***BOXING LIVE*** The defining boxing match of this era will happen on May 2. Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao have been close to doing battle at various points in their careers, but the finish line is finally approaching. Amid all the excitement over the once-in-a-generation showdown is how much one fighter needs to win.
Even though history will come to define Mayweather and Pacquiao in their own way, Money has more at stake in this matchup. He’s the undefeated champion putting three titles on the line who is obsessed with having that zero in his loss column when he finally retires.
Even though history will come to define Mayweather and Pacquiao in their own way, Money has more at stake in this matchup. He’s the undefeated champion putting three titles on the line who is obsessed with having that zero in his loss column when he finally retires.
If you were to ask Mayweather, he would almost certainly tell you that he’s one of the greatest fighters in history already and belongs in the same category as Rocky Marciano. The Brockton Blockbuster retired with a 49-0 record in 1955.
Mayweather enters the fight with Pacquiao at 47-0. He said last year that the plan is to fight through his current contract with Showtime, which will have one more bout after May 2, and retire after it expires, via Dan Rafael of ESPN.
“I only got two more fights left (after Saturday), and after the next two fights I just want to build the Mayweather Promotions brand. …My next fight is in May and my last fight is in September, so a year from now will be my last fight,” Mayweather said. When you consider that statement, even with the understanding that most boxers never really retire, the Pacquiao fight had to happen now. Mayweather needed his legacy-defining match.
Some could say that happened in 2007 against Oscar De La Hoya, but the Golden Boy was 34 years old at that point and clearly in the final stages of his career with a 2-2 record in the four fights before taking on Pretty Boy.
Pacquiao, at 36, will be older than De La Hoya at the time of his fight with Mayweather, but there’s no evidence he is slowing down. His two most recent losses, against Timothy Bradley and Juan Manuel Marquez, aren’t indicative of anything.
Most pundits will tell you that Pacquiao beat Bradley in every possible way during their first fight. The only people who didn’t agree with that assessment were the judges.The fight against Marquez in December 2012 wasn’t as controversial since it ended by knockout, but CompuBox shows Pacquiao dominated the stats with 27 more power punches and 42 more punches in total than Marquez before leaving his head open in the sixth round. Yet looking back, Pacquiao’s losses may have been the best thing that happened to him. He had lost before in his career, although he went almost seven full years without a setback before the Bradley decision.
Having any number besides zero in the loss column takes so much pressure off Pacquiao. He can lose this fight and still be regarded as one of the greatest fighters in history, a spot he seems more than content with in his life.
Mayweather, on the other hand, has an ego so big that it will gnaw at him not to be regarded in the same category as Marciano, Muhammad Ali and Sugar Ray Robinson. He needs that zero and a legacy win to at least warrant consideration for that list.
As Kevin Iole of Yahoo Sports wrote in May 2013, following Mayweather’s win over Robert Guerrero, a lack of historic competition could keep Money away from that group through no fault of his own:
Love him or hate him – there is usually no in-between – Mayweather always figures it out. He’s a boxing savant and has been since the first time he pulled on gloves as a child in Grand Rapids, Mich.
He’s (gotten better) that throughout his career, and that’s why he is unquestionably the best of this time. But his lack of opposition will never allow him to be compared to guys like Robinson, Henry Armstrong, Muhammad Ali and the sport’s other super elite.
The only fighter who can give Mayweather what his career needs to feel complete is Pacquiao. No one else in the sport compares to these two champions right now. They are the only consistent drawing cards who live up to their billing.
Mayweather is on the verge of completing a historic run of success that the sport hasn’t seen in 60 years, yet there’s always been a huge void at the center of it. This won’t be the case in May when he steps in the same ring with Pacquiao.
The final piece of the puzzle is Mayweather getting his hand raised in victory. For the first time in years, that doesn’t seem like a given, which would significantly ruin all the work it took for him to reach this point.