Floyd Mayweather vs. Manny Pacquiao: Is the Megafight Hurting Other Megafights?

Floyd Mayweather vs. Manny Pacquiao is in high demand because it's a fight between the two best fighters in boxing today. The fact that they fight and dominate the same weight class is just the icing.

Outside of their greatness, they both have achieved a level of popularity unrivaled by any other fighter in the sport. This popularity makes them unintentional leaders in boxing.

When Mayweather and Pacquiao do something, people follow, especially boxers. This means that whatever Mayweather and Pacquiao do could become detrimental to the state of boxing's future.

Mayweather's touting of his undefeated record has seen a sharp rise in the growth of focus on undefeated fighters.

This means even untested prospects with fluke wins or wins over cab drivers can garner an increase in coverage just by having a zero in the loss column.

Pacquiao's rise up a record eight weight divisions with a world championship has lead to a fierce increase in fighters who are quick to move up in weight class even if they are not ready to do so.

In a world of four major world championships per division, a boxer with decent but not great talent can face the worst world champions a few weight classes higher and chart an easy path toward grabbing attention.

Examples

What made Rico Ramos (20-1, 11 KO) so interesting an opponent for former Olympic gold medalist Guillermo Rigondeaux (9-0, 7 KO)? Rigondeaux easily knocked Ramos out in Round 6 of their fight.

Ramos lost the first six rounds against Akifumi Shimoda (24-3-1, 10 KO). Ramos landed a lucky shot in Round 7 to get the knockout. Shimoda was his only true fight with a veteran before Rigondeaux.

Rigondeaux had previously been hailed as the greatest amateur fighter of all time. His amateur background in Cuba included 300 to 400 fights.

Knowing this, why did any experienced ring analysts give Ramos a chance? Many analysts gave Ramos too much credit with their predictions. Was it his 20 wins and lack of losses at the time?

Fighters with undefeated records seem to be given the illusion that they are simply so great that they haven't experienced a loss when in reality, many of them have just never been tested accordingly.

The media's and fans' concentration on fighters with zeroes in the loss column hypes up fighters too early in their careers who still need the training wheels on.

The concentration also gives a false incentive through bigger paydays for fighters to duck necessary tough competition to make them better so later megafights aren't ducked when fans request them.

Nonito Donaire (27-1, 18 KO) is going to move up from bantamweight (118 lbs) to super bantamweight (122 lbs) this February to fight for a vacant WBO world title in San Antonio.

Donaire has already expressed a desire to beat Wilfredo Vazquez (21-1-1, 18 KO) for the vacant title, beat Mexican legend Jorge Arce (59-6-2, 44 KO) and then move up to featherweight (126 lbs).

Donaire has dismissed the notion of even facing undefeated WBA world champion Guillermo Rigondeaux (9-0, 7 KO). Donaire is a Filipino like Pacquiao, who also wishes to climb weight classes quickly.

Donaire has already won world championships in three weight classes and is only 29 years old. By 29, his fellow popular Filipino countryman Pacquiao had won world championships in four weight divisions.

Donaire is out to move up weight classes quickly to imitate Pacquiao's record-breaking feat in hopes of garnering at least some of his popularity. In this effort, fans will unfortunately miss out of great fights.

Boxers usually stay in weight divisions long enough to take out most of the best fighters around the division. Donaire stayed in the bantamweight (118 lbs) division for only three fights.

Though he produced two amazing knockouts in his stay there, potentially amazing match-ups against the likes of Abner Mares (21-0-1, 13 KO) and Anselmo Moreno (32-1-1, 11 KO) never happened.

How many more great fights will Donaire make boxing fans miss just so he can say he has world championships in multiple weight classes?

To be fair, Donaire is trying to deliver competitive fights with each weight jump. He plans to tackle Yuriorkis Gamboa (21-0, 16 KO) and Juanma Lopez (31-1, 28 KO) at 126 pounds when he gets there.

But Donaire is only a small example of the excessive weight jumping going on in boxing.

Gamboa himself is planning on moving to lightweight (135 lbs) to pursue a big payday against undefeated action fighter Brandon Rios (29-0-1, 22 KO) after winning world titles at 126 lbs.

Gamboa has displayed a great level of skill, but potential blockbusters remain against Lopez, Mikey Garcia (27-0, 23 KO) and super featherweight (130 lbs) world champion Adrien Broner (22-0, 18 KO).

Can Gamboa have these matchups later? Maybe. But maybe not.

The Death of the Megafight

Boxing is affected by life and time like everything else. Megafights are only as interesting as the questions they can answer. The question is usually "Who wins between Fighter A and Fighter B?"

But with time, bad losses, age and damage can take a toll on the fighters and spoil the answer to boxing fans' questions before the two fighters can get in the ring to answer them.

The longer Mayweather and Pacquiao take to agree to fight each other, the less interesting the fight becomes as other fights with other fighters answer the ultimate question: Who would win if they fought?

The day Mayweather loses his zero or Pacquiao loses badly is the day most of the important questions about their fight are answered. The answer to the important questions is the death of the megafight.