The Greatest Fight of the Century?

It was billed as the "Greatest Fight of the Century," or the "Era" at least. A fight five years in the making. Manny "Pacman" Pacquiao had finally got the fight he wanted with Floyd "Money" Mayweather, who had dodged him for years. The hype was tremendous. A 400 million dollar purse to be split 60-40 for the winner, with some 60 million going to the MGM Grand Casino in Las Vegas. The largest pot in history.

The showdown was compared with the great Sugar Ray Leonard-Thomas "Hit Man" Hearns fights of the 80s. Mayweather was putting his perfect undefeated record on the line. Could he survive and join the great Rocky Marciano as the only undefeated champions in history? Could Pacquiao, the national hero of the Philippines, pull off another upset and win a ninth title in a storied career that had seen him win in several weight categories?

The suspense was thick world wide. In the Philippines the one thing the country unites behind totally is Pacquiao. Every time he fights crime rates drop all over the country because nobody is on the streets. They're all watching the fight somewhere. Giant screens were put up in parks in Manila for crowds to watch. In Olongapo the convention center was showing the fight, as well as bars and restaurants all over the city and all over the country. In America so many people had signed on to Pay-Per-View that the system couldn't handle the orders, and the fight was delayed forty-five minutes while the networks were brought up to speed. The ringside announcers kept the hype going talking about the boxers and comparing them to the great fights in history until all was ready.

Finally the moment had come. From the outset it was not only strange, but bewildering. To honor Mayo Uno, a communist Labor Day holiday that is celebrated in Mexico, and has nothing to do with the United States, a Mexican singer was introduced to sing the National Anthem of Mexico. But it wasn't enough that he just sang the song. When he finished he went on a rant in Spanish about "Viva Mexico," or something along those lines. My first thought was, What the heck does Mexico have to do with this? Why would we have the Mexican anthem sung before a fight in which neither boxer is Mexican or speaks Spanish? It became clear a few minutes later when the ring announcer gave the name of the hispanic president of the Nevada State Boxing Commission. No doubt a liberal Democrat supporter of open borders and illegal immigration making a statement in favor of the Mexican invasion of the Southwest.

The only good thing about the performance was that the crowd seemed not to appreciate it either. There was no applause, only a sense of wonderment about what was going on. Next a group of several Filipino men and one woman dressed in traditional barongs sang the Philippine National Anthem, Lupang Hiniram. They sang it proudly and beautifully. Then came the American National Anthem sung by the actor and sometimes singer Jamie Foxx. This is the same Foxx that has declared in open mockery of Christianity that Obama is his savior. His stylizing of the anthem was a joke that fortunately also brought little applause if any.

Then the fighters came in with their entourages. Pacquiao arrived first wearing a T-shirt instead of the customary robe that fighters usually wear. Then Mayweather came in wearing some kind of a jacket instead of the robe, and behind him in his gaggle was somebody dressed up in royal garb wearing a head mask with a crown looking like the comical king in the Wizard of Id. The entry took on the air of an All-Star Wrestling event. It was a joke, which was a portend of what was about to come.

The preliminaries were done and the fight finally got under way. It was a party atmosphere here in the Philippines and the group I was with screamed and laughed every time Pacman threw a punch. But it was clear right away that he wasn't connecting much and Mayweather's height and reach seemed to be to his advantage. He was the only one getting any real hits in during the first round. Round one to Mayweather.

Round two was a little more neutral but by then a pattern had become obvious that would continue throughout the fight. Pacquiao brought the fight to Mayweather. He chased him all over the ring backing him into corners and against the ropes, but Mayweather with continued sideward movement kept out of Pacman's range. Round two was pretty even. In Round three it looked as if Pacquiao was beginning to reel Mayweather in, and in round four they had several toe-toe exchanges. Pacquiao won every one of them.

Mayweather wouldn't let it happen again. He ran from a frustrated Pacman who couldn't draw a bead for a big blow, and counterpunched, hitting Pacquiao time and again, apparently building up points with the judges, but not with the fans. Looking at the faces of the spectators at ring side there was no excitement, just stone-faced stares. When the final bell ended the 12th round, and the lopsided scorecards were announced, Mayweather climbed on the ropes to boast in his victory and instead of cheers received a chorus of "boos." It was just strange.

Mayweather then to his credit in a post fight interview was gracious in his comments about Pacquiao and what a good fighter he is, but when the ring side announcer asked Pacman what he thought, he said, "I thought I won." The announcer was incredulous. "You really thought you won?" he asked, as if it was beyond his belief. But even the announcers pointed out in the eighth and ninth round breaks that Mayweather's corner seemed to be quite concerned that he was losing.

What blew my mind was that at the beginning of the twelfth round one of them said he scored it 8-3 in favor of Mayweather. I was stunned by that. It seemed to me that Pacquiao had won at least the third, fourth, sixth and ninth rounds. The first and fifth had gone to Mayweather and maybe six, seven, and eight, but the other rounds seemed to me to be pretty even. The disparity of the scorecards was really puzzling. One judge had it 118-110, and the other two 116-112. If they were judging it by the number of hits scored as they do in Olympic boxing, then Mayweather won, but this wasn't the Olympics. This was a professional boxing championship, and even if you consider Mayweather the winner, it was a much closer fight than those scorecards indicated.

The real story here is that one man came to fight and the other didn't. What the fans saw was the new way to win a professional fight: run around the ring for twelve rounds to avoid getting hit, and when you do stop to throw some punches, get in a clinch and put a headlock on your opponent. Then showboat before the final bell rings. Mayweather scored more hits, but they were all counter punches and none of them hurt or even marked Pacquiao. Pacman's problem was he couldn't corner Mayweather long enough to get in enough hits. He was the aggressor bringing the fight to Mayweather the entire bout, but the Money man just dodged and weaved and ran for his life. Pacquiao actually thought he had won. If Mayweather had stood in and traded punches with him it's likely he would have won. But that must have been Mayweather's strategy: Don't box so you don't lose.

Disappointment here in the Philippines is indescribable. This evening everybody everywhere was talking about the fight. Even the very popular Senator Miriam "Defensor" Santiago joined in. She tweeted, "Congratulations Mayweather on winning the 3K Fun Run."

The ringside announcers continued to play up the greatest fight of the era in their post fight comments. The people who paid thousands for tickets at ringside certainly got their money's worth tonight they said, almost as if they were trying to convince themselves. Comparisons to Leonard and Marciano and his perfect record were made over and over, but there is no comparison. This was no battle of the Titans ala Foreman-Ali and Frazier-Ali, or even Leonard-Hearns and Leonard-Hagler.

Neither will Mayweather ever compare with Rocky Marciano even if he does win his next fight and retire with a perfect 49-0 record. Marciano only went the distance six times. He KO'd forty-three of his opponents, most of them within the first three rounds. That's what you expect of a champion. You expect him to stand toe-to-toe with his opponent and beat him up. Mayweather ran for his life and took little potshots at Pacquiao doing no damage and not showing any of the courage or skill that makes a boxer great. He was a totally unworthy winner.

A lot of people here are speculating about a rematch, but there won't be one. Mayweather is going to fulfill his contract with Showtime and have one more fight in September, probably against a weak opponent to make sure his undefeated record stays intact. He won't fight Pacquiao again because there is too much of a chance that he would lose.

In the end it was just kind of a weird day. Everything about this fight was strange from the entourages, to the judges, to the running around in the ring. It had been ambitiously and presumptuously promoted as the greatest fight of the era, but it turned out to be the greatest disappointment.