It is hard to believe the “Fight of the Century” – Floyd “Money” Mayweather versus “Pac-Man” Manny Pacquiao – has just past because the amount of complaining from the Pacquiao camp is never-ending.
I, not a fake boxing fan who jumped on the “I always liked boxing!” bandwagon when the fight was announced, am a big Mayweather fan. I appreciate his boxing, so don’t think I support his out-of-the-ring life decisions.
However, some people who claim to know boxing only bash the man’s in-ring tactics.
“A good defensive fighter doesn’t circle around the ring and hug his opponent constantly, boring the crowd watching him in the process,” says junior Max Vreeland. “The fight was bad, I want my money back.”
Believe it or not, there is this thing in sports called defense – that’s when you make sure you keep your distance and attack your enemy when he makes the slightest mistake. We do this no matter how “boring” we appear to the casual viewer.
Mayweather works this to perfection. He moves around the ring, draws his ailing opponent into the corner and has them miss punches, making them very vulnerable to counter-attack.
I laugh when I hear people trash his tactics as boring and ineffective. It is particularly boring and ineffective when it leads to a 48-0 career record and cements Mayweather as the greatest boxer of this generation, I suppose.
“Mayweather-Pacquiao was one of the worst fights I’ve seen in a while,” says sophomore Sam D’Urso. “As a long-time boxing fan, although Mayweather used a good defensive strategy, it was annoying to watch, and a waste of $100.”
Yes, defensive tactics can be dull and unappealing to somebody who came to watch an offensive brawl. Then again, whoever watches boxing looking for an all-out war will be sourly disappointed every time, so the fact that Mayweather-Pacquiao takes the brunt of this backlash is absurd.
When the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight was finalized in early 2015, all of those who despise Mayweather flocked to the Pacquiao corner.
Now, I have nothing against Pacquiao. He is an excellent fighter, and strikes me as a much better overall person than Mayweather. However, I must admit (without bias) that I lost a little respect for him amidst the aftermath of this fight.
It all started with the comments he made after the fight. For someone who is hyped to be a great sportsman, he was surprisingly confrontational.
He claimed he was sure he had won the fight as soon as Round 12 ended (a foolish assumption, considering he only connected with 19 percent of his punches and was visibly outfought), and the biggest complaint of them all – the injury.
True champions do not make excuses when they lose, and Pacquiao certainly did not live up to that. He claims that, without his shoulder injury (which was barely mentioned before the fight), he would have defeated Mayweather.
Pacquiao faces perjury charges for failing to report the injury to the proper medical officials before the fight.
No one can deny that this is undeniably a classless move on Pacquiao’s part.
Mayweather, on the other hand, had nothing but praise for his defeated opponent. He commended Pacquiao as a great fighter, and did not overly boast of his win. It appears as though the two had switched places for the media portion of this fight.
Now, however, Mayweather calls him a coward and a sore loser, and has said he will reject a possible rematch with Pacquiao because of his post-fight antics. No one can blame Mayweather for this; true champions are gracious in victory and defeat.
On his Instagram, Mayweather posted a very true statement: “Winners win… losers make excuses.”
As a proud member of the “Money Team”, congratulations to Mayweather on his historic win, and I tell him not to listen to any of this pointless criticism toward his fighting.
No matter what anybody says, nobody can overrule the match result or that undefeated record.
Are people being too harsh on Floyd Mayweather after the “May-Pac” fight? Why or why not?