Mayweather vs. Pacquiao: Pressure Rests on Money's Shoulders Heading into Fight

Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao are finally going to get into a ring together. Not on a video game or in a hypothetical conversation with your drunken pal who took three boxing lessons in 1992 and thinks he's an expert. It will happen in real life at the MGM Grand Garden Arena on May 2. There is even going to be one of those fun little press conferences where they get in each other's faces and pretend there is actual tension.

Here is where we mention how long it took for this to happen. About how, at the height of their respective primes, Pacquiao and Mayweather ducked one another time and again. About how this fight is five years too late. About how neither fighter is who he once was, and the fight itself will undoubtedly be lesser than the one we would have gotten in 2015.

These are all entirely fair criticisms. In fact, they might be the prevailing storyline of the whole pre-fight process. Every bit of this fight is and should be tinged with the basic reality that these two are only getting together now because they're at the end of their respective careers. Mayweather has been open about his planned retirement in 2015. There has been speculation Pacquiao will retire in 2016 before going full-time into politics.

Are we really naive enough to believe this isn't some great final hurrah for these two? That their first fight is not-so-coincidentally timed with Mayweather having two bouts remaining in his Showtime contract? That the only thing more lucrative than a boxing prizefight is a boxing rematch? That these two stand to make hundreds (yes, with an S) of millions of dollars by closing out their careers going head-to-head a couple of times?

We've been given the okey-doke for five years and are now being fed a lesser version of what could have been—like that time Dr. Dre spent years promoting Detox and then gave us the god-awful "I Need a Doctor" as payment. I doubt Mayweather-Pacquiao will be on that level of awful, but analyzing the fight is much more interesting once you get past the whole disingenuousness of it.

The "end" for Pacquiao and Mayweather means something far different now than it did in 2010. Five years ago, Mayweather vs. Pacquiao would truly have been the fight of the century. The winner would have had a rightful claim to being the best pound-for-pound boxer of his generation. Legitimate all-time discussions, even in this era of thin boxing talent, could have been had.

In 2015, that's no longer the case. Mayweather is the best boxer of his generation. His actions outside the ring can at times be loathsome, but he's one of the greatest technical defenders in history and has run away with the proverbial (and literal) championship belt over the last half decade. He is now 47 fights into his career without a loss, having taken down all-time greats, up-and-comers and relative nobodies alike.

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Any claim Pacquiao had at Mayweather's throne died as we watched him topple to the canvas against Juan Manuel Marquez. The moment best known for its meme-ability also served as affirmation that Pacquiao's greatest weakness is greater than Mayweather's. Anyone with a modicum of objectivity when discussing the resume of fighters would acknowledge this.

Pacquiao has admirably come back with three straight wins over Brandon Rios, Timothy Bradley and Chris Algieri, but his book is already written. A win over Mayweather, even at 38, would write an inspirational ending. It wouldn't retroactively take away the moment we watched his prime fade away as he fell to the canvas.

So much more is at stake for Mayweather. It's not a coincidence he chose to fight a 36-year-old Pacquiao rather than the 31-year-old version. He knows how much finishing his career undefeated would mean in terms of post-career endorsements and accolades on all-time lists. He knows he's exponentially more likely to beat Pacquiao at 80 percent of who he used to be than the raging bull of 2010. Defensive fighters age more gracefully than power punchers; Mayweather knows this, which makes his timing even less accidental.

All of which makes it more damning on his legacy if he loses. There have already been long-running theories that Mayweather has ducked this fight for years because of his fear that Pacquiao has the skill to hang that first loss on his record. If he's able to do it after a rocky few years filled with losses, mediocre fights and walkovers, it casts Mayweather's last half-decade into a different perspective. 

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Mayweather's calculated approach in selecting opponents has always been at once admirable and obvious. Wins against Shane Mosley and Oscar De La Hoya came at the respective ends of their primes and/or careers. Mayweather built up Canelo Alvarez as the next big thing, all while knowing he was still way too green and had a way too paltry resume to handle that bout. Even the weird Marcos Maidana double-header gave the feeling of a dude who didn't want to prepare for a hard fight in May before blasting the same opponent in September.

Mayweather chose to fight Pacquiao now because it's his best chance to win and cash in. We're removed enough from Pacquiao's losses against Bradley and Marquez to get excited about a matchup but still install Mayweather as the heavy favorite. You need to bet $300 to win $100 on Mayweather while Pacquiao is almost a 3-1 underdog, per Newsday. This has the buildup of the biggest fight of the century but the Vegas odds of a typical Mayweather bout.

Everyone expects Mayweather to win. Everyone expects Pacquiao and Mayweather to do this all again in September.

Just one question: What happens if Mayweather loses?

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