The Fight of OUR Century

Kids, I'm a big fan of boxing and it's widely known (through my tens of supporters) that Muhammad Ali is my favorite athlete of all-time.  He was the mixture of talk and walk that just appeals to smug jerks like me.

Greatness hasn't boxed in a long time (but they still play his fights on ESPN Classic so you should watch them...except the Thrilla in Manila because he almost dies...but other than that...watch them) and with his departure boxing hasn't been all that popular.  The best boxer since him has probably been Mike Tyson but he's balls crazy and that distracts us from his brilliance.

Then for years since we've had the running battle between Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather about which of them is the best boxer of this generation but the funny thing was that they never fought each other.  I've been dying for this fight because of, well, a few reasons really.

First off, boxing is playing second fiddle to UFC these days and that makes me sad because I really hate UFC.  Two Cro-Magnons in thongs groping at each other for five minutes at a time is only sport in really weird gay mansions.  Don't get me wrong, UFC has entertainment value just like the Coliseum used to have for ancient Romans.  If there's one common vein throughout humanity it's that we like to see gorillas try to tear their heads off each other.  Boxing is different.  They tend to do things like, you know, defense.  The Sport of Kings is horse racing but if there's a Hobby of Kings it has to be boxing.  It's regal and brutal at the same time.

Second of all, there's bad blood between these two.  Mayweather has gone on drunken racist Vegas rants about Pacquiao and has questioned his integrity of the sport by demanding blood tests.  These two veritably hate each other and that always makes for a great fight.  The last time I can remember a great fight when the two fighters hated each other so much was probably...sigh...the Thrilla in Manila.  The Fight of Last Century took place between the same two men that fought in Manila but what if this is the Fight of OUR Century?!  Which leads me to my next point...

Don't we deserve to know?  Who is it?  Is it Pacquiao or Mayweather?  Which one do I get to gloat to my children about witnessing as the best of THIS generation?  This is the only way--they HAVE to fight each other.  Boxing, like most great sports, has become heavily commercialized and there's a lot of money involved these days.  This bout is going to be the biggest money maker of them all but I'm asking you to put aside all those trivial dollars.  At the end of the day it's two men in the ring and one of them will win and that will finally answer a question we've asked for a long time.

Sure, they're older, but great boxers don't age like you and me.  Great boxers have a fire that dies out long after their bodies should.  Without question this will be a great fight.  Mayweather is undefeated, a perfect 47-0!  Not one slip up in almost fifty bouts?  Come on.  Pacquiao is considered the best poud-for-pound fighter right now and that's just a nice way of saying he's a tough little guy.  I'm just kidding.  He could punch through my chest.

May 2nd.  I'm clearing my calendar and I suggest you do the same.