Mayweather vs Pacquiao: This fight is not good versus evil
Floyd Mayweather Sr. (from left), Floyd Mayweather Jr. with Manny Pacquiao and Freddie Roach at the press conference in Las Vegas. (Source: AP)
Floyd Mayweather insisted that his blockbuster fight against Manny Pacquiao is about boxing and business, not angels and demons, as the rivals went eyeball-to-eyeball at their final pre-fight press conference.
Pacquiao goes into Saturday’s bout that has the boxing world buzzing trailing a mantle of humanitarian deeds.
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The two-term congressman tipped as a future Philippines president has left womanizing and gambling ways behind him and while he stands to make some $100 million for his night’s work on Saturday, the devout Christian says he hopes the intense focus on the fight will be a stage for the glorification of God. “I want to inspire,” Pacquiao said.
But Mayweather won’t be playing the devil, despite a history that includes two months in jail in 2012 for an assault on an ex-girlfriend in front of two of their children. “I am a realist,” said Mayweather, the 38-year-old American who has parlayed a perfect 47-0 ring record into a reign as the highest paid sportsman on the planet. “This fight is not good versus evil. It is one fighter who is at the top and another.”
It was Pacquiao trainer Freddie Roach who first billed the fight as good against evil, citing Mayweather’s record of domestic violence. “For the first time in my life with Manny Pacquiao, this is the first fighter he hasn’t liked. I can tell,” Roach said earlier this month.
But Mayweather, who said this week he expects a payday of $200 million for this fight alone, says none of that will matter when he steps in the ring.
“I believe in my skills. I believe I will be victorious,” said Mayweather, who puts his World Boxing Council and World Boxing Association welterweight belts on the line against Pacquiao, the World Boxing Organization champ who boasts a record of 57-5-2.
For more than five years, contractual hurdles and animosity between the camps kept the top pound-for-pound fighters of their generation from meeting in the ring.
With the breathless anticipation has come a distinct backlash. The bout is hype. The boxers are past their prime.
Pacquiao promoter Bob Arum, whose Top Rank Promotions is partnering with Mayweather Promotions to produce the event just as television rivals HBO and Showtime have come together in a rare partnership, said the experience had been “hellish”. However, the long-awaited bout has captured the imaginations of fight fans and casual observers around the world.
“I don’t take nothing away from Pacquiao, he is going to be an intriguing match-up on Saturday,” Mayweather said. “He didn’t get to where he got by not beating tough opponents.”
It’s that kind of measured respect that has Roach doubting that Mayweather’s heart is in the fight. “I wonder if he’s going to show up,” Roach said shortly before the fighters took the stage at the MGM Grand’s 1,950-seat Ka Theater – usually the home of Cirque du Soleil.
Former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson strolled in – only one of the boxing legends, A-list celebrities and casino high-rollers drawn to the event.
“I think he was forced into this fight,” Roach said. “I don’t think he wants to fight this fight. He didn’t get to pick his opponent.”
But the 38-year-old Mayweather said he no longer needs to indulge in trash talk. “Me speaking loud and having personality, I did that in the past,” he said. “I’m a lot older and wiser, this fight sells itself. I don’t have to do it,” Mayweather said.
Arum proud of his blockbuster
Boxing promoter Bob Arum, who is showing no signs of slowing down at age 83, says he will continue to make blockbuster fights until they “put me in a box.”
“My problem is when you get to be an age that I am you are afraid to stop because you wonder how long you are going to last,” said Arum. “If you just put your head down and keep going you figure to last longer than if you just quit. I will do it until they put me in a box or I can’t do it anymore.”
The numbers are staggering even for Arum who has promoted some of the biggest fights in boxing history. “I am not going to project any numbers because any number I say people will say ‘there he goes, bullshitting us again,’” Arum said. “If the numbers turn out to be what we hope for, each fighter will make more money than a complete major league payroll of most baseball teams.”
Arum described this as the most difficult promotion of his 50-year career. He said there is no rematch clause in the contract and he doesn’t want one.
