With barely a week to go before the richest boxing bout in history unveil before the entire world at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, on May 2, there is hardly any murmurs these days about Mayweather Jr. or Pacquaio issuing barbs against each other.
Unlike the time when the fight has not been made yet and both boxers were trading barbs and insults particularly in social media as if they were little spoiled brats, the announcement of the official fight has certainly mellowed them both, more for Mayweather Jr. actually.
Money has been widely regarded as a trash talker against his opponent but surprisingly, he was reserved during the entire promotions for the Mayweather-Pacquaio fight.
Pacquiao, on the other hand, being a Christian, has been a soft-spoken person ever since so he is not the type to dish out insinuations against his opponent. He just lets Freddie Roach, Bob Arum or his camp do the fearless forecasting as well as the talking instead of him.
And surprisingly, Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao appear to be heading to a friendly fight rather than a fierce battle of egos the way it was hyped to be since five years ago.
Gone are the days when Mayweather will make an announcement on how he is going to defeat his opponent, not to mention his pomposity and often ludicrous statements.
Cheered for Pacquiao
Had Mayweather and Pacquiao met five years ago in the ring, there could have been a lot of animosities, trash-talking, and dishing between the two boxers, most likely from the end of Money.
But now, the boxers seem to have matured enough to consider their bout and conduct themselves in the most professional manner possible. These are the ironies and absurdities of the sweet science indeed.
To take the absurdity even further, Floyd Jr. actually cheered hard for Manny Pacquiao during his rematch with “El Terible” Erik Morales for a super featherweight fight at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, Nevada on January 21, 2006, more than nine years ago to be exact.
Mayweather was seated then at the second row at ringside and he was with Leonard Ellerbe, the CEO of Mayweather Promotios, and also a group of HBO sports executives, details Yahoo! News.
Sometime in the 10th round, Pacquiao knocks down Morales, and Mayweather and Ellerbe were actually caught on video cheering loudly and hard for Pacquiao.
The video clearly showed Money Mayweather jumping out of his seat to cheer Pacquiao and urging him to finish Morales even as referee Kenny Bayless was giving “El Terible” the count. Manny Pacquiao eventually won the bout.
It was surreal to see Mayweather cheering hard for Pacquiao then as he probably thought that they are not going to cross paths in their ring careers since Floyd Jr. was already in the welterweight division then, while Pacquiao was still in the super featherweight division still.