Floyd & Manny bring the star power in LA

http://youtu.be/vDSJdNgBuVE

Photos by Tiffany Lam – Today at the Nokia Theater in downtown Los Angeles Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao held the kickoff presser for what many are calling the fight of the century. Team Pacquiao arrived and hit the red carpet around 11:00am. Mayweather was scheduled to arrive at noon, but showed up a fashionable 40 minutes late. The official press conference started around 1:45pm pacific time and was aired live on ESPN SportsCenter; with HBO announcer Michael Buffer introducing Pacquiao, followed by Showtime announcer Jimmy Lennon Jr introducing Mayweather.

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Mayweather vs. Pacquiao: Saturday, May 2 Live on Pay-Per-View

LAS VEGAS (March 11, 2015) – Sports fans will be treated to the fight that has captured the attention of the entire world when boxing’s pound-for-pound king Floyd “Money” Mayweather steps into the ring to face eight-division world champion Manny “Pac-Man” Pacquiao in an epic welterweight world championship unification bout. The much-anticipated mega-fight will take place Saturday, May 2 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. Promoted by Mayweather Promotions and Top Rank Inc., the pay-per-view telecast will be co-produced and co-distributed by SHOWTIME PPV® and HBO Pay-Per-View® beginning at 9:00 p.m. ET/ 6:00 p.m. PT.

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Pacquiao: “I hope, this time he would be man enough to take some risks”

Aside from the unstoppable media bombardment about the Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Manny Pacquiao bout, the fans are putting forward their long thought about opinions about who will win the fight, and why. Forums are crawling with back-and-forth discussions between the Mayweather Jr. and Pacquiao fans pleading with each other as to why one is right and the other is wide of the mark about the eventual outcome of the bout.

It seems that the Mayweather Jr. fans expect the fight to go as any other for Floyd due to his unmatched technical skill and ring I.Q. In most of his fights, Mayweather Jr. tends to pick his shots and throw as counter punches, taking advantage of his opponent’s mistakes and gaps in offense.

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The Dream, The Nightmare and a Test of Heart – ‘Wild” Will Tomlinson vs. Francisco ‘El Bandido’ Vargas

‘Wild’ Will Tomlinson’s dreams of boxing glory are about to turn nightmarish when he faces Francisco ‘El Bandido’ Vargas. Opting for a strategy that severely underestimates Vargas’ proficient volume punching, and overestimates his own ability to counter it, he’ll have to overcome a grueling tribulation to prove that he has the heart to match his championship desires.

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Jeff Mayweather on Manny Pacquiao – “He’s a One Trick Pony!”

Now that it is signed, the talk on whether the fight between WBA/WBC welterweight champion Floyd Mayweather and WBO 147 pound champion Manny Pacquiao will ever be made can be put to rest with them both now signed to face each other two months from now on May 2nd, at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. Instead, we can now focus on the particulars, and who has the actual advantage once they collide in the center of the ring.

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Left-Hook Lounge Mailbag: The Magnitude of Mayweather v Pacquiao, A Glimpse at Premier Boxing Championships, and Thoughts on Thurman v Bradley!!!

Selan B. (Phoenix, AZ): You made a point on FaceBook the other day about the Mayweather v Pacquiao fight that I’d like you to revisit. Could you elaborate on your thoughts regarding the magnitude of this fight and the legacy of the fighters?

Vivek W. (ESB): In a nutshell, when we look at this fight, this is an event on the scale of nothing we’ve ever seen before, and arguably, nothing we will ever see again in this lifetime. Some have noted that the fight is “a few years too late”. My response is that the fight has reached this apex as a result of the fact that it did come this late. When this bout was initially proposed, the fighters were looking at proposed purses in the $30M dollar range. Floyd Mayweather found a way to land a deal that nets that every night out. When he said he wanted $100M for this bout, we said he was “talking stupid”. He now stands in place to earn a hair below that mark ($180M approx).

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PBC is The One and Keith Thurman’s a Close 2nd

Premiere Boxing Champions (PBC) series kicked off on NBC with junior welterweight Adrien “The Problem” Broner’s one-sided victory over John Molina, Jr. came as no surprise at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, NV. The surprise was the total ineptitude of Molina. Boxing fans know he is clumsy and without much skill, but they also know he has a big heart and can punch.

Unfortunately, PBC hoped for a barn burner with Molina. Instead the flames were doused when Molina failed to press the fight as promised. He impressed no one except for Referee Robert Byrd, who early on warned him to keep his head up. Molina’s style was head down, eyes closed, throwing wild right hand swings. He impressed no one, including the crowd.

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The Ghost Saves Boxing

Tonight professional boxing ended its prime time network television drought with the inaugural installment of the so called “Premier Boxing Champions” series. The return of boxing to network television seems to have taken center stage, even to the point of eclipsing the fights and the fighters themselves. While I am not one of those who believe that the future of boxing hinges on the success or failure of this foray into primetime, it’s clear that a lot was riding on tonight’s fight card. To that end we have to thank Robert Guerrero, who took what was shaping up to be a pair of mismatches, and gave the crowd someone to cheer for. In the lead in bout on the telecast, Adrien Broner used a snappy punishing jab to keep an inactive John Molina at bay, cruising to an uneventful 12 round decision. The crowd did not appreciate the lack of action, and at first blush it is easy to cast the blame in the direction of Adrien “The Problem” Broner. However, in light of the punishment that he sustained against Marcos Maidana, it would have been unrealistic to expect Adrien to take any greater risks than he had to in order to secure the victory. He even said as much in his post-fight interview, which was cut short when he started into his racially insensitive “Can Man” routine (which I personally find amusing).

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Thurman defeats Guerrero; Broner decisions Molina

WBA 147lb champion Keith Thurman (25-0, 21 KOs) gave Robert “The Ghost” Guerrero (32-3-1, 18 KOs) a methodical beating in winning a 12 round unanimous decision tonight in their fight on NBC in the Premier Boxing Champion series at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. The judges scored the fight 120-107, 118-109 and 118-108. Guerrero was cut over his left eye and knocked down in the 9th round after getting tagged hard by a left hand from Thurman.

In the 3rd, Thurman and Guerrero rammed heads with each other, leaving Thurman was a big goose egg on the left side of his forehead.

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Why the Mayweather vs. Pacquaio Fight isn’t All it Should Be

Ever since the positively earth shaking news that Floyd Mayweather is to fight Manny Pacquaio, fight fans around the world have been residing in some blissful parallel universe.
It is finally on. Two of the best to have ever done it will fight on May 2nd of this year. Let us all rejoice. Let us praise the fighters for overcoming the many obstacles facing them to make this momentous fight happen. Let us enjoy the build-up to what will be a classic fight.
And also, let us stop the bull.

Even though this fight is guaranteed to be one of the biggest in history, there are many reasons to temper your anticipation. This is not to say the occasion won’t be epic and that the fight will not be exciting, as the former is certain and the latter is fairly likely. However, there are certain factors that simply cannot be overlooked that decrease the magnitude of this fight.

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