The Floyd Mayweather-Manny Pacquiao fight was a financial bonanza and an absolute dud in terms of its entertaining value.
The fight, which took place five years ago today, reportedly generated 4.6 pay-per-view buys in the U.S. and around $600 million dollars worldwide. Both fighters walked away with nine-figure paydays that still boggle the mind.
The fans walked away entirely unsatisfied. Here are four reasons why:
IT HAPPENED TOO LATE
Mayweather-Pacquiao should’ve taken place five years earlier, when they were still in their primes and Pacquiao would’ve actually had a chance to win. The Filipino would’ve had to be at his blazing-quick, volume-punching best to give “Money” a run for his money. He was still a good fighter in 2015 but, at 36, he wasn’t quite as quick or busy as he was a half-decade earlier. Some will point out that Mayweather, 38, also wasn’t at his peak. True. However, he remained a master of maintaining the distance that suited him best and still had his magnificent shoulder-roll defense. You couldn’t touch him. Pacquiao somehow won four rounds on two cards and two on the third but the fight was dull and not really competitive.
MAYWEATHER’S ABILITY AND STYLE
We were foolish to be optimistic going into the fight. Mayweather had been in few entertaining fights over the previous decade because he chose to throw just enough punches to win on the scorecards. The goal was to hit and not get hit, which was his forte. Entertainment wasn’t a part of the equation. The hope was that Pacquiao would be assertive and good enough to push Mayweather into a compelling back-and-forth affair but that was asking too much of a fighter who had begun to decline. Of course, many argue that even Pacquiao at his very best – perhaps around the time he stopped Miguel Cotto in 2009 – wouldn’t have had the ability to beat a boxing genius like Mayweather. They might be right.
PACQUIAO’S “SHOULDER INJURY”
I’m not 100 percent convinced that Pacquiao entered the ring with a shoulder injury, at least not one that hindered his ability to fight to a significant degree. For the purposes of this opinion piece, however, I’ll take his word for it. That raises an important question: Should he have been open about the injury beforehand? He and his team would respond, “Of course not. You can’t let your opponent know that you have a weakness.” Makes sense. At the same time, fans, some of whom filed lawsuits, had a right exclaim after the fact, “I plunked down $100 for the pay-per-view. I had a right to know if Pacquiao wasn’t 100 percent.” That also makes sense. The bottom line is that Pacquiao and Co. were never going to tip their hand or risk losing the monstrous payday by postponing the fight even if that risked alienating fans.
THE HYPE AND COST OF PAY-PER-VIEW
Few highly hyped fights live up to expectations. Period. And the hype for Mayweather-Pacquiao went on for years – too many years – and reached a fevered pitch as the fight approached. Add to that a hundred-dollar price tag for pay-per-view in the U.S. and you had fans who were never going to be satisfied unless the fighters delivered something truly special. Again, they didn’t. As a result, fans, some feeling they’d been cheated, were disappointed or disgusted or both. Promoter Bob Arum recently told BoxingScene.com that the event turned many fans against the business model. Said Arum: “Pay-per-view boxing has pretty much been on a decline ever since that fight.”