When Floyd meets Manny, money wins and viewers lose
Judging from all the groaning in the media, Floyd Mayweather Jr and Manny Pacquiao's "fight of the century" didn't come close to living up to expectations after five hype-filled years and enormous expense - the money thrown at the boxers' fees and br
Frankly, Soopsip is kind of glad now that the boss refused to shell out for airfare and tickets to the bout in Las Vegas. TV viewers around the globe have been venting disappointment over the less-than-thrilling match that ended with Mayweather earning a unanimous decision from the judges (and much less than that from other observers).
Still, it was an historic fight – albeit for unexpected reasons:
l Thailand was one of only three countries where you could watch the confrontation for free on TV. Everywhere else had that pay-per-view thing going, which helped make the match the most expensive/lucrative in the history of televised sport.
l Mayweather was already brutally wealthy and spends millions on fine dining, but one of his favourite things to eat is instant noodles.
l Paquiao loves Shakira. He always trains with Shakira’s music playing the background. We have no idea why. She’s never even covered “Eye of the Tiger”.
l People on Palawan Island in the western Philippines weren’t going to miss their homeboy Manny taking on that chump Floyd, but since every TV set on the island was going to be switched on, they were asked to unplug their fridges and air-conditioners during the match to avoid triggering a power blackout.
l In fact there was no one on the streets of the Philippines at all, and not a single crime was committed, according to police watching the fight.
l Jamie Foxx should stick to acting. He managed to add several new and unusual notes to the US national anthem before the fight began, in flat contrast to the gorgeous performance of the choir of Filipino singers who shared their country’s song.
Another reason the bout was so expensive was that Mayweather’s mouth guard cost Bt800,000 all by itself. It must have been a Rolls-Royce mouth guard.
Of course that’s chicken feed to Mayweather, who banked another $180 million from this contest, just for basically running around Manny or squeezing him in loving hugs.
Those hugs were powerful, though. Floyd spent 90 days in jail for domestic violence, but he seemed downright affectionate in the ring, devoted more to grasping than punching. “I want a relationship like Mayweather and Pacquiao,” came a tweet from @dzennon. “When we fight, we’ll just hug.” And @fahadameen1 called the grabs “more intense and passionate than ‘50 Shades of Gray’”.
Mayweather’s constant shuffling around the ring also earned him multiple nominations to win “Dancing with the Stars”, the US TV show on which he once appeared.
Still on Twitter, #MayweatherPaquiao was the knockout hashtag all night, dominated by 79,400 re-tweets and 120,000 “favourites” for Manny’s selfie with his entourage as they walked toward the ring. It was captioned “14 years in the gym for 1 night in the ring”.
Among the miffed viewers were two former champions of the sport. “Sorry, boxing fans,” was the ruling from @OscarDeLaHoya, and from @MikeTyson, “We waited 5 years for that. #underwhelmed #MayPaac.”
Manny came into the ring wearing a T-shirt that said on the back, “All glory and honour belongs to God”, while Mayweather’s shirt was simple and direct: “The Money Team”. Yet at the end of the fight Floyd declared, “Thank God!” That led @FunnyGooner to suggest, “Manny should’ve prayed harder.”
