mayweather vs pacquiao, do you care anymore?

A few years ago the fight we all wanted to happen was mayweather vs pacquiao.

At the time both were at thier peak, and it was the fight the world wanted to see.

But noiw I feel both have declined since then and if mayweather vs pacquiao did happen we'd be talking about what would have happened if they were at thier peak.

Do you care anymore about mayweather vs pacquiao?
or do you thing they robbed the world of the possible fight of the decade?

Sounds bad but I'm no longer interested, would prefer Floyd Alvarez or Martinez and Manny to retire.

I don't care at all. This fight has lost all of its luster. Pac has dropped a level and it wouldn't even be comeptitive

It's the biggest fight of it's generation. I still care, we'll all watch it.

Neither of them deserve the payday as far as im concerned. Boxing must be the only sport in the world where the 2 best competitors never opposed each other. Its like Federer never playing Nadal or Messi refusing to play against Real Madrid because Ronaldo is playing or McIlroy not going against Justin Rose. It just wouldnt happen. Floyd and Manny are great athletes but they made a mockery out of boxing and denied a generation of fans out of a great matchup

Perhaps I could make the comparison between Pacquiao-Mayweather and the two Leonard-Hearns fights. If Floyd and Manny had fought at any time between 2008 and early 2010, the anticipation of the event for all of us would have been comparable with that felt by the boxing world before Leonard and Hearns' unification clash in 1981. Put simply, I would have moved heaven and earth to watch the fight then and would have revelled in talking about it and assessing it beforehand.

On the other hand....it's senseless to pretend that the fight means as much now. Even if it takes place at its earliest conceivable date (May of next year), we will be more than three years past the latest point when everyone was really clamouring for it. It retains its interest, of course, from the angle of watching two legends of the sport for one of the final times. Perhaps it will even give us an idea of what might have happened if they had met at their peaks. However, like Leonard-Hearns II, a fight that I missed live and never regretted doing so, the interest will be comparatively academic, at least for me.

As Samuel Johnson said of the Giant's Causeway: "Worth seeing, but not worth going to see."

If it's as good a fight as Leonard v Hearns II it'll be worth it!

I understand your comparison captain, but remember the Leonard v Hearns fights were 8 years apart and afew weight classes apart.

Mayweather and Pacquiao are only a couple of years older and still welters. Hearns was meant to be shot and fodder to Leonard in the rematch but that's not how it worked out.

No.

2008-2010 was the window, they failed to get it on so I no longer care.

Nope, I don't care. Pretty much agree with what the Captain has said.

Also agree with Steffan - it is a joke that they didn't fight and completely undermines the sport.

Fists of Fury wrote:Also agree with Steffan

I shall cherish this moment

Only joking Fist. Its a disgrace aint it. Imagine Ali had never fought Frazier or Dempsey never fighting Tunney. These pair should be ashamed

It depends on how Pacquiao fares against Marquez next week, at the moment. If he wins and wins well, then Mayweather-Pacquiao still has a huge lure. If he loses, which I think (and, in that sense, fear) he will, then my interest will all but vanish.

If that turns out to be the case, then Mayweather, who has become brave with regards to facing Manny far too late in the day for my liking, may as well sod off in to retirement as well. He's going nowhere near Martinez, it seems, and if there's no Pacquiao fight, what other defining or worthwhile contest is out there for him? Alvarez (why anyone would prefer to see that instead of Mayweather-Pacquiao is beyond me) would likely receive a lesson not dissimilar to the one Floyd handed out to Hatton, Marquez can't beat Floyd in a month of Sundays, Cotto has been beaten already and if you think the Floyd-Manny negotiations have been trying, just wait and see how hard it'll be to convince Arum to let Tim Bradley anywhere near Floyd, given that he seems intent on Bradley carrying the Top Rank banner once Manny has shifted from the scene.

If Pacquiao can beat Marquez without any controversy, then the Floyd-Manny stand off can have a brief stay of execution with me, providing they actually make some proper moves towards getting the bleedin' fight signed. If he doesn't, then I honestly hope we never have to hear of the possibility again.

If I thought for a split second the parties involved would negotiate for the fight behind closed doors in the middle of a complete media blackout and the first any of us would hear of it would be when the press conference was shown announcing the fight I would still be watch. That the fight never happened around 2009 is a stain from each fighters record that will never be removed but they are still two of the best fighters in the world and as such it still retains a degree of interest.

