Imagining a Floyd Mayweather-Manny Pacquiao Superfight
Unfortunately, boxing fans have had no recourse but to imagine a superfight between boxing’s pound-for-pound king Floyd Mayweather Jr. and his longtime rival Manny Pacquiao.
That’s all they’ve gotten from the two most iconic fighters of their era.
Talk but no fight.
We’ve been close a few times, but something always seems to go wrong and short-circuit the process before the gloves can be laced, the ring walks made and the first punches thrown.
The latest installment of boxing’s ultimate reality series came in the form of a center-court summit between the fighters at the Miami Heat-Milwaukee Bucks game in Miami on January 26.
Mayweather and Pacquiao met face-to-face for the first time, continuing their discussion in the Filipino’s hotel suite, per Dan Rafael of ESPN.com, and raising hopes for a breakthrough.
TMZ went as far as to report in the ensuing days that the fight was a done deal, but Showtime Sports Executive Vice President Stephen Espinoza disputed that, and negotiations have since stalled, again, per Rafael.
Will it happen? Who knows.
But let’s imagine what it would be like if it did on May 2 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.
The Promotion
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It would be the promotion to end all promotions.
When Mayweather signed up to meet Canelo Alvarez in the fall of 2013, the two fighters hit the road for a huge 10-city, two-country press tour to hype a bout that ended up breaking all sorts of boxing revenue records.
Expect close to double that number of cities on the press tour with stops in the United States, Mexico, maybe even England and the Philippines.
It’s not exaggerating to say that the promotional muscle behind a Mayweather-Pacquiao showdown would dwarf even that well-orchestrated machine that helped produce the second-most buys in pay-per-view history.
That was a boxing event.
This would be a sports event, and, yes, there are dramatic differences.
Golden Boy Promotions did most of Mayweather’s heavy lifting in promoting his last several fights, but with that relationship under six feet of dirt, you can expect Showtime to really up its game.
The network has done a tremendous job of activating sponsors—which leads to greater exposure in both traditional and nontraditional boxing markets—and building a hype engine for big-time fights under the direction of Espinoza.
Mayweather’s mug will be everywhere, including, you can be sure, CBS—the major network that owns Showtime—giving the fight prime-time television exposure to the masses.
Pacquiao will have the muscle of Top Rank and HBO behind him. You probably won’t be able to pick up a can of Tecate beer—which has a sponsorship deal with Top Rank—without seeing Manny’s smiling face while you sip your cerveza.
Showtime and HBO will certainly produce their own reality-show looks inside the fighter’s preparations, promising an unprecedented view behind the scenes of a superfight.
HBO will produce 24/7 focusing on Pacquiao, and Showtime will produce All Access focusing on Mayweather. There’s just no way either network would, or should, give up one of the primary vehicles for hyping and making fans feel like a part of the fight.
So, instead, the fans will get two programs.
You might think a fight like this sells itself, and it does to a large extent, but the parties involved will leave nothing to chance. This fight will be promoted—almost literally—everywhere you look.
Fight Week
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It will cost big-time money just to breathe in Las Vegas during fight week.
Don’t even try to get a room unless you’re willing to mortgage your first-born child.
Mayweather and Pacquiao will break camp and make their grand arrivals at the MGM Grand on Monday of fight week. This is nothing more than a carefully stage-managed chance for fans to scream, take pictures and hope to get within sniffing distance of the fighters and their huge entourages.
Celebrities will make their presence known and felt. You’ll probably even get a chance to see Biebs (Justin Bieber) and Lil Wayne, both of whom have become regular members of Mayweather’s fight-week posse.
There will be parties up and down the Vegas strip, but good luck getting into one of them if you’re not willing to part with some serious cash. Most of this will be geared toward the higher-end clients who might not care about the fight but want to be part of the event.
The real fireworks will begin on Wednesday at the final press conference. Usually, even with Mayweather, these formalities are full of praise and don’t really create much in the way of controversy or headlines. Trust me. I’ve covered plenty of them.
