People my age don't really care about boxing. And why would they? It has been ruined by gambling, corruption and controversy over the past 20 years, and people of my generation have become fonder of a newer, more physical sport: ultimate fighting.
Because honestly, which would you rather watch: a sport in which the participants wear massive gloves and a jab counts for as much as a haymaker, or a sport in which just about anything goes and decisions are almost always made by knockout or submission?
Needless to say, boxing has fallen far from its once-proud place in American culture — when guys such as Muhammad Ali, George Foreman and Joe Frazier were the biggest stars in the country.
But boxing will not go off into the sunset quietly, and the Saturday night fight between Manny Pacquiao and Miguel Cotto was indicative of how the sport is attempting to make a comeback.
In the end, Pacquiao proved his dominance in the much-hyped fight, landing almost twice as many punches as Cotto (336 to 172) and beating his opponent to a bloody pulp. But that was not the most important thing that came out of this fight.
What is important about Pacquiao's victory is what it could lead to. In the weeks and months leading up to the match, many pundits billed the event as the greatest and most exciting fight in years.
But a year from now, Pacquiao-Cotto could be remembered as little more than an That would be the case if the next major fight pits Pacquaio against Floyd Mayweather Jr. Both guys have been labeled as the best pound-for-pound fighters in the world — and for good reason.
With his latest victory, Pacquiao won the welterweight belt, making him the first boxer in history to win seven different titles in seven different weight divisions. His most recent bouts, all of which have come under the national spotlight, have not even been close. Before destroying Cotto, he forced Oscar De La Hoya to throw in the towel after eight rounds and he knocked out Ricky "The Hitman" Hatton (career 45-2 record) in just the second round.
Mayweather's résumé is equally impressive. He's won six different titles in five different weight classes and he's undefeated at 40-0 for his career (with 25 of those victories coming via knockout).
Technically, Mayweather is retired, but he's already come out of retirement twice to take part in his last two fights, and there's no reason to think he wouldn't again return.
If he did, it would be perhaps the greatest fight of this generation (and it would also be a battle of the great nicknames: Money Mayweather versus the Mexicutioner). The only real contenders would be Micky Ward versus Arturo Gatti in 2002, which only the diehards will remember anyway, and Evander Holyfield versus Mike Tyson in 1996 — not the one with the ear-biting incident, the one before that.
I'm not what I would consider a huge fan of boxing, and I'm not a guy who feels impelled to purchase pay-per-view events — the last time I bought one was for WrestleMania XV back in 1999 (which, by the way, was absolutely worth it. Among the highlights: Stone Cold beating the Rock for the WWF Championship and Kane giving Pete Rose, who was dressed in a full-body chicken suit, a tombstone piledriver).
If Mayweather-Pacquiao actually came to fruition, though, I would undoubtedly purchase the right to watch it live. There aren't many household names left in boxing, if there are any at all, but those two guys are unquestionably the most capable in the world of carrying a fight — both in terms of promotion and in terms of the actual quality of the match.
Boxing is dying, but it's not dead yet. Maybe, just maybe, this once-great sport can still be resuscitated on the national stage.
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David Heck is a senior majoring in philosophy. He can be reached at David.Heck@tufts.edu.
