fight of the century - Floyd Mayweather beats Manny Pacquiao

To some of us, reference to ‘boxing’ is about the Melbourne Test and in some ways that  legendary  match in which Muhammad Ali beat Sonny Liston to become heavyweight champion of the world.  Things have changed !  

In what was touted as ‘fight of the century’, they rewarded him with cascading waves of boos. To stand and peer around the darkened arena in Mayweather's moment of triumph was to see a striking sight, as most of those booing appeared to be not Filipino fans of the beaten Manny Pacquiao but Americans, white and black. How the refs judged it: 118-110, 116-112, 116-112.  In the pugilist’s ring – whoever  punches hardest, dodges quickest, takes a punch and clears his head and plots strategy wins.  It is  Mayweather, who is the new Champion.  The 38-year-old favorite conquered the Filipino in front of thousands of boxing fans and celebrities who had flown into Sin City from around the world just to be ringside for the historic bout.  Mayweather made a surprisingly strong start, then withstood some aggressive counter-punching by the Filipino southpaw in the later rounds as he improved his career record to 48-0.

The battered  Manny Pacquiao narrowly lost the  fight of the century to Floyd Mayweather... who walked away with $180MILLION in winnings.  Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather battled through a closely-fought 12 rounds, but the American came out on top.  Losses are bitter – a  crestfallen Manny Pacquiao has told the world's media he lost the fight of the century to Floyd Mayweather because a shoulder injury left him unable to use his right hand.  It is estimated a worldwide audience of 400million - including thousands of people in Pacquiao's hometown - tuned in to watch American Mayweather earn victory with a unanimous points decision in front of a star-studded crowd in Las Vegas.  Mayweather stands to pocket upwards of $180million from the super fight, while Pacquiao will take home around $120million.

After a build-up of almost five years, the pair took to the ring at the MGM Grand and battled through a closely-fought 12 rounds, with little separating them.  At the end of the bout the Filipino was visibly disappointed with the result. He said: 'I thought I won the fight. He didn't do nothing'.  As he complained of his shoulder injury, his promoter Bob Arum claimed he informed the Commission of the injury five days ago and defended the decision not to cancel the fight, the most lucrative in boxing history.

Millions of viewers across the United States tuned in for what was expected to be one of the biggest sporting events in history, but some were left frustrated as pay-per-view services crashed just hours before they stepped into the ring because of surging demand.   The judges' scorecards read: 118-110, 116-112 and 116-112 in favor of Mayweather in a decision that didn't go down well with his defeated Philippine opponent.  In the Philippines, a country stood still as they watched their national hero in action more than 7,000 miles away. The streets of Manila were packed as fans caught a glimpse of the fight any way they could, having been asked by their government to switch off their refrigerators before and during the fight to prevent an electrical black out across the country.  In Pacquiao's hometown of Kiamba, a fishing and farming town in southern Sarangani province, which he represents in Congress, passenger mini-buses brought villagers who have no television to watch the fight in the town's 2,500-seat gymnasium. 

At the arena, it was great hype -  viewers across the United States complained their paid for viewing - at $99 a piece - was crashing.  Record sales of more than four million had been predicted before the flight on Saturday, carrying the gross value revenue from the richest fight of all time above half a billion dollars.  DirecTV, which serves the entire US, were suffering black-outs.  

The Las Vegas Sun reported on Saturday that airport traffic reached record volume levels, forcing hundreds of private jets to smaller area airports. With tickets commanding six-figure sums on the resale market, even A-list celebrities were being forced to call in favours, and many were left waiting to hear if they had made the red carpet cut hours before the event.  Fewer than 1,000 tickets were offered to the public before the fight and those vanished in seconds. The remainder were divided among the two fighters' promotion companies and MGM, who made the seats available to their best customers.

Outside the arena, the fight to keep it off illegal streaming sites  was underway.  HBO, Showtime, and the promoters for Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather filed a federal lawsuit  seeking to shut down two websites that were advertising free streaming videos of the  fight. The suit follows one brought in Florida earlier  by a Filipino media company against a man who it said operated  an illegal streaming site in the Philippines. Both suits asked  for restraining orders to stop the sites showing the fight. There was also another controversy that  Floyd Mayweather 'banned  female sports journalists from covering Las Vegas fight after they reported on his domestic abuse past' -  though his publicist denied any such thing.

So  much of cash is flowing – high priced tickets, everything costly inside the venue,  fans coming by sporty cars and spending so much  in IPL matches or so, one thought ! – clearly, this boxing matches is several notches higher !!

With regards – S. Sampathkumar

5^th May 2015.

Photos and news credit : www.dailymail.co.uk