FLOYD Mayweather Jr.-Manny Pacquiao is over. Now it’s time for the hot takes.
And most hot takes have come to an agreement: Saturday night’s fight at MGM Grand in Las Vegas didn’t live up to the enormous “Fight of the Century” hype that had built for months.
“The so-called fight of the century was pay-per-snooze, a complete waste of everyone’s time and money—except in a boxing community now rolling in obscene amounts of cash, surely in disbelief they fooled us rubes again,” For The Win’s Chris Chase wrote.
Former heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson tweeted: “We waited five years for that…#underwhelmed #MayPac.”
Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers had one word: “Underwhelming.”
In case you missed it, Mayweather, a Grand Rapids native, beat Pacquiao via unanimous decision in a welterweight title fight that many thought didn’t have enough action, and that Mayweather won by being evasive and calculating rather than meeting Pacquiao head-on and trading blows.
Either way, Mayweather improved to 48-0 in his boxing career, even if most aren’t exactly in awe about how he got there.
“To watch Floyd Mayweather box is to witness an elaborate exercise in self-preservation,” Deadspin’s Drew Magary writes. “There’s not much passion. There’s certainly not much flair. There’s just Floyd moving around, doing his best to preserve a rote decision, and preserve the potential rematch, and preserve an unbeaten record that holds more historic value to him that it does anyone else. And yes, his style works, if only in the most cynical sense.”
These reviews aren’t glowing in the first place. But considering this was supposed to be the biggest match in years for boxing, an ailing sport—and that the pay-per-view price was $89.95—that makes them even worse.
Among the biggest critics of the fight was Oscar de la Hoya, another former welterweight boxer who lost to Mayweather in 2007 via split decision.
For HBO and Showtime, however, there is a bit of good news: Estimates say that the fight will bring in about $400 million from pay-per-view revenues.
That’s staggering, even if it was a little too easy for people to watch the fight for free on Periscope, a live-streaming application.
By Brian Manzullo / Detroit Free Press