweather and Pacquiao into the ring took longer than reason suggested it should. For instance, Pernell Whitaker and Julio Cesar Chavez were clearly the two best in the world as early as 1990 but did not square off until 1993.
The fight ended up setting the non-Heavyweight pay TV record for its time and packed over 60,000 into the Alamodome. The wait didn’t cost anyone a dime (and probably made them some extras). It’s hard to imagine Mayweather-Pacquiao can get much bigger, but if it is pushed into the next calendar year, that wouldn’t be the end of the world.
Pick the right date next year and it could even be a boon.
March 8th is one of boxing’s most celebrated dates. March 8, 2011 is a Tuesday. It might be too much to ask to see a major fight on a school night but the weekend before, or after, could be tied into the promotion to great effect.
How?
Regardless of when it occurs, any Mayweather-Pacquiao clash will be, easily, the first true 21st century “Fight of the Century.” March 8, 2011 will the 40th anniversary of arguably the 20th century’s most celebrated battle under the same banner.
It will be the 40th anniversary of Joe Frazier-Muhammad Ali I.
Outside of its not being a Heavyweight contest, there are enough parallels to make Mayweather-Pacquiao a fitting homage to that event and a celebration of some much of what makes boxing special.
Mayweather-Pacquiao will pit, in promotional terms, an agile ring genius against a pressuring force of destruction. Mayweather is the most vocal and polarizing fighter of his time while Pacquiao is billed as the humble working man’s champ. As was the case with Ali and Frazier, there will be those paying to see Mayweather prove up to his mouth and just as many paying to see him humbled. And, like March 8th 1971, Mayweather-Pacquiao would be an event which took years to unfold, speculation about what might happen growing into a roar.
Adding its own unique elements, Mayweather-Pacquiao presents huge stakes for both men. The word legacy is overused in sport. Few athletes leave one beyond participation in their given sport. These two are different, certain to be recalled vividly in the years ahead. A win for Mayweather, the lineal Welterweight champion of the World, would move his name in the public consciousness into the Ali air he already claims. A win for Pacquiao would snare a record fifth lineal World title, stretching his record four by one, and secure the comparisons to Henry Armstrong already being made.
Great boxing events are always part theatre and the script writes itself.
Lining the fight up with the anniversary would only add to the story. Right now, Mayweather-Pacquiao is the only fight in boxing which can remotely compete with the Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) juggernaut building around UFC Heavyweight king Brock Lesnar. Effectively cross pollinating the anniversary with the present superfight would be a healthy reminder of something boxing can provide and MMA is still developing.
Boxing has history, rich and deep and tied to so many significant periods in world and American history. The line of ever self celebrating baby boomers wanting to, again, roll out their reflections of times gone by in correlation with a fight the magnitude of Mayweather-Pacquiao would stretch miles.
MMA is a quality sport and can’t be begrudged its success. It isn’t going anywhere and, whether one sees it as direct or indirect, it is a competitor to the sweet science. Boxing’s first line of offense is good fights; exacerbating what makes it different in a positive sense can flow from there.
No matter what, whenever it happens, Mayweather-Pacquiao will dominate the sports headlines in the days leading to it. Connecting it directly to a time when boxing did that more often could be a chance to reel in an extra pool of curious younger viewers who haven’t given boxing a fair shake.
In the frenzy of an inevitable Super Bowl like build, it would convey an importance on the sport that too many late night weekend opening bells and a lack of regular coverage have stripped away. It would be worth at least an extra article or segment from major news organizations, at least an extra few minutes of Sports Center love in the days leading to the fight.
Put it somewhere like the Dallas Cowboys stadium and that would only add to the flavor. The impact of it all might not be lasting, but it wouldn’t hurt in taking a chance that it could.
Sometime in 2010 is still preferred for Mayweather-Pacquiao but if that just cannot be, there’s a hell of a weekend just waiting to be taken advantage of in the spring next year.
Cliff Rold is a member of the Ring Magazine Ratings Advisory Panel and the Boxing Writers Association of America. He can be reached at roldboxing@hotmail.com