But you can almost guarantee this one will be different. Mayweather, Bob Arum and Freddie Roach all on the same stage at the same time? The last time Arum stood at the podium in the MGM he lambasted the resort's senior executives with one of them, due to speak next, sitting just a few feet away.
Do you really think ornery old Bob or Freddie, known for stirring the pot as well, won’t say something that will draw a response from Floyd or some member of his team?
The weigh-in on Friday will be the final time the fighters meet before trading leather in the ring on Saturday night. Using Mayweather vs. Canelo as a guide, the MGM Grand Garden Arena will be a "sellout,” even though it will be free and open to the public.
Mayweather will tip the scales at a ripped and ready 146 pounds, one pound under the welterweight limit.
Pacquiao will be one pound lighter at 145 pounds, and the fighters will meet face-to-face on the stage.
Mayweather will jaw, and Pacquiao will smile. They’ll be separated, and the fight will be on!
Fight Night Atmosphere
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You can attend pretty much any sporting event, but unless you’ve sat in the MGM Grand Garden Arena for a big fight, you don’t have a sense of how dramatic fight night can be.
You wake up in the morning, the blazing Las Vegas sun already in the sky, and your first thought turns to how many hours are left before the big fight. Like a child on Christmas morning who wakes up before his parents and gets told to go back to sleep, your child-like sense of anticipation kicks in with a vengeance.
You walk through the casino, passing fans waving Filipino flags or wearing Money Team hats and shirts. People are literally showing their allegiance to their fighter on their sleeves. There are chants, rallies and arguments.
The tension grows with each passing moment as the fight draws closer.
The arena opens its doors at 4 p.m., and the first flood of hardcore fans who are lucky or crazy enough to have shelled out the huge wads of cash necessary to secure a ticket to the fight of a lifetime enter for the undercard bouts.
You shouldn’t expect much of a premium undercard for a fight of this stature. Bob Arum has been on record in the past as saying undercards don’t matter much when it comes to selling pay-per-views, and whatever you think of his general point, he’d be completely correct here.
As the hours pass, the arena will begin to fill up. Las Vegas fight crowds are notoriously late to arrive—mainly because the floor seats are populated not by true fight fans but by wealthy executives and celebrities there for the event—but by the time the undercard draws to a close, there won’t be a seat left in the place.
Years of hype, hope and anticipation are about to finally explode inside the ring.
The monitors show video vignettes to get the fans ready, and then the ring walks begin.
Pacquiao, with a look of determination, comes to the ring with Roach.
Mayweather, without much in the way of an entourage owing to the gravity of the situation, follows with the look of a fighter who is ready but has just a few questions running through his head.
Both men are in the ring together.
Michael Buffer and Jimmy Lennon Jr. announce their names, and we know it’s real.
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The Early Rounds
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The bell rings for Round 1.
The crowd roars its approval, nearly blowing the roof off the Garden Arena.
Mayweather doesn’t break much with tradition, giving away the opening round while trying to get a sense for what type of speed, power and game plan Pacquiao will bring to the table. He sticks to the outside, popping a few left jabs and the occasional straight right hand.
Pacquiao is more aggressive early than we’ve seen him against Timothy Bradley or Chris Algieri. Sensing a chance to find holes in Mayweather’s guard, he comes out looking to attack. He throws a few flashy combinations, connecting on a couple of scoring punches that bring the crowd to its feet and clearly wins him the first actual round of fighting between the two icons.
After receiving something of a profanity-laced tongue lashing in the corner from his father Floyd Sr., Mayweather will be noticeably more aggressive in the next three rounds.
Firmly settled into the fight, Mayweather will win two of the next three by doing what he does best: hitting and not getting hit much in return.
He’ll throw his left jab with more conviction, upping his counterpunching output in an attempt to catch Pacquiao coming in and discourage him from paying the price of getting into scoring range.
You can expect that Manny won’t be cowed, and his aggressive posture and work on the inside, even as Mayweather has him in at least a partial clinch, will steal him another round.
