Can We Just have Mayweather v. Pacquiao and be Done with Boxing?

Last night Floyd “Money” Mayweather took his undefeated streak to 41 fights – an impressive toll that should hold up in any discussion of the greatest boxer ever.  However last night as I watched the match I couldn’t help but say to myself, “wow this is pretty boring”.   Now I know that boxing is a sport with a long tradation behind it, with some of the greatest athleates to ever compete in it.  However that doesn’t mean that it’s interesting anymore.

I look at old fights of Ali, Foreman, Tyson, and Lewis and I see matches that were entertaining, and fueled with subtle mind games.  All I saw from boxing last night was a sport that so desperately wants to be entertaining but is failing madly.  During the entire under card the crowd was unenthused and was fill with mainly with friends and family of the competitors.  There was a time when boxing matches would be packed from the start of the under card to the completion of the main event.  This is opposed to what is boxing’s main competition of MMA where every Pay Per View I have seen have had a full crowd the entire match.

But this is not about the competition between Boxing and MMA that topic has been beaten to death by several other people and will undoubtedly be done in the coming weeks comparing this PPV to the UFC’s upcoming UFC113.

Instead this is to ask when the hell are we going to see the only boxing match left in the world that people want to see: The Undefeated Floyd Mayweather vs the Great Manny Pacquiao.  These are the two best known and most skilled boxers in the world.  They also hold the distinction of being the only boxers that most people know/care about.  Earlier this year it looked like the fight was going to happen, but negotiations broke down over drug testing because Pacquiao didn’t want to have his blood drawn so close to a match (but said that it could be drawn immediately following the match).

The millions of dollars that would fly around this match are off the charts.  When it was first announced earlier this year millions were bet in the first few weeks.  Millions more would follow if the match were to actually happen.  Both of these fighters are either in or just after their prime and now would be the perfect time to stage the fight.

Once Mayweather/Pacquiao happens boxing can finally step aside as the predominant fighting sport.  It will still be there of course but only as a niche sport that doesn’t get as much press as it’s successor MMA.