On Saturday May 2nd, boxing became relevant again in the eyes of sports fans around the world as Mayweather vs. Pacquiao invaded Las Vegas. Billed as the fight of the century; fans, celebrities, and billionaires alike wanted to soak in a fight they could tell their children about. What the world got, was a snooze fest that could have put Richard Simmons in a coma. Despite PacMan trying his hardest to goat Mayweather into an actual fight, Mayweather was content to run a marathon backwards with intermittent jabs to keep the judges on his side. Every round it seemed that Pacquiao was chasing down Mayweather and cornering him. Once in the corners, Pacquiao tried to unleash a flurry of punches to the head and gut of his opponent before Mayweather slithered out and continued his marathon run. As a casual observer to boxing, it must be noted that, even though Pacquiao has Mayweather in danger and in corners most rounds, he failed to do any serious damage to the head or body of his opponent. Pacquiao instead decided to play the cautious game of waiting for prime opportunities before unleashing his arsenal. Due to the lack of drive and killer instinct on the part of Pacquiao, Mayweather was allowed to dictate the flow of the match. At the end of the 12 rounds, fans had thought that PacMan Pacquiao did enough to earn the decision, but the judges had other plans. All three scorecards called for a lopsided victory in favor of Mayweather to put a rotten cherry on top of the mud sundae. So, with all that went on, who really won on May 2nd?
The UFC and the rest of MMA won by a landslide after the dust had settled on Las Vegas. Boxing was trying to make a comeback after MMA was making them irrelevant, but failed miserably in its attempt. Dana White (President of the UFC) was no doubt laughing his head off after the fight was over because he knows that the majority of the fights that he puts on would put Mayweather vs. Pacquiao to shame. A prime example is the free Fight Night that will be on public tv May 16th. The headliner has two former champions facing off in the featherweight division: Frankie Edgar vs. Uriah Faber. Even if this was a straight boxing match, the outcome would be insurmountably better than what was seen on May 2nd. Now, throw in at least a dozen more martial arts disciplines into the fight and we have a product that boxing can no longer compete with. From start to finish, Edgar vs. Faber is bound to have fans on the edge of their couches as you have two wrestlers with elite ground skills going for 25 mins to see who gets one step closer to facing champion Jose Aldo. And that's just the main event. The co-main event has hard hitting Gegard Mousasi (ranked #7) vs Costa Philippou (ranked #12). This fight is sure to be a clash of styles as Kick Boxing meets Boxing as someone is sure to get knocked out. These fights and more are given to MMA fans at least once a month for free instead of the $100 PPV damage that was done to every boxing fans wallet.
Boxing has the chance to once again be the premiere fighting sport in the world, but it was the UFC and MMA that came out as the real winner and kept their stranglehold on the fight game.