However none of this would happen, if the fight was mooted it would be done very publically which would mean more drivel about testing, about venue, about purse splits, about who enters the ring first and whatever else BS the pair of overgrown children manage to fall out about and I genuinely have no more energy to endure this or the inevitable debates it triggers on this or whichever other forum you choose to debate the sport and I would rather sit through a Police Academy box set than another six months of that rubbish. A sad indictment that if the two preeminent fighters of their generation were to retire tomorrow my overwhelming emotion would be one of relief.

I think people are being a bit inaccurate to say it should've happened between '08 & '2010. In 2008 manny was fighting Marquez and Diaz at 130lb and 135lb respectively. Floyd meanwhile was on his sabbatical with his previous two fights having been at 147 and 154. At that time there was no talk of a fight between them. It was in mid '09 when manny starched Hatton at 140 with Mayweather announcing his return the same week that hopes of a fight began to fire up, but Mayweather needed a tune up fight and manny had signed on to meet Cotto - a fight many thought he would lose.

It wasn't until January 2010 after manny had destroyed Cotto that initial talks began (when Floyd first raised the issue of Olympic style drug testing) so the earliest the fight couldve happened was mid 2010. It was from that point up until mid 2011 that the fight was most in demand and most viable in terms of a peak vs peak bout. By late 2011 manny had had yet another torrid time with Marquez and appeared to have lost his edge, while Floyd was in all sorts of legal bother. Since then Floyd has done time and manny has lost to Bradley - somewhat harshly yes but then you could argue the 'L' he recieved on his record was long overdue from the Marquez series, and the fight has now lost its lustre.

Having said that they are still two top quality fighters and not that far past their peaks that it won't be an intrigueing fight. The iron may not be as hot as it was two years ago, but it'll still be the richest ever - the casual fan doesn't look at primes as much (look at the numbers for Lewis Tyson). I'd still watch it with great excitement and I know I'd get drawn in by the hype, I'd still rather it happened even now than not at all. Only thing is, I always said it'd be a boring fight if it happened and I stick by that - interesting yes, but dull as Floyd would look to fight cautiously and spoil which would leave manny frustrated and without a plan B.

captain carrantuohil wrote:Perhaps I could make the comparison between Pacquiao-Mayweather and the two Leonard-Hearns fights. If Floyd and Manny had fought at any time between 2008 and early 2010, the anticipation of the event for all of us would have been comparable with that felt by the boxing world before Leonard and Hearns' unification clash in 1981. Put simply, I would have moved heaven and earth to watch the fight then and would have revelled in talking about it and assessing it beforehand.

On the other hand....it's senseless to pretend that the fight means as much now. Even if it takes place at its earliest conceivable date (May of next year), we will be more than three years past the latest point when everyone was really clamouring for it. It retains its interest, of course, from the angle of watching two legends of the sport for one of the final times. Perhaps it will even give us an idea of what might have happened if they had met at their peaks. However, like Leonard-Hearns II, a fight that I missed live and never regretted doing so, the interest will be comparatively academic, at least for me.

As Samuel Johnson said of the Giant's Causeway: "Worth seeing, but not worth going to see."

The poiint about Leonard and Hearns is they had a fight int heir comparative primes. Pac and May can't have that first fight, now.

Fight could have happened at any time in the 12 month period where Manny was operating at LWW/WW and beating ODLH, Hatton and Cotto or in the year following. It is not Manny’s fault that Floyd decided upon an extended 2 year holiday as Pac peaked. Floyd is a gym-rat that’s always in good shape and I doubt walks round much more than 150/154 so the fight could’ve happened at WW easy (or lower if Manny insisted on a silly Cotto-esque stip).

i honestly beleive that by overriding memory of both fighters will be the fight that never was.

as for if im interested in the fight? why would i want to watch manny get embarrassed by been badly beaten by mayweather now, when 2-3 years ago (and even 1-2 years ago) he was the only man who could claim to beat him, now he is coming off performances like a loss to bradley, robbery off the year against marquez and a snoozefest against mosley. that is a million miles away from the kind of form that suggests a possible win over floyd.

the weird thing is mayweather is was and maybe always will be the better fighter, but refusing to face of means to judge them as atgs we have to go on cv's- and manny edges it for me

I still wouldn't mind seeing it out of interest but its a bit like Calzaghe v Jones/Hopkins , Tyson v Lewis etc. , it doesn't hold the same credibility or excitment with both, especially Pacquio, clearly now past their primes.

