Boxing

Anonymous

Anyone stay up to watch this? Is it worth it.

Consensus seems to be Mayweather on points as he can adapt to Pacquiao's style.

I have no idea and will probably be too drunk/tired to warrant staying up for it.

ugo.santalucia

Finally someone opened this thread!

Mayweather wants to come across as a disgusting individual, which probably means he is... I hope he ends up on the canvas in Foreman fashion... even better if there is a lot of blood coming out of his nose... blood really is the bread & butter of a great match!

Problem is I am not sure there is much left in Pacquiao as a fighter and on paper is a one way match that ends with UD for Mayweather. That said, Foreman should have won that match easy, so we can only hope for a big upset.

It might go down as one of the greatest boxing matches in history, or like a much ado for nothing, too little too late kind of thing... deffo worth watching it, if you can!

As for you, young man, are you not getting towards the end of your being drunk at 5 AM allowance?

Anonymous

Gaaaaaad. You're not my REAL dad. I can do what I WAAAANT.

laurentian

Seems the whole world wants Manny to win but thinks that Mayweather will win.

Mayweather is very defensive and, although Manny throws a lot of punches, I think he may be too risk averse in a fight if this magnitude to go for broke . . . so I expect the fight to go the distance.

If it goes the distance there will only be one winner - Mayweather. A points victory for Pacquiao is not going to happen if he's going to win at all, he'll have to floor Floyd.

RideOnTime

Doesn't the loser end up with $140m or summat. Some tickets coast $100,000, crazy, hope you get a drink with that.

ugo.santalucia

To be fair, we all think it's going to be a rat... two boxers past their best by at least 5 years, who only talk about retirement...

I would prefer to see someone like Gennady Golovkin flooring Mayweather... although 6 Kg difference means it might never happen... but if it did happen, I think that would be a hell of a wake up call for the American! :shock:

rick_chasey

Should have happened 5 years ago.

norvernrob

I think the best chance for Pac is to catch Mayweather with something early, like Mosley, Judah and Maidana did. Mayweather often starts off a little slow, but once he gets into his rhythm its game over.

Another thing is Mayweather has been fighting people who are 8-10kg heavier than him on fight night, this time he's the bigger man with the reach advantage. With the trouble Pac had with good boxers like Bradley and Marquez I can't help thinking he could well get a boxing lesson from Floyd - however Pac to win in the first 3 rounds is 20/1 so I'll have a little tickle on that just in case the unthinkable happens.

Floyds lead left hook and straight right are going to be hitting Pac all night.

I couldn't care less what Mayweather is like as a person, who cares. I'm far more irked by Pac and his followers constant harping on about God.

turbotommy

Writing this off as two fighters past their peak seems harsh to me. Past their peak they definitely are but not so far past it they aren't still top class fighters. It's a shame this fight didn't happen 2-3 years ago but better late than never imo and a must watch for any boxing fan. Fights like this don't come around very often.

Forget the money. Both guys will be completely desperate to win this. It could be career defining for both of them, and that alone makes it totally compelling to me

finchy

NorvernRob wrote:

I couldn't care less what Mayweather is like as a person, who cares. I'm far more irked by Pac and his followers constant harping on about God.

You do know that Mayweather's got convictions for hitting women, don't you? Which somehow puts Pac's piousness into perspective.

Captain Fagor

laurentian wrote:

Seems the whole world wants Manny to win but thinks that Mayweather will win.

For once I think the way the rest of the world does then. C'mon the Pac man!

norvernrob

Boxing lesson, that right hand couldn't miss.

Pross

So when's the re-match?

turbotommy

Thought it was closer than the judges did, and by the look on mayweather snr's face so did his camp. But obv the right result. Rematch would be good!

Pross

Of course there'll be a re-match. It's boxing and there's money to be made (primarily by people who've never taken a punch in their life).

JackPozzi

Well controlled by Mayweather, but I'm glad I'm not in the US paying $100 to watch that on PPV, wasn't entertaining at all.

ugo.santalucia

No blood, no drama... waste of time... legends are made too easily these days

turbotommy

Meh, each to their own I guess... I enjoy the puzzle solving element to mayweather's approach vs manny's, admittedly slowing, machine gun hands. As someone who used to box (pretty poorly), I don't think you can easily dismiss the extreme skill and speed of thought it takes to be such a good counter puncher.

mamba80

TurboTommy wrote:

As someone who used to box.

Tommy "The Hitman" Hearns? if you say it was a good fight, it was bl00dy good fight.

norvernrob

TurboTommy wrote:

Thought it was closer than the judges did, and by the look on mayweather snr's face so did his camp. But obv the right result. Rematch would be good!

