SOON after the welterweight title fight with Floyd Mayweather on Sunday morning, Manny Pacquiao was convinced that he had won when the final bell rang.
“It’s a good fight. I thought I won. He didn’t do nothing, just moved around. I got him many times. I think I won the fight,” said the confident diminutive Filipino.
The confident Pacquiao even raised his gloves triumphantly when the bell sounded at the end of the twelfth round
Pacquiao was not alone.
The booing and jeering by a section of the crowd of over 16 000 at the MGM Grand Arena in Las Vegas, that greeted the announcement that Mayweather had won by a unanimous wide points margin was an eloquent statement by the fight fans.
The bulk of the spectators did not seem to agree with the three judges who gave the fight 118-110 and 116-112 in favour of Mayweather.
So did the Filipinos back home who also felt their man had been robbed.
Boxing News 24 in a story headlined ‘Replay tells another story’ disputes the number of landed punches by Mayweather recorded by Compubox, which was controlled by human beings.
The article points out that watching the fight in a replay with no volume and in slow motion, it can be noticed that because Pacquiao throws his punches in a flurry of two to six at a time, the naked eye does not capture them all.
This is why the article argues that the Compubox was, “inaccurate by a landslide.”
Indeed some of Mayweather’s ‘landed’ 148 punches were jabs that merely touched Pacquiao’s gloves.
According to Boxing News 24, Mayweather landed 68 punches winning Rounds 1, 5, 8, 9 and 11 out of 12.
Meanwhile, Pacquiao landed 98 punches and won Rounds 3, 4, 6, 7, 10 and 12.
Round 2 was drawn.
However, it is obvious from the neutrals’ point of view, that there was something fundamentally wrong with the organisation of the fight.
The fight seemed to have been overly American.
Everything including the Nevada Athletic Commission, which refused Pacquiao’s pain killing treatment on his shoulder just before the fight was all American.
There was nothing sinister about Pacman’s request for treatment since the United States Anti-Doping Agency, authorised to conduct random tests on the boxers had approved the use of an anti-inflammatory injection.
We wonder if such a problem would have arisen if American Mayweather had been in a similar situation.
A fight expected to gross over US$400 million was no ordinary event.
It’s a fight which ended up with continental pride at stake – America vs Asia.This meant Pacquiao from Philippines represented Asia while Mayweather from Las Vegas was the American hope.
And as if all boxing knowledge is the preserve of Americans, believe it not, all three judges pitting an American against an Asian were Americans.
This is at a time when America feels threatened by the upcoming Asian Bank, which is bound to end the dominance of an American source of world controlling power, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.
And the defeat of Mayweather by Pacquiao could have been seen as another blow that would have severely dented American pride at the expense of the emerging Asian giant.
With the three judges all American, Filipinos and the rest of Asia must have been worried since the awarding of points gives the judges room for discretion and therefore bias.
The judge determines the level of aggression and whether a punch that lands is weak or hard and awards points accordingly.
To them it must have appeared the surest way to win for Pacman, as Pacquiao is affectionately known, was through a knockout.
Sport, boxing included, has always been a key player in rivalry at international level, the Olympics being a good example.
At the height of the rivalry between Nazi Germany and the rest of the Western world a boxing contest between an American and a Germany was very significant.
And in the United States because of their superior talent, blacks who excel in sport are regarded as more American than their counterparts.
When German Max Schmelling knocked out American Joe Louis, Adolf Hitler saw this as victory not only over America, but the rest of the Western world.
In fact after this victory, Germany’s Foreign Minister Joseph Goebbels restrategised his propaganda thrust, linking the supremacy of Germany to success in the boxing world.
As a money generating venture the Mayweather/Pacquiao fight lived true to its billing as the fight of the century.
While Mayweather will get an estimated US$200 million for his effort, in 1985 Marvin Hagler netted about US$9 million for his brutal contest with Tommy Hearns.
And for that memorable ‘Thriller in Manila’ between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier in1971 each fighter was guaranteed US$2, 5 million.
However, in the boxing ring, the Mayweather/Pacquiao mega showdown that had taken five years in the making was a major let down as it fell horribly flat.
Mayweather was running throughout the 12 rounds as he displayed his artistry at avoiding getting hit by heavy punches.
Pacman tried to cut the ring, but his salvo of punches was limited to sporadic outbursts, which were restricted to Mayweather’s body.
A hard left hook that escaped Mayweather’s guard in the fourth round and landed on his jaw, driving him to the ropes, was the best blow of the contest.
But what the spectators wanted was blood and thunder in the ring for the duration of the fight.That they saw in 1985 when Hagler and Hearns fought for the middleweight belt.
The brutal encounter which lasted three rounds in which bombs and grenades in the form of blows were thrown in the ring ended with a bloodied Hagler flooring a game Hearns.
It is said spectators literally remained on their feet for eight minutes and one second, the duration of the fight.
Blows that landed on target in those three rounds of ‘bloodletting’ were said to be more than those in some 15-round bouts.
Promoter Bob Arum aptly called the fight “a referendum for boxing,” as this did a lot of good to the popularity of the sport.
I watched the May 3 ‘fight of the century’ with my son and there was no exclamation from either of us at any point during the 12 rounds.However, what with three American judges, the Asian Bank, the inflexible Nevada Athletic Commission and the analysis by Boxing News 24, it might be difficult to convince Pacquiao that Mayweather beat him on points.