#mayvspac

“The Fight of the Century.” The fight we all waited seemingly forever for. It was about six years in reality, but the hype that has forever surrounded this very fight made it seem like an eternity.

Pacquiao vs. Mayweather.

Or better yet, Mayweather vs. Pacquiao, because Floyd ‘Money’ Mayweather made suer his name came first on all marketing that surrounded the fight.

I won’t say I have ever been a huge boxing fan, but leading up to what seemed like it would be the fight to bring life back into the sport, I was very excited to watch. With so much hype leading up to an event, you can only hope it will be an awesome event, but it seemed that even from the beginning, things just never went completely right for the fight.

Although there would be a limited amount for the public, the tickets did not go on sale until a week and a half before the fight. They didn’t necessarily need additional time, but these are logistics that should have been worked out well beforehand. An event being marketed as “The Fight of the Century,” should have been planned a little better. However, this was an obstacle that seems small and would eventually be overcome.

Everything leading up to the fight was televised. The fighters every move, their weigh in, their entire life. There was so much riding on this event for the sport of boxing and they made sure to cash in on all of it.

The hype was starting to boil over on May 2nd, the night of the fight. But, wait! Many of the people who paid $100 for the fight were not able to view it on Pay-Per-View and so the fight was delayed until all TV issues were cleared. Couldn’t have all those people miss such an illustrious fight, but more importantly, they couldn’t afford to lose all that money.

In a fight that guaranteed each fighter $100 million dollars, whether they won or lost, viewers were generally disappointed. It went all 12 rounds, included a couple of exciting moments, but it was mostly 12 rounds of dancing. I don’t think anyone was expecting a knockout in the first round, though that may have been better, but the general consensus is that it would be a much better event overall. I thought this could make me a boxing fan, many thought it could brign life back into the sport once more. 

We were all wrong.

Mayweather won by unanimous decision in 12 rounds, is now 47-0, and after all the TV fees and everything, he will make well over $200 million for an event that no one left overly thrilled about.

In my eyes, this was nothing more than a very elaborate marketing ploy. Yes, the way Mayweather fought is how he always fights, but that is not why people paid for this. The fans, and even new comers, wanted to see “The Fight of the Century,” but instead received a lackluster performance from both parties.

(Although Pacquiao having Jimmy Kimmell and Mayweather having the BK King was pretty cool)

Maybe this is my lack of boxing knowledge talking, but I am very happy I did not pay the $100 to watch the fight. (Almost did, but thank you Periscope)

While Pacquiao has come out and said he actually had a shoulder injury prior to the fight, solidifying the point that everyone wasted their money, Mayweather was already expressed interest in a rematch. But then changed his mind?

After this, who knows if I would even watch; Another fight like this does not deserve anyone’s time or money.

Awesome night last night, great fight last night, I won $20 last night.

I'm not sure if everybody watched the promos for the fight, but it was kinda messed up how the producers or even the 2 teams tried to show the fighters image, there was literally a part where the had Pacquiao kissing a baby and in the next cut Mayweather throwing money in the air. I'm not saying it was a racial thing, but it was obvious the promotional team decided Mayweather was going to be the "heel" in this fight.

I went to one of my friend’s apartment to watch the fight, where majority of the peeps their wanted to see Pacquiao destroy Mayweather. During the fight, when Pacquiao got his few great shots in the people in the apartment would uncontrollably cheering for the Pac Man, but when money Mayweather would obviously win a round the same room would remain silent (not counting 3 other guys and myself who were rooting for Mayweather) and I get it, they just really didn’t want Mayweather to win -- whatever their reasons might have been. But what I can tell you I noticed, when Mayweather did win get his good licks in was the same people in the room wouldn’t make a sound. By the 11th round they all knew Pacquiao would have to knock out Mayweather if the Pac Man was going to win. Then it hit me, at the beginning of the fight you pick a side whether it’s based off the character of the fighter, your relativity to a character or simply despise of the other fighter. You use that energy to justify or root for what side you think you want to win, no matter what, but when your side starts to look bad or when you've just realized that you've made a wrong choice you become slightly more silent. It’s too far into the match to change sides or you still have faith that your side will come up and make a ridiculous comeback, but you stay silent and a little offended when the other team is getting louder and more obnoxious because their side is winning -- You would hate to have to say your wrong, just because you don’t want the other side to have any satisfaction. As humans that’s who we are, we’re stubborn, we shouldn’t have to admit we’re wrong so instead we become silent.

Technically, it’s because of the promotional team they hyped you up to go against a fighter or favor another fighter, if they didn’t work so hard on advertising Mayweather’s arrogance and flashiness maybe you wouldn’t care so much that he didn’t get the crap beat out of him. You followed blindlessly and you did without question, even though Mayweather had a perfect record and Pacquiao lost his recent fight or maybe you personally don't like Mayweather and just want him to finally lose, but when you notice your fighter isn't winning you become quiet and that's because of the confidence in the promotional teams that one fighter was a good guy and the other bad was literally drilled into your head, from TV to radio to billboards. We forget there were preparations before this fight, both fighters didn’t want to lose, the media’s objective was to get viewers, that has always been their main objective; to literally fuel you with one sided beliefs.

I took the reactions from last night and thought about how they might relate in other situations, I began to wonder why we aren’t talking about the Baltimore riots as much -- I mean the riot isn’t over, it’s still as crazy as we last seen it, but what if it’s because one side is now aware of the trickery of the media? You have two sides fighting for what they believe is right, but the media is clearly painting a bias picture for the viewers, a picture where you start to notice one side isn’t receiving the same representational qualities as the other. Instead of admitting you’re wrong you’re just there in a room. Silent.

Here is the video fox decided to show: https://youtu.be/jjUaAUhyPwk