By Elvers Brooks
Many fans all over the world are upset because Manny Pacquiao will face Shane Mosley May 7, 2011. Pacquiao, considered to be the best boxer in the world, is coming off a dominating win over Antonio Margarito in November to claim the vacant WBC Junior Middleweight title. After a failed attempt to land a fight with Floyd Mayweather Jr., Pacquiao and his promoter Top Rank were forced to find another opponent. The options for opponents were, Andre Berto, Juan Manuel Marquez, and Shane Mosley.
Andre Berto, the WBC welterweight champion, has yet to face any serious competition and is unknown to everyone except die hard boxing fans. The lack of public recognition makes the fight with Berto a tough sale even for the extremely popular Manny Pacquiao. Fight fans seem to clamor for a third fight between Pacquiao and Juan Manuel Marquez because of the closeness of their first two fights which ended in a draw in 2004 and a split decision win for Pacquiao in 2008.
q However outside of boxing fans Marquez is not widely known which does not translate into a huge profit. The only option left for Pacquiao, Sugar Shane Mosley, had a rough 2010 after getting thoroughly dominated by Floyd Mayweather Jr. in May and fighting to a boring and disappointing draw with Sergio Mora in September. But so what, who cares? Remember how many people were upset about Pacquiao fighting Antonio Margarito, the guy many believe purposely loaded his gloves to cheat? There were all kinds of talks on Facebook and Twitter among many other websites and social media outlets from fans about boycotting the fight. One fan emailed me saying Pacquiao-Margarito was a horrible fight and would kill the sport of boxing.
With all of the negative talk about that fight you would’ve thought only a hundred people would attend the fight and even less would watch it on television. After it was all said and done Pacquiao-Margarito had over 40,000 people in attendance at Cowboy Stadium and sold over one million PPVs which is pretty good for a fight no one wanted to see.
q Pacquiao-Mosley was not a highly demanded fight by the fans, but it is the most profitable fight at this time for each fighter and Top Rank. Mosley, a future hall of famer and a three division champ, has fought and beaten many of the great fighters of his era. He has fast hands, a strong chin, great knockout power, and has never been knocked out. He comes to fight no matter who the opponent is and always goes for the knockout. Mosley brings a recognizable name, a great resume, and more money and star power than any other fighter available not named Floyd Mayweather Jr. Many argue that Mosley does not deserve a fight with Pacquiao based on his last two fights, but again who cares?
Star power is the only reason George Foreman got his chance to knockout Michael Moorer to become the oldest heavyweight champion ever. Foreman had been inactive for over a year and dominated in his previous fight. Sugar Ray Leonard, Mike Tyson, and Muhammad Ali are also great examples of fighters with star power who got chances not demanded, but the public always tuned in to see fight. Top Rank is in the business of making money promoting fights not pleasing every fan by promoting fights.
What we have to remember is boxing, like all companies, is business first then fans somewhere down the line. Just like I heard in a rap song, “if it don’t make dollars it don’t make sense,” well the same goes for boxing. Pacquiao-Mosley is going to make dollars, so despite what fans say it still makes sense.
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