The Pound for Pound Debate: Fight of the Century (Part IV)
By Teodoro Medina Reynoso
PhilBoxing.com
Fri, 06 Sep 2019
Author's Note: In the last installment, I discussed how Manny Pacquiao held on to the top pound for pound ranking despite the reemergence of former P4P king Floyd Mayweather and their subsequent jockeying for position between 2009-2011 until a bad streak of two losses to Timothy Bradley and Juan Manuel Marquez in 2012 allowed Floyd to take the pole position. But even then, with Manny staging a strong comeback beginning in 2013, Floyd's claim to being P4P best remained tenuous as both fans and experts continued demanding for their confrontation and thus the stage was set for their meeting in 2015, notwithstanding Bob Arum.
The Battle of the Century and Aftermath
The Manny Pacquiao-Floyd Mayweather super fight was billed as The Fight of the Century or Battle for Greatness and it took five long years for it to be finally realized.
The original Fight of the Century at the famed Madison Square Garden in New York City between returning undefeated ex champion Muhammad Ali and unbeaten reigning WBA and WBC titlist Joe Frazier in 1971 took significantly lesser time and hassle to put up despite the huge ego of the two fighters as each were guaranteed their largest payday at five million dollars each.
That fight was beamed on delayed basis to cable and free television worldwide and shown live on paid close circuit theaters in the USA. It was the biggest fight up to that point and was a huge commercial success as well.
The original fight of the century.
In a hard fought contest of shifting ebbs and flows, Frazier s incessant left hooks finally felled Ali in the 14th round to clinch a close unanimous decision victory to earn universal recognition as world heavyweight champion and unofficially as the best fighter in the planet.
In contrast, there had been at least three well publicized failed attempts between 2010-2014 to put Manny and Floyd in the ring, with both party exchanging accusations, before finally the two took the personal initiative to realize their ring clash, thanks to the support executives of the two big networks who agreed to co broadcast their fight.
So the superfight of the new millennium was set in Las Vegas to be aired live via pay per view at record high hundred bucks per pop. Seats at the fight arena were sold for thousands of dollars depending on location and distance from the ring.
Pacquiao speaks during the MAYPAC presscon.
Both fighters were tested during training and before the fight for any banned drugs or substance as among the agreed upon major conditions and both passed their series of tests.
But controversy arouse a few days before the fight when it was reported that Pacquiao had a lingering shoulder injury and thus had to be administered anti inflammation drug to manage it during the bout. Request for such was denied however barely hours before the start of the fight.
On the other side, Floyd was discovered as being administered with unauthorized intravenous rehydration. His camp claimed that they have filed a therapeutic use exemption or TUE for such and was just waiting for formal go signal. Oddly, they were given the authorization but it came days after the actual fight.
Despite the snafus which the public was largely unaware of, the Manny-Floyd Fight of the Century came unwrap at a jampacked MGM Grand in Las Vegas that set a new record for live gate revenue.
It was also seen by a record breaking 3.2 million households on pay per view ( the previous record was 1.6 million ppv buys set in Floyd- Oscar superfight in 2007) in the USA and by millions more on cable and free tv on delayed basis worldwide. It proved to be the richest fight in history with gross earning of more than half a billion dollars in the US alone.
However, action in the ring did not live up to the very high expectations of both fans and experts as Pacquiao was hobbled by his shoulder injury and Floyd would not take full advantage, electing to box and counter in his usual safety first style of fighting.
Notwithstanding his shoulder injury, Pacquiao for most part still brought the fight to the American like a challenger should despite the fact that both were champions defending their respective WBO and WBA belts.
With his shoulder injury aggravated, Manny lost the fight by close but unanimous points decision.
Manny would be forced to undergo surgery to repair his torn right shoulder rotator cuff and would sit out the rest of the year to allow his injured shoulder to fully recover and rehabilitate.
With the pound for pound title secured and his record up to 48-0 with his biggest career win over his main rival Manny, Mayweather set his eyes on tying Rocky Marciano's record of 49 wins in as many fights.
There were a lot of worthy and viable fighters to chose from including Amir Khan who by then had remained unblemished after an upset early round TKO to Breidis Prescott when he was still a lightweight newbie years back. There was UK's Kell Brook, the IBF titlist, former WBO champion Tim Bradley and even the then fast rising Jessie Vargas.
Below and above the welterweights were such stalwarts as Danny Garcia, Lucas Matthyse as well as Lamont Peterson and Canelo Alvarez and Gennady Golovkin who all expressed willingness to fight Floyd.
Floyd even ran his own survey for what he called as the Floyd Sweepstakes where the general preference of the fans was Amir Khan.
Mayweather blasts Berto.
But Floyd chose a safe opponent in former WBA titlist Andre Berto who years back was upset and unseated by Victor Ortiz who on the other hand was the first and only guy Floyd managed to kayo in years after his comeback.
Floyd as usual had his way and in title bout tepidly followed mostly by his die hards, Money Mayweather as expected won by wide unanimous decision.
With his aim of tying Marciano's record accomplished, Floyd shortly thereafter announced his retirement for the second time. As sudden as his return, Floyd also left the scene in a flash but with a whimper of a Berto victory not a bang.
His sudden re-retirement plus the sidelining of the old king, Manny Pacquiao, still recuperating from shoulder surgery resulted to an interregnum--- a period without a king--- which so called boxing powers that be looked upon as an open season to install a new king of their choice and liking.
The historical lineage was also suddenly severed albeit the fact that the man who has the link and claim to succession was still very much around---Manny the Pacman Pacquiao.
To be continued...
Previous articles in this series:
Part I: Origins, Questions, Issues and Controversies
Part II: Origins, Questions, Issues and Controversies
Part III: Questions, Issues and Controversies
The author Teodoro Medina?Reynoso?is a veteran boxing radio talk show host living in the Philippines.?? He can be reached at?teddyreynoso@yahoo.com?and by phone 09215309477.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Teodoro Medina Reynoso.
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