Photo by Crown Boxing
In 2009, the two best fighters of the decade were on a collision course.
After a lucrative decision win over Oscar De La Hoya and a TKO victory over Ricky Hatton in 2007, the pound-for-pound king Floyd Mayweather went into retirement for two years.
Meanwhile, a Filipino phenom with tremendous hand speed and power was jumping weight classes with ease and stopping nearly everyone in sight.
During Mayweather’s two-year retirement, Pacquiao won titles at Super Featherweight and Lightweight against Juan Manuel Marquez and David Diaz respectively.
Pacquiao then moved up more than 10 pounds to Welterweight to challenge one of Mayweather’s previous opponents in a lucrative stoppage win over De La Hoya.
Pacquiao would go down to 140 to knock out another of Mayweather’s previous opponents inHatton, knocking him out cold in Round 2.
Now, by the end of 2009, the world was already preparing for the inevitable clash of the two. Mayweather returned to completely outclass a game but undersized Marquez, while Pacquiao utterly destroyed Miguel Cotto to win a Welterweight title.
It was the fight everyone wanted to see, but it didn’t happen.
Five Years Later
I’m not going to go into detail about the politics and the misinformation that led to the fight’s five-year delay. I think everyone is tired of it and is just ready to finally see the fight happen.
Nevertheless, things have changed and, I think, for the better.
Yesterday, Floyd Mayweather, in response to Amir Khan‘s claims that the fight may be dull, told the DailyMail.co.uk that “He [Khan]doesn’t need to worry, the fact this has taken so long to happen only makes the anticipation and build up of the fight that much greater.”
Indeed, one can argue that because of the fight’s delay, it will be bigger than it could ever have been.
But beside delaying the fight to “build up” anticipation, Mayweather couldn’t have imagined that Facebook, Twitter and Instagram could be so pervasive in our culture that it determines how and what kind of news we get.
Because of globalization and technology, today’s world of social media is vastly different than it was before and this means that the May 2 showdown has the potential to spread to outskirts of the boxing world–to people who would never had heard it otherwise.
I mean, could you imagine anyone live tweeting the fight five years ago?
So, After Five Years, Who’s the Favorite?
Let’s be clear: both fighters aren’t exactly at their prime anymore.
Pacquaio was knocked out cold in his 2012 fight with Marquez, but steadily regained his position as the second-best Welterweight in the world, although he doesn’t seem a aggressive as before.
Mayweather, on the hand, as just entered his 38th year and looked a bit slower in his fights with Marcos Maidana, despite completely outclassing the Argentine power puncher in their second fight.
Despite the fact that they’re no longer in their prime, they’re still levels above many in and around their division–thus, the question remains: who will the undisputed pound-for-pound king of their era?
Sure, the WBC, WBA, WBO and Ring Welterweight titles will be on the line, but a fight of this magnitude transcends the gold awarded by the alphabet soup sanctioning bodies.
This fight will determine who was the best fighter of their era and it will come about in the ever-present counterplay of two diametrically opposed styles: the aggressive, come-forward power puncher on one side and the slick and intelligent boxer on the other.
Currently, Floyd Mayweater is a 2 to 1 betting favorite on http://betting.williamhill/ over Manny Pacquiao.
