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Mayweather vs Pacquiao preview: What's on the line for both men

26th April, 2015
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Floyd and Manny will go head to head in the 'Fight of the Century'. (AFP PHOTO / ROBYN BECK)
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26th April, 2015
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Mayweather versus Pacquiao is expected to be the richest fight in boxing history.

Numerous financial boxing records stand to fall to this event; total pay per view buys (currently 2.5 million for Mayweather-De La Hoya), total live gate (currently $20 million for Mayweather-Alvarez), pay per view revenue ($150 million, again for Mayweather-Alvarez) and total revenue ($200 million, once again for Mayweather-Alvarez) and tickets were so sought after that what was left after presales only went on sale last week.

But what does this fight really mean for both of these men?

Mayweather has been the pound-for-pound king for a long time but unlike past greats, such as Sugar Ray Leonard, who waged wars with the likes of Roberto Duran, Thomas Hearns and Marvin Hagler, Mayweather hasn’t had that great rival to cement his greatness.

Instead, he’s been left to promote himself as “The Best Ever” (TBE as he puts it) rather then beat fellow great fighters to prove it inside the ropes.

Pacquiao, unlike Mayweather, has faced his version of the “fabulous four” (a nickname given to Leonard, Duran, Hagler and Hearns) when he fought a round robin with Marco Antonio Barrera, Erik Morales and Juan Manuel Marquez.

But again, unlike Mayweather, Pacquiao suffered defeats in this bouts. Pacquiao bested Barrera on both occasions they fought but was outpointed by Erik Morales before scoring stoppage wins in the rematch and rubber match. And then there’s Marquez.

Marquez was lucky to survive the first round of their first meeting and was then lucky to escape with a draw. The fight very well could have been stopped in the first round on the third knockdown. No. 3 knockdown rule was in effect but Marquez was being blitzed so badly that no one would have complained at the stoppage.

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Marquez’s rally and comeback was truly heroic but, if judge Burt Clements scored the opening round 10-6 (as it should have been scored by any judge worth his salt) instead of 10-7, then his scorecard would have been 113-112 for Pacquiao and not a 113-113 draw, giving Pacquiao a split decision.

Their second fight was close, and although I scored it to Marquez, it could have gone either way. So out of the first two fights I felt a win for Pacquiao and a draw were fair results.

In the third fight Marquez gave Pacquiao a boxing lesson and was ripped off. The fourth fight was the only fight of the series where there was no controversy about the result and it was won by Marquez, so it’s hard to say that Pacquiao came out on top of the rivalry with Marquez.

Both men have won world titles in a record number of weight divisions; Pacquiao in eight divisions and Mayweather in five, but let’s look at this more closely.

How many times have these guys beaten the best man in the division or unified the titles? Mayweather unified at junior lightweight and defeated Genaro Hernandez, a highly underrated fighter, and also beat lineal champion Carlos Baldomir at welterweight.

His wins over Miguel Cotto and Saul Alvarez at junior middleweight (or whatever catchweight Mayweather demanded for the fights) give him claim to being the champion in that weight class.

He did beat Jose Luis Castillo (the first fight Castillo was robbed) at lightweight although he never unified but his title at junior welterweight was very bogus. Ricky Hatton was the man in that class when Mayweather briefly fought there and even though he would go on to defeat Hatton, Mayweather didn’t fight him at Hatton’s peak weight.

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Pacquiao toppled the best man in three of the weight divisions he has won titles in, stopping Barrera to win the featherweight title, outpointing Marquez at junior lightweight and knocking Ricky Hatton cold at junior welterweight.

He was the lineal champion at flyweight but the title had been fragmented for so long it’s hard to give him credit as the best in the weight class there.

A unification fight with Agapito Sanchez at junior featherweight ended in a draw after a headclash, and his title at lightweight was insignificant in that David Diaz at the time was the least regarded of the titlists.

Joel Casamayor was considered the real champion on the basis of his win over Diego Corrales, who had unified with Jose Luis Castillo. Casamayor soon lost that title to Marquez, a man Pacquiao avoided a rematch with in order to fight Diaz.

Compare boxing now to 60 years ago and you’ll find that there are nine more weight divisions and three more champions in each division. According to boxrec there are currently 18,307 professional boxers ranked across the 17 divisions, meaning that with four “champions” in each division there is one champion per 269 boxers.

Compare this to the 1930s with just the United States, where there were between 8,000-10,000 boxers registered annually and one champion per eight divisions and it equates to being ten times harder to win a world title in the 1930s than it is now.

Compare Mayweather and Pacquiao’s achievements in terms of titles in different weight classes to, say, Henry Armstrong (held the featherweight, lightweight and welterweight titles simultaneously in 1938 then drew with world middleweight champion Ceferino Garcia), Barney Ross (dual lightweight and welterweight champion in 1935) or Sugar Ray Robinson (welterweight and middleweight champion who almost became world light heavyweight champion in 1952) and those achievements are put in their place.

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Mayweather has made a career of taking safe fights that bring him big investment. He’s a businessman and his business centres around the zero on the end of his record. The thing with that zero is it doesn’t mean a whole lot to the educated fan.

An undefeated record was next to impossible to obtain prior to the 1960s because fighters were fighting once, sometimes twice, a month.

Mayweather has had the luxury of picking his opponents and fighting only twice a year, allowing his body to fully recover and then giving himself time to go through a full training camp for his next opponent.

When Ray Robinson lost his first pro fight he had competed in five bouts in the four months prior to the fight, including a ten round decision victory over the man who beat him (Jake Lamotta) and 41 rounds.

After his loss to Lamotta, a fight that went ten rounds, Robinson was back in the ring two weeks later winning a ten round decision. The week after that bout he avenged the loss to Lamotta with another ten round decision. That’s 71 rounds in five months! Mayweather hasn’t fought that many rounds in five years!

Mayweather was backed into a corner to take this fight. He was at risk of losing the Mexican public holiday weekends he has enjoyed fighting so much on these last six years.

Mayweather needs a victory over Pacquiao to strengthen his legacy if he wants to be called the best ever. Pacquiao is the number two guy in his weight class and has been since he beat Miguel Cotto.

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Both men have have eventually cleaned out the welterweight and surrounding divisions together, but without facing each other there’s no way to put a label on how great either man is.

Both men have avoided certain challengers that could have boosted their legacy; Antonio Margarito prior to the beating Mosley gave him in 2009, Mosley prior to the 18 months of inactivity that resulted from the beating he gave Margarito, Paul Williams at welterweight, Kostya Tszyu at junior welterweight.

This fight puts the two best pound-for-pound fighters in the world for the better part of the last seven years against one another. A lot of the questions and criticisms aimed at both men can be answered with a victory over the other.

It’s a shame that the fight has come after Manny’s loss to Marquez, but the rematch victory over Tim Bradley, who had beaten Marquez six months prior, sort of gives Pacquiao a lineal rematch victory. At least there will be no more talk of who would win.

A win for either man is the highlight of their respective career and both men will already go down as great fighters for their accomplishments in lower divisions.

Neither man will be the greatest boxer of all time by winning this weekend; victory is just a cherry on top of their astounding careers.

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