How Severely Did Mayweather vs Pacquiao Ruin Boxing's Popularity?

[about.thousands]

Name a PPV fight right now that would outsell a May/Pac II PPV?

[BrometheusBob.]

As much as Tyson-Holyfield II did

As much as DLH-Tito did

As much as Oscar-Floyd did

Basically this.

People are talking more about combat sports now than I can remember in some time. Some boxing movies have come out recently, half a dozen things Mayweather and Pacquiao did after the fight made headlines, Canelo-Cotto did strong numbers, what more does FlatLine expect?

[BrometheusBob.]

Name a PPV fight right now that would outsell a May/Pac II PPV?

Lol yeah there definitely isn't one. You probably couldn't find two big enough fights to put on a card that would outsell May/Pac II.

[The Big Dunn]

How could the fight that sold the most PPV's ever hurt boxing's popularity?

The lack of great fighters like Floyd and Manny that showed a willingness to do what is necessary to be great is what is hurting the sport's popularity.

[Eff Pandas]

I think its a lil early to even suggest this sorta thing, but I'm never surprised with boxing fans being overly excitable & dramatic.

The reality is Floyd vs Manny brought out more casual fans than any other fight in the history of the sport & many of them will likely never watch boxing again or will watch a handful of big fights over the rest of their lives anyway & that was always they plan cuz those guys don't have the time or desire to watch Sammy Vazquez vs Errol Spence non-superstar level fights. There was always lil to no chance to turn these fans into loyal boxing fans however the fight turned out is the bottom line.

Hardcore fans are still watching boxing. There could be some Floyd vs Manny fight fanboys who've disappeared as there seems to have been a nice segment of fans that only talked about Manny vs Floyd or would make any discussion about Manny vs Floyd & those guys seemed to have largely gone. There are still a few around, but there going extinct & I won't miss them myself.

[KLockard23]

Mayweather was right. Blame Pacquaio for how "boring" the fight was.

Everyone knows how Mayweather fights. He's gonna use a defensive style where he counts on you to be the aggressor and then he waits for you to make a move so that he can force you to make mistakes and then cut you down with counter-punches that will win him each round. The reason everyone thought Manny vs Floyd would be a classic is because they thought Pac-Man was the one fighter good enough to give Floyd problems and force him out of his element. When he didn't, all you got was the typical Mayweather masterclass.

Don't want to sound like a fanboy, but it is what it is. And no, it didn't hurt boxing's popularity. The worst it might have done was hurt how much Mayweather vs Pacquaio II could have drawn had it been a more 'exciting' fight the first time.

[ea22]

Its hurt it more than the Mayweather fanboys are willing to admit but less than the Pacquiao fanboys are saying it did. For a sport to remain healthy it must have an audience, Mayweather vs Pacquiao was a big opportunity for boxing to obtain new fans and it failed miserably. I don't understand why people here act all high and mighty, nobody is born a boxing fan, it usually takes a great fight to turn people, and this fight did the opposite.

[BWC]

It gave it a huge boost no matter how you felt about the fight. Boxing has sold more PPVs and had more viewers this year since the 90's. Along with PBC, May-Pac put boxing is more in the mainstream conversation than it has been in years.

[about.thousands]

A Pac/May II card would outsell GGG/Canelo, Ward/Kovalev, Rigo/Lomanchenko all on the same card

[therealpugilist]

Mayweather vs Pacquiao was built up to be the biggest fight ever in boxing but it turned out to be a dull, boring typical Mayweather, connect-the-dots, survival fest.

After that fight it seems a lot of casual fans fell off the map and many months later we can see that PPV numbers have dropped more dramatically than they have done for a long time for many of the PPVs that followed. The numbers don't lie.

So how severely did the terribly anti-climatic Mayweather vs Pacquiao debacle tarnish boxing's worldwide credibility, reputation and popularity?

Did it essentially have the reverse effect to that which we would have hoped for as boxing fans wishing to see the sport thrive and prosper as a result of such a huge event? Did the unforgivably poor "fight" that was Mayweather vs Pacquiao prove to be the catalyst that sends boxing even further down the totem poll of popular sports on an irreversible trajectory towards complete obscurity?

Or, can those rare exciting fighters like Khan, Degale, Crawford and Wilder pull boxing back up out of this terrible abyss created by Floyd and Manny?

it didn't ruin boxing's popularity but it did break a lot of hearts for the people rooting for Pacquaio, and to see Mayweather finally lose

Everyone knew how Mayweather was gonna fight, it was up to Manny to make him adjust or get out of his comfort zone


It ****** for the media because they spent over half a decade trying to convince the world how great Pacquaio was

In the movies, pacquao "the peoples champ" would have won, but this is the real world and he was never cut from the clothe that they tried to make him.

He is one of the best of his era, he is an all time great....but he was never the best of his era, the greatest fighter ever or better than Floyd Mayweather.....that fight broke hearts bro