Boxing fans had to wait for over half a decade to see Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao in the ring together. The wait for a sequel could be decidedly shorter, though.
Some 18 months have passed since Mayweather decisioned Pacquiao with boxing still struggling to shake off the hangover from its bloated expectations. The most anticipated fight in boxing history arguably hurt the sport more than any other, as the mass casual audience which tuned in, were turned off afterwards.
Ironically, it’s now the same fight which can give boxing a much needed shot in the arm. There are mitigating circumstances which can be accounted for the disappointment of May-Pac 1 which won’t be a factor second time around.
For a start, the Filpino slugger went into the bout with a significant shoulder injury which seriously hampered his ability to be the type of voluminous and energetic fighter we know can cause Mayweather trouble.
Pacquiao is smiling over at Floyd as if to say, "See what I can do when I'm not fighting with a torn rotator cuff?" Want some, Floyd?
— Skip Bayless (@RealSkipBayless) November 6, 2016
In his last two fights, against Timothy Bradley and against Jessie Vargas, the Pacman proved it’s clearly no longer an issue.
Couple that with the dubious IV Mayweather received the night before the fight and there’s an element of ‘who knows what could happen’ second time around.
It would be incredibly naive to believe that May-Pac 2 would not draw a full house in Las Vegas and at least a million or two in pay-per-view buys. The reasons the fight made sense in 2015 still stand true today. To an extent they’ve been accentuated because in their absence a vacuum has emerged.
Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez’s reluctance to meet pound-for-pound nemesis Gennady Golovkin in the ring has alienated many fans while the sport’s glamour division, the heavyweights, has been disparaged by Tyson Fury’s wild antics.
Both Pacquiao and Mayweather still possess the valuable mixture of mainstream profile and pound-for-pound stardom which simply hasn’t been replaced.
There is a certain cinematic quality to Mayweather-Pacquiao II; two veteran fighters, slugging it out for one last time to save the sport which has given them so much. Except this isn’t Rocky II, and neither boxers are Balboa or Apollo Creed; they are two very rich men who have made their fortunes and are both past their best. Any kind of rematch smacks of greed and, if anything, would only highlight the problems boxing faces.
When they finally came into the ring in 2015 it was, at least five years too late, and consequently what would have been Pacquiao’s ferocious, fast and unpredictable attack against the iron-clad defence of Mayweather turned into the American putting on the shoulder roll as age had clearly caught up with his Filipino adversary, the punches lacking the ping and zip of old.
There is absolutely nothing to say anything will be any different. Added to this is the overall boxing landscape which has taken a bit of a pounding in 2016. Tyson Fury’s lack of action and mental health problems has, unfortunately only enhanced apathy towards the heavyweight division; ‘Canelo’ Alvarez’s procession of comfortable victories, as promoter Oscar de la Hoya delays the inevitable Gennady Golovkin bout, does nobody any favours; while Al Haymon’s Premier Boxing Champions stable has left a number of top-class fighters inactive for much of the year.
However, there was always bound to be something of a lull, post-Mayweather-Pacquiao, and there is every chance next year we could be watching at least two super-fights from Alvarez v Golovkin, Anthony Joshua v Wladimir Klitschko and Amir Khan v Kell Brook.
Below that, from a more purist perspective, we might see Danny Garcia or Errol Spence v Keith Thurman, a potential rematch of Andre Ward v Sergei Kovalev (depending on how their fight on November 19 goes) or something like Vasyl Lomachenko v Leo Santa Cruz.
We don’t need Mayweather-Pacquiao II, and neither do they.
