By Jedro Magtoto,
The Filipino Canadian
Special to The Post
This past weekend, Manny Pacquiao lost and we at The Filipino Canadian have accepted that.
We know that the better boxer won fair and square and outclassed him in every way. We are not going to bring up the injured shoulder as an excuse to why he lost.
However, we just want to phrase the night as simple as possible: "Mayweather came to box and won. Pacquiao came to fight and lost".
Mayweather is a pure boxer, he is a master of the "Sweet Science", everything in the ring is calculated with precision to win a contest. Even outside of the ring he is as calculated, hence making him a great business man.
Manny on the other hand is a fighter, he likes to throw leather hoping it will land flush, and is not afraid to take a risk even if it means he might get KO'd.
If you are a student of the "Sweet Science" and understand the game, we all watched Floyd give Manny an absolute pugilistic clinic.
As a casual fan, you saw Floyd run and headlock Manny. We can all agree that the number of casual fans outnumber fans who understand the boxing science.
Throughout social media threads, there were countless comments of Floyd running and such. We then read fans who understand the game hating on the casual fans who were sold on watching a ‘fight’.
Boxing promotion companies however target ‘casual fans’ to buy PPV's. If boxing relied only on enthusiasts to support the sport, purses would be far smaller, with much less hype.
What we are trying to get at is that fan's (real & casual) help build the sport and the only reason why athletes get paid is from the fans. We all wished Floyd was able to fight (not box) for the people and give them what they wanted to see, which is both men swing leather looking for a KO.
After what we saw last Saturday, Mayweather’s next bout will likely not make as much money – he may earn as much as $200 million from the fight. Would the disappearance of the casual fan take a blow for boxing? Without the casual fan, purses are smaller and boxers are more likely to need supplemental incomes in other fields, whether that be working in an office or in some other manner.
With all the media hyping up this contest, then watching it, what we saw was that Floyd wanted to win a contest and Manny came to win a fight.
Both boxers will probably be hanging up the gloves in the near future.
Let’s hope that future boxers will fight for all types of fans to keep boxing as popular as it once was.
This piece was originally published on The Filipino Canadian, a Vancouver based blog about Filipino culture and community: http://filipinocdn.com/fight-of-the-century-for-the-casual-fans/#more-185.
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