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Despite being more than 5,500 miles and eight time zones removed from the epicenter of the world of boxing early Saturday morning in Las Vegas, let the king at the British Pound in retirement Floyd Mayweather again steal the headlines.
In another dramatic takeover of the story at the biggest boxing day in 2018, Mayweather managed to distract attention from the remake of high-profile middleweight titles between Canelo Alvarez and Gennady Golovkin – in "the house built by Floyd "- in T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Mayweather, 41, attending a music festival in Tokyo, posted on Instagram a video of Manny Pacquiao's approach to the event and the announcement of what was referred to as a rematch in December. he found "easy work").
The majority of boxing media members woke up Saturday to a fire drill as they jostled each other to understand the interaction: Was it planned in advance? Is there a combat contract? What could Pacquiao promoter Bob Arum from Top Rank say about this?
The details remain vague for all the above, but it is clear that the timing of the announcement was that Mayweather (50-0, 27 KOs) did not have the choice to remind the world of his power and his obvious desire to always be considered the greatest – if not the richest – of all the sports of combat despite his recent flirtation with retirement.
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It would not be the first time Mayweather usurped the spotlight of his former rivals Alvarez and Golden Boy's Oscar De La Hoya promoter.
Last summer, as the promotional engine began to smash the first fight of Alvarez-Golovkin, the biggest of the calendar year, Mayweather announced at the last minute that he was coming back of his retirement. Not only did Mayweather join Conor McGregor, the UFC champion, to create a show and heavyweight a la carte, but with his own 2015 blockbuster with Pacquiao, he programmed it three weeks before Alvarez-Golovkin.
A year later, Mayweather stole the thunder of Alvarez-Golovkin II in full knowledge of the facts. Still, even more important questions than the ones above might be: Can we trust Mayweather? And does this fight really have a chance to happen in 2018?
In many ways, there is no reason why this is not the case. Yes, Mayweather was able to deceive some early in the year by wasting months during which the media was talking about his intentions, at age 41, to debut in the octagon of the UFC. Yet, aside from that, when Mayweather speaks and tries to use his name to move mountains into the sport, they usually move simply because of the unparalleled wealth that he has commanded.
Let's not forget how many reporters – including and especially this one – have lost a lot of time in asserting that a fight between Mayweather and McGregor would never happen. In the end, he earned hundreds of millions of dollars and bought 4.4 million PPVs. Although Mayweather-Pacquiao II made half, he would remain tied for the fourth PPV in the history of combat sports.
Is revenge an obvious drain? Without question. And let's not forget the possibility of the tiredness of viewers after countless casual adepts have paid $ 100 to watch their first fight three years ago, after a never-ending soap opera of more than five years, to see Mayweather disarm Pacquiao victory that has turned out to be a flop of entertainment.
The timing makes a lot of sense so that this fight does not only happen, but that it continues to hit hard. Members of the Mayweather camp said recently, last May, that he was still plagued by another marquee fight and that he was planning to return. Pacquiao, meanwhile, came out of Lucas Matthysse's coup de grace – to break a nine-year drought without a knockout – which led him to believe that the Filipino icon had retreated despite months at 40 years.
Although Pacquiao did well by sending Matthysse, aged 35, he faced almost nothing in terms of backfiring against an erased opponent. He did, however, earn a WBA secondary title for his problems, and videos of his Mayweather interaction early Saturday drew Pacquiao's attention.
"I have the belt," said Pacquiao, before Mayweather responds quickly, "I'll take it to you as I did it before." Mayweather went on to say, "We're going to take the belt, we're going to have payday, and I do not want to apologize to the shoulder."
The reference to the shoulder could be decisive in the way this fight could be sold in a way that attracts occasional fans who are always angry about their first encounter. Despite not showing signs during the fight, Pacquiao blamed his unanimous decision loss after the fact on a wounded right shoulder and underwent surgery in the ensuing months.
Playing an angle that Pacquiao returns in good health in search of revenge could still be enough to attract fans who are hungry for nostalgia and vulnerable to Mayweather's unique ability to force you to pay money into the world. hope that he loses success on the PPV.
The fight will also take place at a unique moment in the changing landscape of the PPV, as many promoters turn to innovative streaming networks such as the agreement between Top Rank and ESPN + for the marriage between Eddie Hearn and DAZN.
It is almost absurd to consider that Alvarez-Golovkin II is the first major PPV of 2018 and that it arrived in September. It's also the first PPV since their first fight 12 months ago. Yet here is the aging of the previous generation PPV stars, looking to make a final gluttony game to attract attention.
Laugh and moan all you want – it could work.
Anyway, Mayweather deserves credit and fair play to commandeer the story and do it halfway around the globe during a day that should have focused on Alvarez and Golovkin. Until the next big star of waiting advances and takes its economic crown, Mayweather will remain the biggest star of the sport, whether technically active or not.
Hi the king.
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