by James Slater – With promoter Bob Arum’s deadline issued to the Mayweather team regarding the struggling mega-fight with Manny Pacquiao rapidly approaching, fans everywhere are wondering if the fight everyone wants to see will actually happen. There surely can’t be anyone who hasn’t heard about the blood test quarrelling that has been going on for the past few days, and fight fans also know how Arum’s plan-B, if the fight cannot be saved, is for Pac-Man to face New York’s Paulie Malignaggi.
No disrespect to the talented and hard working “Magic Man,” but we all know how much of a drop a Pacquiao-Malignaggi fight would be compared to what was originally planned. The question is, IF “Money” Vs. Manny cannot be saved, how badly will the sport of boxing suffer?
Back in the days leading up to the “World Awaits” clash between Mayweather and Oscar de la Hoya, some members of the media went as far as to say how that super-fight was all that could “save” the dying sport of boxing. Such talk was way overboard, but boxing could well take a real hit if the pencilled-in March 13th blockbuster – a genuine event that really has got the world awaiting it – falls apart, never to be seen..
I can just hear the average casual fight fan talking now if the super-fight doesn’t come off (the type of non-hardcore fan Mayweather-Pacquiao appeals massively to) : “The hell with boxing. I’m switching to MMA – at least those guys fight each other and don’t go avoiding the hard fights!”
How many casual, even serious fans, will be thinking and saying things along these lines if the big fight doesn’t arrive? How badly will the sport suffer? Of course no-one can give an accurate answer to such a question. But think about this: how badly would boxing have suffered, and how much of a hole would there have been, if the truly great fights of yesteryear were not signed – Ali-Frazier, Ali-Foreman, Leonard-Hearns, De la Hoya-Trinidad, and the like? The loss of interest in the sport that would have occurred had these titanic battles not taken place is mind boggling.
And yes, there have been super-fights that should have happened but didn’t in the past, and the sport survived – as it will if Pacquiao-Mayweather doesn’t happen. But how many fans has boxing lost since the glory days of the 1970s already? Simply put, the sport can’t afford to lose the latest “Fight of The Century.” If it does, millions more way well drift away. Never has a fight had so much resting on its taking place. With all that’s happened, they should have dubbed Pacquiao-Mayweather “The World Hopes!”
This is all we can do now.