With Yankee Stadium playing host to the championship bout between World Boxing Association (WBA) junior middleweight champion Yuri Foreman (28-0, 8 KO’s) and Miguel Cotto (34-2, 27 KO’s), the prevailing thought among many New York boxing fans must be that this could be a prelude to the staging of the ‘Fight of the Century II’ in the Big Apple.
Nearly 40 years ago, the ‘Fight of the Century’ was the promotional nickname given to the first of three fights between undisputed World Heavyweight Champion Joe Frazier (26-0, 23 KO’s) and Muhammad Ali (31-0, 25 KO’s), which took place on March 8, 1971 at Madison Square Garden in New York City.
Ali and Frazier were guaranteed purses of $2.5 million apiece, a record for a single prize fight at the time, and the hype for the contest attracted scores of luminaries including Norman Mailer, Woody Allen, Burt Lancaster, who served as color commentator for the closed-circuit broadcast, and Frank Sinatra, who took photographs for Life Magazine.
After it was announced that Frazier had defeated Ali via unanimous decision to retain the World Heavyweight Title, the overwhelming general consensus was that the bout lived up to all the press it had received. And, arguably, there hasn’t been a fight of that quality and magnitude in close to four decades.
However, Floyd Mayweather (41-0, 25 KO’s) and Manny Pacquiao (51-3-2, 38 KO’s), the two best pound-for-pound fighters in the world, have the rare and unique opportunity to give the sport of boxing what it needs in light of the continuing rise in popularity of Mixed Martial Arts (MMA); an event that would transcend boxing itself and transform it into the center of the sports universe much like Ali-Frazier I did in 1971.
But irreconcilable differences such as Mayweather’s demands for blood testing within 14 days of a potential fight and squabbles over which one of the two will get a bigger piece of the cake have left the boxing public to wonder if the ‘Fight of the Century II’ will ever take place.
Hope springs eternal though.
In an interview with ESPNNewYork.com’s Wally Matthews on 1050 ESPN Radio, Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum, who is also the promoter for the Cotto-Foreman bout, stated that the issue of blood testing is no longer an obstacle as Pacquiao has acquiesced to Mayweather’s demands.
Therefore, pure greed appears to be the only hurdle to clear to make the dream bout become a reality. But even though both fighters figure to easily make between $50-100 million each, Mayweather and Pacquiao are no closer to getting in the ring than they were last year or the year before.
Additionally, Arum gave Matthews every indication that if a deal is hammered out, the bout will not take place in New York City because of the exorbitant amount of taxes that will have to be paid, as opposed to Nevada and Texas which have no personal income tax.
So, even though it should be, Pacquiao-Mayweather will not be held at Madison Square Garden, if at all. And this is a microcosm of the trend that long gone are the days when the best boxers in the world, in all weight classes, were more than willing to face one another, in the prime of their careers, on the grandest stages.
As great as Mayweather, a defensive wizard, and Pacquiao, an offensive juggernaut, are in the squared circle, they could have easily been going into their second or third fight by now and in the midst of a rivalry that could have been mentioned in the same breath as Ali-Frazier, Jake LaMotta-‘Sugar’ Ray Robinson and Israel Vazquez-Rafael Marquez.
But, for the moment, all we’re left with is what could have been and still in search of the bout that could be called the fight of this century.
Where have you gone Joe Frazier and Muhammad Ali?
Click here to read the original article on Examiner.com, which includes relevant links and a video featuring highlights from the 'Fight of the Century'.
Floyd Mayweather & Manny Pacquiao have gotten too big for their britches
