I picked Manny for purely non-technical reasons. Even though Manny's a religious dude who's against gay rights and shit, at least he's not beating the fuck out of women. Manny seems like a genuinely good human being, while Floyd just seems like a fucking scumball.
Manny has a nice future outside of boxing. Floyd does not, unless you count an ESPN special. I'm taking Floyd, but I agree that Manny seems to be a better person.
And in case you didn't notice, I made the votes public, so you can see who voted for whom when you click on the "votes" link in the poll.
man, my heart says manny, but my head knows that the only reason floyd agreed to this fight now is that hes reasonably assured to win. he waited and waited until it was clear that manny wasnt the fighter he used to be. its a cold,calculated move by a scumbag-monster whos gonna make obscene amounts of money. the dagger in all of this will be that if mayweather wins, i could see him retiring, going out undefeated.
I think Mayweather is gonna dust him and it won't be close. I dislike both, but, while I'm not going to be watching the fight since I try to avoid financially supporting criminals when possible, I imagine the only replay worth watching will be the judge raising mayweather's hands after a very lopsided decision and boring tactical fight. I love the idea of boxing, but the way it is right now is complete bullshit. It needs some single governing body, whether it's a player's association or a single person like the UFC. There needs to be a league, an agreed-upon set of rules (yes, paq, I get it you're scared of needles but tats are ok?).
I got shegirl because she's much taller than both and has the reach advantage. Imagine, 6'8 shegirl vs 5'8 Mayweather, its not even a question really
Minus him repeatedly cheating on his wife and heading a foundation that has been investigated for corruption and illegal activities. And using his status and celebrity to try to avoid paying taxes. Mayweather is a shithead and a serial woman abuser, so I get the distaste for him, but its not like Manny is an angel either. His new Foot Locker commercial is hilarious though. As for the fight, it will be boring. Mayweather is too smart to fall into Manny's gameplan, and Manny isn't as fast and powerful as he used to be. The only potential for excitement is likely if Manny makes some mistakes and gets over aggressive and Mayweather tags him. Mayweather is to boxing what Brian Urlacher was to football. An absolute moron, in the cerebral sense, off the field/ring, but a genius savant on/inside it. That dichotomy is interesting.
Money is gonna win, he waited and started the steroid shit so he wouldn't have to fight Manny in his prime. That's all there is to it. I don't like the man but those are the facts. That and he gets 175 million regardless.
This fight will go 12 rounds and be very boring. It's been 4 years since either has knocked someone out. afterward you will all complain about the money you spent and remember wht you haven't watched the sport in 10 years. Mayweather will win because he has better defense. Unless he bet on Manny that is.
I think it will be pretty close, or at least that's what I'm hopeful of since a group of us are going to spend the money to rent the fight. I agree with those that say Mayweather is a tactician in the ring but Manny seems to have that punchers chance against everyone. That ultimately failed Tyson, among many other issues he had, and I think it fails Manny tonight. I do think he'll rock Mayweather a couple times though and make the fight fun to watch. I think everyone wishes they would have fought in their primes. That would have been the better fight. I'm not sure if it was just Mayweather ducking the fight or if it was mutual but I wish that would have happened for our viewing enjoyment.
I'm not much of a fighting fan but I enjoy watching Olympic boxing when it's on, partly for reasons you stated. It's relatively straightforward: there are boxers, they are drawn into a bracket, they fight, winner goes onto the next round until it's the final. All of the bullshit about fighters settling on the rules, trash-talking, weigh-in drama, etc., are completely washed out by the Olympic branding. As it stands I wouldn't even know how to get into professional boxing on account of the fact that fights aren't regularly scheduled, and even then I don't have cable or access to Pay-Per-View.
I tend to think that this will be the last of the big boxing fights that appeals to anyone outside of the boxing fan base. Other than Klitschko, and these two, I can't name a single other active boxer. The only time boxing ever comes up is when it's mentioned as one of the many skills an MMA fighter has.
I think Mayweather will win, he ducked out of this fight to perfection. However I don't WANT him to win because he's a woman-beating shitstain. Both of these guys are great fighters with tarnished personal decisions. May the best asshole win.
90% of the people who are watching this fight are people who just want to say they saw it. I'm SQUARELY in that 90%. It's more of a pop culture event more than anything else and I'm spending $25 on a ticket to watch the game at the bar just so I can talk about it at work. It's simply going to be one of those things where there are people who saw it and people who didn't.
I think that ties into Nett's point rather well. Boxing used to have a real cultural cache. There's a very famous live jazz album that is famous partly for the music, and partly for the backstory: the seats weren't even halfway filled because of a prize boxing fight that was taking place at the same time, and not even the best jazz musicians in the world (Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie among them) could draw a full house. The audience and musicians actually left the theatre during intermission and went to the nearest bar to go watch the fight, and the concert made so little money that the musicians didn't even get paid. There aren't many sporting events that could get such a draw. Boxing faces a lot of obstacles these days. Aside from the general lack of popularity and inaccessibility of the sport, society has changed and a lot of people are squeamish about blood sports, not to mention the concussion risk and messy personal lives of the athletes. The fact that this fight has gained so much traction in the popular press is kind of remarkable, and it's going to be very difficult for another fight to draw this much attention. I mean, nowadays I doubt most folks my age even know this guy was a boxer:
If I had a nickel for every "fight of the century" over the past 40 years, I'd have enough to fill a sock and beat my cell mate to death. Boxing has sucked for 20 years or more. Boring, corrupt, with an alphabet soup of organizations, each with their own ranking. I don't watch it regularly, but MMA is so much more exciting, and those dudes actually kick some ass as opposed to dancing around and hugging each other in the clinch. Manny, because Mayweather is a douche.