Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao gets too much repetitive coverage

By Vitali Shaposhnikov: The title alone will most likely make almost every viewer click to see what’s inside. The reader will again hope for something new, but expect the same old. What news could I or anyone else possibly bring to the table at this point in time about either of the fighters? The answer is none. Still, writers re-write, and readers re-read.

Floyd Mayweather Jr (41-0-0): An unbeaten boxer with amazing speed and defensive maneuvering.
Manny Pacquiao (53-3-2): A Filipino sensation and the hope of the Philippines. Also a professional boxer and an 8 division world champion, being possibly the greatest boxer to come about in many years.

SO WHAT?

Yes, every living and breathing boxing fan along with a ton of average sports fans want to see them fight. The country of the Philippines will be on their feet as a whole if their match-up ever comes to fruition. PPV numbers will break records, and the event will bring unparallel energy to the arena. But why are we so damn obsessed with this fight anyway? I will tell you why: it is not because we anticipate an exciting fight, as it’s very unlikely to be one. We want to see this fight, because we want to witness one of these men lose. We want an upset, and in their proposed fight, there is no ending without an upset. Either fighter losing is a tremendous happening in the entire sports world.

But really, what else can it be?

Mayweather Jr., besides having the skill set and an explosive arrogant personality, has not done anything exciting in the ring for a very long time. Yes it was exciting to watch him beat a suboptimal Arturo Gatti in 2005, square-off against Zab Judah in 2006, and break financial records with Oscar De La Hoya in 2007, but unfortunately, that’s about as exciting as Mayweather Jr. gets. Since then, his fights have been against fighters that are at some disadvantage in comparison to him.

Since I am on the topic of disadvantages and time wasteful fights, Manny Pacquiao is in the very same boat as Floyd Mayweather Jr. in that department. Beginning with a weight drained terrible looking Oscar in 2008, and ending with Mosley earlier this year, Pacquiao has faced no threat in the ring. Hatton, Clottey, Margarito, and even Cotto, despite being bigger fighters, posed absolutely no risk to Pacquiao. Slow, and some weight drained, they were simply not competitive in the ring, as was clearly evident not only to boxing enthusiasts, but anyone watching the fights. “Why is the other man not hitting back at all,” asked my mother who has never in her life watched boxing, when I was re-watching the Clottey fight? I had an answer for her: “because he is not capable of doing that against the other guy.” She replied with: “So then why did he fight him? He will only get hurt?” I told her that it was a very good question, to which the answer had to be, “a great paycheck.”

I can’t even estimate how many dozens of articles I have recently seen all over the internet talking about how Mayweather Jr. will beat Pacquiao, or vice versa. The hundreds of pieces about why either one of them will win this utopia of a fight. Writers write about their strategies, predictions, their estimates and hypotheses about why this fight will or will not happen. All this without a contract in sight.