Brother Jay deserves a whole new thread for this post.
I appreciate you wanting boxing to be seen as some noble and gentlemanly sport, but boxing has always been a carnival act.
Just because a man is incredibly trained and skilled doesn't make the sport itself more noble.
I love the sport, not the boxers. Boxing, regardless of who is the most popular and how they carry themselves, has always needed the help of the barker .. you know .. the man on the soapbox with the megaphone. If it didn't, King and Arum couldn't exist.
There is nothing classy about getting punched in the face. There is nothing regal about getting knocked out. Only true fans fans appreciate the artistry of styles. Anyone can appreciate personalities, but make no mistake its the personalities that sell the tickets, not the style.
Case in point: Larry Holmes. Larry Holmes was perhaps the best HW ever. He is highly underrated and his skills were some of the most formidable of any man to ever put on the gloves.
Yet Don King said it best: People would rather watch Ali watching a boxing match on TV than watch Holmes fight in the ring.
A true fan doesn't need to know a thing about a boxer to appreciate a display of the science, as long as the fighter is fundamentally sound. A true fan looks for subtleties and nuances that the casual fan will miss because he's looking only for big shots and slug fests.
A true fan will look for timing, he'll look at footwork, he'll look at how a fighter paces himself, he'll look at how a fighter manages to get back outside after unloading a flurry on the inside. A true fan looks for feints and how well a fighter uses them. He looks for a fighter to double and triple up on the jab. He looks for a fighter to hook off the jab.
A true fan is interested in what the corner is telling their fighter. He's even more interested in a fighter's breathing in between rounds. A true fans spends time getting to know the tell tale signs of trouble on the horizon, and then appreciates how well a fighter can mask those signs during the next round.
Casual fans are looking for brawls and knockouts. They are chanting their favorite fighters names while the true fan just wants it quiet to study everything.
Pacquiao fans are casual fans. We can all appreciate Pacquiao's success, but not all of us will call a mule a thoroughbred. Pacquiao has done some impressive things, but most have been through special conditions like vacant tiles which allowed him to avoid champions, and catchweights that did NOT allow his opponents to be at their very best.
His skillset is NOT impressive, but his work-rate is inhuman. That's how Pacquiao wins his fights: He doesn't outbox anyone really. He outworks them by a mile. And its really, really fun to watch, but in past years its a bit annoying because he wants to be seen as the best but won't fight the best while they still are the best.
Fighting a guy who has been dethroned for name recognition isn't fooling any true fan. We all like to watch Pacquiao do his thing, but unless his thing becomes facing the #1, 2 & 3 guys in a division, he'll just be an entertainer and not a top fighter. Just because some boxing writers have kind words for him and shower him with media based accolades doesn't make him the best.
History certainly won't be as kind as today's writers.
All fans want to see Mayweather/Pacquiao, but only true fans know that Floyd doesn't need Pacquiao. Before Pacquiao ever came up to WW Floyd was already P4P#1, the #1 WW and a HOF. Floyd had done everything he said he would do YEARS ago. Everything after DLH was just bonus material. He was supposed to retire. True fans know that Floyd spent the past 11 years at the top of the sport dominating all comers. Arum himself called him greater than Ali.
Once Floyd had come up from SFW to jrMW, he had done everything that he ever said that he wanted to.
Of course, the casual fans barked that Floyd hadn't done enough even though no active boxer had done more against better opposition including BHOP.
The new "breed' of fans, mainly pactards, hated that Floyd was so skilled and so accomplished that Manny Pacquiao was living in his shadow. Floyd had only been gone for 2008, but they exaggerate and say "years" because they need to make it seem as though Floyd somehow ducked people, even though he had beaten the #1 WW.
True fans remember all of that.
Casual fans try to be witty and clever because they are forced to use sarcasm in place of substance in conversations about who is boxing's MVP.
In the end, passed all of the insults, jokes and opinions .. boxing's MVP is the man who has consistently fought the #1, 2 & 3 and come out victorious EVERY time. Boxing's MVP is the man who just fought a fighter who is 10 years younger and weighed 16lbs heavier and was the #2 WW WBC champion of the world. Boxing's MVP is the man who brings millions of new fans to the sport BEFORE he ever even steps into the ring. The people want to see this man. They want to hear his words, his thought and see his desire to win in the ring.
Who else can you say this about? Who else brings this kind of intrigue, negative or positive? Who else can talk that much sh!t and back it up? Who else could stand in front of Ortiz and let punches miss and bounce off of him?
It isn't about Floyd Mayweather the man. Its about Floyd Mayweather's skills! His skills are half man, half amazing. I agree that trading is exciting, but as a student of the game watching the science put on display in the heat of battle right in the other fighter's face is the highest form of pugilism. Casual fans will NEVER get that until its too late and they have to watch this man on tape.
You're witnessing a talent that you won't see again for decades and every pactard out there is sittin' on the dock near the bay .. wasting time.
Its a shame, but they were never here to appreciate the science anyway. They were here for one and only one personality.
And that is the tragedy of the casual fan.
-Brother Jay
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