There will be no rematch, that was a boxing lesson and very easy to score. Floyd won 8 rounds clearly, Pac won 2 clearly and the other 2 were close enough to go either way.

The punch stats are telling. Floyd actually threw more punches, landed 148 to Pacs 81, and landed 48% of his power punches to Pacs 19%.

It was a one-sided lesson, you don't score for hitting fresh air and gloves.

The interview after with Pac was hilarious - Kellerman asked him why he couldn't land more than one punch, he said 'because he kept moving, if he stood there I could have hit him more' lol. The guy got schooled.

I can understand casual fans not liking Floyds style because he's not exactly all action, but he is a genius at hit-and-not-get-hit, which is what boxing is all about.

turbotommy

mamba80 wrote:

TurboTommy wrote:

As someone who used to box.

Tommy "The Hitman" Hearns? if you say it was a good fight, it was bl00dy good fight.

Haha! Nah. More like Tommy "who dislikes getting hit about as much he likes hitting other people!"

Boxing is great for teaching kids discipline, fitness etc, and I suppose it means I can defend myself if I need to, but it never really suited me.

@norvernrob. I think we'll have to agree to disagree bud.

ddraver

NorvernRob wrote:

The interview after with Pac was hilarious - Kellerman asked him why he couldn't land more than one punch, he said 'because he kept moving, if he stood there I could have hit him more' lol. The guy got schooled.

Strikes me as one of those questions where punching the stupid journo that asked it would have been the best response, albeit not the best PR

VTech

Probably one of the best boxing matches in history.
I prefer fighting myself, like the warrior days of Tyson, Lennox, Ben, Eubank and Collins.

turbotommy

ddraver wrote:

NorvernRob wrote:

The interview after with Pac was hilarious - Kellerman asked him why he couldn't land more than one punch, he said 'because he kept moving, if he stood there I could have hit him more' lol. The guy got schooled.

Strikes me as one of those questions where punching the stupid journo that asked it would have been the best response, albeit not the best PR

yeah it was an unbelievable interrveiw wasn't it? Pac just dignified as ever. Vegas is always going to be mayweather's town but that level of bias from a professional jorno is laughable really.

laurentian

VTech wrote:

Probably one of the best boxing matches in history..

What? On Saturday night? . . . you're kidding right?

It was about as one sided as it could have been without the fight being stopped.

Pacquaio was comprehensively beaten and out-boxed by Mayweather - I can't disagree with your sentiments re Benn and Eubank but Saturday night was not one of the best boxing matches in history . . . it wasn't even the best boxing match on Saturday night, it wasn't even close. In fact, it was pretty much an anti climax.

If you'd have said " . . . one of the best boxing performances in history . . ." it would be a different matter but as a match? No way

VTech

laurentian wrote:

VTech wrote:

Probably one of the best boxing matches in history..

What? On Saturday night? . . . you're kidding right?

It was about as one sided as it could have been without the fight being stopped.

Pacquaio was comprehensively beaten and out-boxed by Mayweather - I can't disagree with your sentiments re Benn and Eubank but Saturday night was not one of the best boxing matches in history . . . it wasn't even the best boxing match on Saturday night, it wasn't even close. In fact, it was pretty much an anti climax.

If you'd have said " . . . one of the best boxing performances in history . . ." it would be a different matter but as a match? No way

I think you understood my comment.
Mayweather's approach was simply perfect. He prepared and fought with clinical precision, he ended the fight without being hurt and maintained himself as the number1. Anyone who knows boxing knows that pacman is an awesome fighter so what stopped him from performing on saturday evening ? It was the brilliance of Mayweather, love him or hate him, he is the best.
When boxing coaches around the world want to teach their young fighters the art of being sharp and avoiding harm they need only sit them in front of the screen and play that fight.

laurentian

VTech wrote:

laurentian wrote:

VTech wrote:

Probably one of the best boxing matches in history..

What? On Saturday night? . . . you're kidding right?

It was about as one sided as it could have been without the fight being stopped.

Pacquaio was comprehensively beaten and out-boxed by Mayweather - I can't disagree with your sentiments re Benn and Eubank but Saturday night was not one of the best boxing matches in history . . . it wasn't even the best boxing match on Saturday night, it wasn't even close. In fact, it was pretty much an anti climax.

If you'd have said " . . . one of the best boxing performances in history . . ." it would be a different matter but as a match? No way

I think you understood my comment.
Mayweather's approach was simply perfect. He prepared and fought with clinical precision, he ended the fight without being hurt and maintained himself as the number1. Anyone who knows boxing knows that pacman is an awesome fighter so what stopped him from performing on saturday evening ? It was the brilliance of Mayweather, love him or hate him, he is the best.
When boxing coaches around the world want to teach their young fighters the art of being sharp and avoiding harm they need only sit them in front of the screen and play that fight.