After the first third of the fight, we’ll be even on the scorecards.
Scorecard: 38-38 (2-2 in Rounds)
The Middle Rounds
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Pacquiao is a hell of a lot more technically sound and savvy than Marcos Maidana, who was able to bull Mayweather into the ropes in their first fight and land a few hard punches.
The Argentine was rough, fouled quite a bit and didn’t allow Floyd to get into his comfort zone.
Mayweather will have a bit of an easier time with Pacquiao. It’ll become clear in Rounds 5-8 why he’s the best fighter on the planet.
Pacquiao will continue in his role as aggressor, but he won’t get a lot of return on his investment. There will be limited avenues of success where he gets in and gets off before Mayweather can get out of Dodge, but most of his shots will land short or be deflected by Floyd’s high guard.
And he’ll get countered—a lot.
Mayweather will start to change the tenor of the bout in Round 7 when he’s no longer content to sit back and box his way to victory. With the last two rounds in the bank, he’ll begin to come forward more behind his jab, dropping straight rights through Pacquiao’s guard before he can get away.
At some point, he’ll get a tad careless, and with Floyd’s hand still down by his chest, Pacquiao will land a wicked left hand that will force Floyd into the ropes. He’ll be slightly buzzed, but the visual effect will be more telling than the actual damage.
Fans will jump off their couches and out of their seats, but the punch will provide just a nice visual. Its impact on the ultimate result will be negligible.
Scorecard: Mayweather 78-74 (6-2 in Rounds)
The Championship Rounds
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Roach is a smart guy, and he’s not going to lie to his fighter.
The urgency will build in the corner as this superfight begins to look more and more like so many other Mayweather fights. The guy has a habit of making good and very good fighters look ordinary.
Mayweather, aside from the first and sometimes last frames—by which point he’s well on his way to a lopsided decision—doesn’t take any rounds off. The crowd will begin to get a bit antsy, upset that the biggest fight of a generation has been won, thus far, with pure technical skill and not massive, walloping punches.
Pacquiao will continue pressing forward but with limited success. Floyd, knowing that the fight is within his grasp, will remain vigilant. He'll stay on his horse and not allow Pac-Man to steal rounds with impressive flurries or pilfer the fight with a sudden, huge punch.
The championship rounds will take on the feeling of a coronation.
Pacquiao will win the final round, but needing a knockout, he’ll come up short.
There will be little drama when the scorecards are announced confirming Mayweather’s victory. He’ll raise his hands in the air in triumph before embracing his longtime rival in a show of respect.
Final Scorecard: Mayweather unanimous decision (117-111, 117-111, 116-112)
The Aftermath
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The fight, having now come and gone, will be endlessly discussed, debated and picked apart.
There will be a rematch clause in the contracts, but there will be little need—other than maybe a few extra bucks in everyone's pockets—given the decisive nature of the outcome.
Mayweather's place in history, and his supremacy in the rivalry, will be secured. Sure, there will be plenty of people who dismiss his win as the product of good timing—holding onto the belief that Pacquiao circa 2008-2009 would have had the magic bullet—and they'll be unwilling to give Floyd his due credit.
There will be some truth to their argument—there is no question this fight would have been better had it taken place years ago—but styles make fights, and you'd have a hard time arguing that Mayweather hasn't always had the type of style that would make life difficult for Pacquiao.
Pacquiao will take his defeat in stride.
He's always been a respectful and classy guy. He'll give his foe due credit, and he'll fight on. There's no shame in losing to the best fighter on the planet, even by a decisive margin.
It's kind of anticlimactic that this fight will take place with one more fight left on Mayweather's contract with Showtime, and his career, if you believe him.
There will be a subdued feel in his final fight, which will take place against Miguel Cotto for the middleweight championship in September. But the fact that it gives him a chance to make history by holding world titles in three weight classes simultaneously will draw interest.
As for Pacquiao, he'll continue to soldier on, facing someone on the Jessie Vargas level in Macau in November before trying to chase down Juan Manuel Marquez for one more go before calling it a career.
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