The Showdown 12.07.09: The Impact of Mayweather/Pacquiao

Posted by Patrick Cassidy on 12.07.2009

Patrick Cassidy discusses several details surrounding the proposed mega fight between Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather including possible venues and whether or not the fight can reach the status of past megafights such as Ali/Frazier.




Ladies and Gentleman, we're back with the latest edition of "The Showdown". The column has been away for the past few weeks as I've been recapping some classic bouts for our "From the Vault" column but I'm back this week discussing the possible Mayweather/Pacquiao fight. As many of you are aware by now, the fight is inching closer and closer towards reality as Floyd Mayweather has reportedly agreed to terms and conditions to make this fight happen. Now I won't be going into who think will win the fight as readers to this column are aware that I have previously discussed my opinion of such a fight and who I felt would win (Mayweather, although that opinion has grown shaky since Pacquiao/Cotto). Instead, I'll be discussing a few aspects of the potential fight which has been discussed in the past several weeks, most notably the possibly venue of such a fight and the impact such a fight would have on the sport and society.



First off, the venue of the bout has been one that's hotly contested. They're several parties which want the fight and are willing to spend big to get the bout. Some of the venues discussed are several of the Vegas casinos(The MGM being the most viable), the Superdome in New Orleans, and Cowboy Stadium in Dallas.
This is a tricky question because ultimately Las Vegas carries the stronger hand in such discussions. The possible venues in Las Vegas could only sell about 20,000 tickets and many of those tickets will be awarded to loyal Vegas customers, which would drag the possible gate down. However, the amount of money the MGM would be willing to shell out for the bout would be astronomical. They know the amount of money that Vegas stands to lose if this fight takes place outside it's confines. Fight weekends in Vegas ensure tons of revenue for the city and more importantly the hosting casino. Gambling revenues would be at record levels for this fight as it's safe to say just about every high roller will be in town and willing to shell out absurd figures within the casino. Don't get me wrong, a great Vegas fight is something special but 20,000 just doesn't have the same oomph as say 60,000 or more packed into Cowboy Stadium.



What better way to reassert the sports dominance within mainstream sports, than holding such a mega fight in front such a massive crowd? It would certainly shut those up that have been trying to hail the sport's demise for the past 10 years. It's also hard to imagine Dana White could ever run his mouth again about his sport's superiority over Boxing when you know the UFC could not come close to staging such a spectacle. Maybe, I'm just sentimental to the golden years of Boxing when major card were regularly held at baseball stadiums but the sport needs this type of event to push it back into the forefront of sports. I hope the fight happens in Cowboy Stadium and I think it would be huge for the sport but alas, I'm not getting my hopes up. The promotional companies, behind the possible fight have close ties to Las Vegas and are unlikely to jeopardize that relationship any time soon by spurning the city for such an important fight, expect the fight to happen at the MGM.

With that topic out of the way, the next topic that needs to be discussed is the actual impact of such a fight. I'm not talking about the impact within our sport, all boxing fans understand the importance of the fight but rather I'm talking about the impact the fight would have on society as a whole. There are certain sports events which are capable of transcending the sports world and becoming something legendary. I'm talking about such events as Michael Phelps winning eight gold medals, Ali/Frazier, the Super Bowl, and others. I don't know if this fight has such an impact but I think it certainly has the potential.



The bout features two fighters who are guaranteed to take their place in the company of legends when they retire but even more importantly for the media, (which will ultimately decide the impact such a fight has on society) it features two individuals who represent very different lifestyles. It's a great storyline that the media will surely eat up. In one corner, you have the cocky, brash, villain played by Floyd Mayweather who is opposed by the humble, Manny Pacquiao. It's the type of storyline that the media can run with, much like they did in the 70's with Ali and Frazier. You see for a sporting event to really transcend into a cultural event their needs to be a story to be told outside of the actual sport, something for the mainstream to connect to and I think this fight possesses such a story.

I can't totally say if this fight reaches the level of say Ali/Frazier or Louis/Schmelling but at the very least it will certainly be the most important boxing event of the past 25 years. However, as much as I wax poetic about the impact of such a fight, I know for a fact that we all simply want the fight to happen. It's a fight that the sport needs to complete it's recent revival. Boxing still has it's fair share of problems but there is an excitement about this sport that has not been evident for quite some time. Let's hope for the sake of the sport that egos can be put aside and we can all witness one more classic night of fights.