This one has missed the boat a bit for me.

I'd probably watch it on Youtube a few days after. No interest in watching it live or lining the pockets of either of them.

One of the great we will never knows, I'm sure it will be debated for years to come.

As an aside, they both have strabismus, is this coincidence?

if it evers happens i dont think the ppv buys would be anywhere near what they would have been prime vs prime- i hope so at least

Will probably follow it on the livetext and watch it a few days later

Im several years bored of the kind of will it/wont it? finger pointing and blame game played out in the media and online between the two factions but if the fight was announced I still think its one of the best fights that can be made.

I think its lost much of impact in a historical sense and in terms of what it might have meant a few ears ago. But I still want to see it, over cooked or not. I just dont want all the baggage that goes with it.

ill review it in the paper the morning after then you tube it

TopHat24/7 wrote:Fight could have happened at any time in the 12 month period where Manny was operating at LWW/WW and beating ODLH, Hatton and Cotto or in the year following. It is not Manny’s fault that Floyd decided upon an extended 2 year holiday as Pac peaked. Floyd is a gym-rat that’s always in good shape and I doubt walks round much more than 150/154 so the fight could’ve happened at WW easy (or lower if Manny insisted on a silly Cotto-esque stip).

I tend to disagree with that, I don't think logistically the fight could've happened in 2009. Manny moved from 135 to 147 to beat Oscar in Dec 2008 at which time Floyd was inactive and no fight between the two had been mooted. Manny immediately started negotiations for a Hatton fight which happened 5 months later in may '09, the same week Floyd announced his 'comeback'. So there was only a 5 month period of Floyd being inactive and manny fighting above 135. Floyd quite rightly wanted a tune up fight, which was Marquez in sept '09 (postponed from July as Floyd injured a rib in training). Manny, wanting to keep active and capitalise on his rising star signed to fight Cotto. We are now in November 2009. Even if they'd started negotiations immediately after manny beat Cotto the fight wouldn't have happened until may 2010, but the negotiations didn't start til Jan '10 due to the Xmas holidays. There's no excuse for this fight not happening after then, it's a stain on the sport, and I've always been hyper critical of Floyd for taking a sabbatical when the challenges of Cotto & margarito were waiting, but as I remember it the fight wasn't logistical in '09.

And if Floyd hadn't chosen to be inactive?

TopHat24/7 wrote:And if Floyd hadn't chosen to be inactive?

Then they may have had the opportunity to fight in 2009, stands to reason, but it is what it is - Floyd didn't 'retire' to avoid manny as manny was still a super featherweight back then, and he was back shortly after manny moved into the 140's. He should never have gone inactive to begin with, for me he was at his peak when he beat Hatton and there were major challenges awaiting - the fight with an undefeated Cotto would've been huge. But from a manny perspective I don't think his retirement can be cited as a purposeful derailment of the fight as mannys arrival at the welter scene was a year after Floyd had ko'd Hatton and announced his break.

Yeh, not blaming Floyd per se, just saying that the fight could and should have happened in that period and Floyd's self-imposed inactivity should not be considered an excuse.

TopHat24/7 wrote:Yeh, not blaming Floyd per se, just saying that the fight could and should have happened in that period and Floyd's self-imposed inactivity should not be considered an excuse.

I blame Floyd, wholeheartedly, just as I blame manny wholeheartedly. At the end of the day they're the fighters, if they both really wanted to push this fight and make it happen then it would've happened a long time ago, but they were happy to dance around each other and make big money fighting lesser men. In the end their legacies, the sport and the fans have all suffered - the pair of them are a shower if sh*t.

+1 to SBS. A plague on both their houses is about right. One positive word from Pacquiao and Mayweather would have sent Arum, Golden Boy, 50 Cent and anyone else relevant in the world of boxing tripping over themselves to do the fighters' bidding. However dislikeable Arum and Co may be (and they surely are), the fault for the absence of one of the most significant fights in history from the schedules stops at the door of two people and two people only.

completely agree, and think if it happened know it would be kick in the teeth of the fans, it didnt happen which was criminal, lets draw a line in the sand and move on to the next biggest challenges (alvarez, martinez, marquez, gamboa, bradley) or even challenge some fresh fighters (rios, gurrero, garcia, mattyesse, brook) just dont waste another fight (of which they probably have 2-3 tops left) on a symoblic gesture of a "superfight", just try and redeem yourself by gaining credible wins.