The millions of casual fans who watched the snoozefest between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao that was sold to the world as the Fight of the Century are never going to come back.
There are no other big fights on the horizon, mainly because there’s not even a single fighter out there that you could consider a top-flight star.
And the problem therein is that stars don’t just materialize out of the thin air. You have to make a star.
Which is where Mayweather, who is also a promoter, can lend his considerable business acumen.
He has one fight left on his contract with Showtime, and he said before and after the fight with Pacquiao this weekend that he intends to finish out that contract, and then retire.
A win pushes Mayweather’s career record to a perfect 49-0, a hallowed number in boxing lore, matching the career mark of Rocky Marciano, the great heavyweight of the 1950s.
That would no doubt be the selling point to the fight with the tomato can that the Mayweather team is looking to line up for the September fight that could cap Money’s career.
The best thing that could happen for boxing would be for him to lose that fight.
Think about what happens next. The public clamors for a rematch, the money for which could rival the Pacquiao fight, maybe surpass it.
Let’s assume Mayweather wins the rematch. We get a third and deciding fight to settle the score.
Mayweather wins, the challenger, if they’re smart about this, it’s a young guy, mid to late 20s at the most, still soldiers on as the guy who is the one behind fifty and one. The challenger wins, hey, who’s next, right?
Either way, boxing has its next lineal pound-for-pound best fighter. That’s not a title that you can just give to some guy and have the public give a crap about; it has to be earned in the ring.
This is where we tap into Mayweather’s business acumen. It’s hard to imagine Mayweather, with his defensive skills at their height, losing this September fight, whoever ends up being the opponent. He’s not one of the best fighters of all time, by a long shot, but Mayweather is a couple of heads and shoulders above the rest of the best of this generation. And with the rules of the game being what they are, his ability to game CompuBox stats being the key weapon in his arsenal, eluding punches on defense and getting just enough offense to make it look like he’s dominating when he’s really just out there riding the bike for 12 rounds, he could go another five, six fights, maybe a couple more, before age would finally catch up to him and bring him back to the pack.
Mayweather is rightly telling the world that he’s ready to move on to the post-training part of his life. He just got a check for $100 million as a down payment on his take from Saturday night, so it makes sense that he wouldn’t want to spend any more time in a gym than necessary.
But boxing is what The Money Team knows. It’s hard to fathom that Mayweather wouldn’t remain involved in the fight game after he hangs up the gloves for the last time, but what would there be for him to promote in terms of big fights is a fair question.
The reality is that there are no big fights because there are no big fighters.
But Mayweather can create the next big fighter. Honestly, he’s probably the only guy who can.
Strange as it might sound to say it, Floyd Mayweather, warts and all, might be the only guy who can save boxing.
– Column by Chris Graham
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