. . . now that's a very different position to your original post.

As you will see above, I said that if you had said it was a great "boxing performance" (by FMJ) you would have been spot on and I would have agreed, but you didn't, you said it was "Probably one of the best boxing matches in history" which is certainly was not.

Paulie W

I cant tell you how much the rhetoric around this fight p!ssed me off in the build up. I get that it generated more money than any other fight but the idea that it was the most anticipated fight ever - Ali-Frazier I, Johnson-Jeffries, Dempsey-Carpentier, Leonard-Hearns I, Tyson-Spinks I all spring to mind as fights that were huge in the boxing world and had huge crossover appeal - and that it was billed as the fight of the century leaves me speechless.

Mayweather is a great fighter and belongs in the top 20, maybe the top 10 of all time fighters and I'd put him in with any lightweight in history with an evens or better chance; Pac Man was a great fighter and for my money also belongs in that all time discussion and in the best ever featherweight discussion. But this fight was at Welter and both fighters have been in decline for some years (relative to their own primes not necessarily other current fighters) and Pac got knocked cold a few fights ago. Truly great fights have to be between fighters at their absolute peaks and ideally at their prime weights. This had more in common on paper with Leonard-Hearns II than Leonard-Hearns I.

In reality, of course, it was nowhere near as good as that fight but then who honestly expected it would be. Pac can be outboxed - Marquez has done it more than once - and he can be hurt. I wouldnt suggest he was gun shy for a moment but quite early on he was stung by Floyd and that limited his aggression. The suggestion that this was a boxing clinic is one that I dont ultimately agree with and ties into one of the reasons why I will never accept Floyd in the very, very top echelons of fighters. He could have stopped Pacman had he been more aggressive but he played it safe and that is the story of his post Lightweight career (that and a less than stellar group of challengers). He dominated but he wasnt dominant; maybe that was all about the rematch, i.e. it left some small doubts, coupled with the arm injury thing, which might make a rematch saleable!

Pross

Fight of the century might be true. Boxing has been crap since the last decade of the 20th century.

turbotommy

I think a lot of the anticipation around this fight came from the fact that for a long time it didn't look like it was going to happen.

I agree that both fighters are past their best but I don't agree that both fighters have to be at their peak to make it a great fight. I don't believe there is an exact formula as to what makes something a great sporting contest although it generally becomes more hyped as a result of their perceived status. I don't think it's entirely relevant that pac man has been knocked out either. Perhaps the reason maywether hasn't been knocked out is the caution you criticised him for? Lots of great fighters, including some that you mentioned have come back from defeats to have great fights.

I do ultimately agree with you though paulie. when I think about people I consider sporting legends it's through moments they've created. Ali's rope a dope, gazza vs Scotland, or zidane's volley in the champions league final. What memory of maywether will we be left with? Some guy with a t shirt with his own name on it telling us how many cars he has...

VTech

TurboTommy wrote:

I think a lot of the anticipation around this fight came from the fact that for a long time it didn't look like it was going to happen.

I agree that both fighters are past their best but I don't agree that both fighters have to be at their peak to make it a great fight. I don't believe there is an exact formula as to what makes something a great sporting contest although it generally becomes more hyped as a result of their perceived status. I don't think it's entirely relevant that pac man has been knocked out either. Perhaps the reason maywether hasn't been knocked out is the caution you criticised him for? Lots of great fighters, including some that you mentioned have come back from defeats to have great fights.

I do ultimately agree with you though paulie. when I think about people I consider sporting legends it's through moments they've created. Ali's rope a dope, gazza vs Scotland, or zidane's volley in the champions league final. What memory of maywether will we be left with? Some guy with a t shirt with his own name on it telling us how many cars he has...

I don't think thats quite fair. He is an awesome fighter, he has won everyone put in front of him and the list is impressive. He stays healthy by limiting the amount of punishment he suffers during the fight. This is incredibly clever and something all boxers should adhere too. He is also an incredible businessman, yes he may flaunt his wealth but do you honestly think that this is because he wants to show the world he is loaded ? I honestly don't think he gives a damn other than the fact that he is a hype machine which is how he sells himself.
His own persona and hype is his business. It is how he employs many hundreds of people and makes millions in tax revenues for his country as well as huge sums globally for TV companies and the general money made through the boxing game.
If you want to get the most out of a big fight you have to build hype, without it you will end up with something resembling an undercard fight.