It wasn’t much of a surprise to most of us when Floyd “Money” Mayweather Jr. defeated Juan Manuel Marquez Saturday night in Las Vegas at the MGM Grand Arena. A few of us were a bit surprised the fight went all 12 rounds, especially after seeing Marquez knocked down by a ferocious Mayweather left hook in the second round.
A lot of people, especially Marquez fans were a bit heated when they saw Mayweather weigh in at 144 pounds, instead of the 142 pound limit. Mayweather, figned 300,000 for the offense, didn’t seem too worried about it. Its a bit difficult to see if either fighter was worried about the fight, when both were reported to make eight figures off of the spectacle either way.
Most of us are waiting for a Pacquiao / Mayweather fight anyway. However, in order to get to this, Pacquiao still must fight Miguel Cotto who is deadly with power. It will be a classic matador / bull situation, and should Pacquiao win, the battle for the true pound for pound champion would be a giant boost boxing desperatly needs right now.
Sure, there was a bit of drama and hype sorrounding Mayweathers return to the ring after 221 months, but it wasn’t enough to boost the sports image, swimming in a sea of deadbeat managers and high pay days. The fight has been rumored to have had over 1,000,000 purchases which would be the biggest non-De La Hoya fight since Lennox Lewis vs Mike Tyson in 2002.
Ring side seats for the Mayweather / Marquez spectacle went for around $5,000 whereas the Pacquiao / Cotto fight exact seats are online for twice the price. We can only hope that the Pacquaio fight doesn’t cost $200 to watch, crowding people in the few bars that buy the fight.
Still, the Mayweather bout was necessary, and extremely well promoted by HBO, that aside, it was also a letdown. The majority of the fight was Mayweather throwing jabs to Marquez. All we, as boxing fans can do now is wait until November 14th for the Manny Pacquiao vs Miguel Cotto fight.