This weekend will end up in the annals of sports and boxing history when perennial pound-for-pound pugilists Floyd Mayweather Jr. (47-0, 26 KOs) and Manny Pacquiao (57-5-2, 38 KOs) finally step foot in the same ring at the same time. I don't follow modern boxing all that closely, as the politics, the ridiculous number of titles/weight classes and the inherent corruption in a lot of the decision-making has largely turned me off of watching all but the biggest fights. That said, I know what I'm looking at and have tremendous respect for the technique, discipline and heart that boxing requires. (I'm still much more of an MMA fan, but boxing is far more dangerous to a fighter's health in the long-run due to the larger number of concussive blows to the head per fight.)
While not following the sport, I fully understand the magnitude of a Pacquiao/Mayweather fight. While it pales to what the fight could have been four or five years ago, this will still easily be the highest grossing bout in the history of everything. (Especially with the asking price of $100 on PPV.) It is unlikely to be topped anytime soon, unless something wacky happens that perpetuates a rematch that garners even more mainstream attention. While I don't for a second deny this is the biggest fight ever in terms of box-office, it is far from the biggest fight in terms of importance, cultural relevance or long-term implications. Anyone saying otherwise needs to go back a few decades in history to March 8th, 1971.
"The Fight of the Century", or "The Fight" as it later got shortened to, was not labeled as such out of hyperbole. The main event on that historic evening in Madison Square Garden featured two undefeated heavyweights, both with legitimate claims to the Heavyweight Championship, colliding to determine who the undisputed champ really was. If that had been all of the context, Mayweather/Pacquiao could possibly lay claim to equal stakes. But this night in 1971 was still during the era of the Vietnam War. This was the night that Muhammad Ali faced off against Joe Frazier for the first time.
The two would have three fights against each other, with the first and third bouts hailed as classics. The third fight in particular is considered even today to be perhaps the most brutal and thrilling heavyweight fight of all time. But nothing could match the stakes going into the first fight politically, racially or socioeconomically. Ali had been stripped of his title three years earlier for refusing to be drafted into the Vietnam War. During that time, he became one of the most hated and divisive personalities in America, though opinion started to turn as the war dragged on and Ali became a cultural hero to many. Frazier was instrumental in getting Ali his boxing license back, using his influence as the new champion to petition President Nixon to let Ali back in the ring. He also loaned Ali money and helped keep him afloat during the three years of exile.
Once Ali was reinstated, all was forgotten. Ali openly mocked Frazier, focusing on racial attacks by calling Frazier a white man's champion. (Frazier had financial backing from a wealthy group of predominantly white businessmen in Philadelphia.) While Frazier had grown up destitute, working the fields in Beaufort, South Carolina before relocating to Philadelphia as a teenager and learning to box, Ali had grown up in an upper middle class family in Kentucky and had never really had to work a day in his life outside of boxing. While Frazier was the greater exemplification of struggle in the racially-divided South, Ali changed the narrative leading up to "The Fight" by proclaiming himself as the true representative of Black America and Frazier as the epitome of an uneducated "Uncle Tom." Ali even attended KKK rallies with other members of the Black Muslims to preach segregation. (The two factions had similar goals, so they actually worked together and had strategy meetings, in the very definition of irony.)
It was ugly, ugly stuff. I'm just really giving the broad strokes, but the press and the public bit on all of the prefight propaganda. Ali/Frazier 1 was not just about the Heavyweight Championship of the World. It was about the Vietnam War. The Draft. Religious Freedom. (Ali's primary reason/defense against serving in Vietnam was that the war was against his beliefs as a Muslim.) The strong racial divide in America. (Most African-Americans seemed to be rooting hard for Ali going into the fight, while their Caucasian counterparts were backing Frazier as the real champion.) In the middle of all of it were two undefeated champions, two Olympic gold medalists, and two very different personalities that would come to define each other for the rest of their individual lives. (Frazier passed in 2011.)
Pacquiao vs. Mayweather may be five years too late, but it'll still be a historic fight. Hopefully, for the athletes and the fans involved, it will be an exciting and thrilling fight. But it is no "Fight of the Century." It could be the fight of THIS century, but hopefully there will never again be a time of such unrest, hatred and turmoil that so many political and racial agendas are at stake in a sporting event. To quote Wikipedia, and the documentary it is taking the information from:
"The fight became an extension of the strife that existed within the country, as Ali had become a symbol of the left-wing anti-establishment movement during his government-imposed exile from the ring,[8] while Frazier, as a matter of convenience, was adopted by the conservative, pro-war movement. According to the 2009 documentary Thriller in Manila, the match, which had been dubbed "The Fight", "gripped the nation, but also split it down the middle. If you were rooting for Ali you were black, liberal or young, against Vietnam and for the Civil Rights movement. If you backed Joe Frazier you were a representative of white, conservative America."[9] "Just listen to the roar of this crowd!" thundered Burt Lancaster, the play-by-play man. "The tension, and the excitement here, is monumental!"[10] The Fight was one of the most anticipated events of the 20th century, and transcended boxing.[5]"
Ali and Frazier made history together. Frazier won the first fight by decision, flooring Ali in the last round with a left hook. Ali won the second bout with a lot of clinching in a slow bout. The end of the absolutely brutal third fight had Frazier's right eye swollen shut. Only he and his trainer knew that Frazier was legally blind in his left eye following a training accident years earlier, so Joe was fighting mostly without sight over the last few rounds. As the 15th round was supposed to begin, trainer Eddie Futch refused to let Joe come out to finish the fight even as Frazier demanded that the fight continue. In the other corner, Ali was demanding that HIS corner stop the fight, as he was simply too exhausted to continue. The referee saw Futch waiving the fight off, and Ali was the victor. Frazier had broken Ali's will, but Ali had won the contest.
No matter what happens on Saturday, Mayweather and Pacquiao will never define each other in the public consciousness the way Ali and Frazier did. It's simply a different world. So whenever anyone talks about Saturday's bout as the "biggest fight ever," lets tip our collective hats to the two guys who paved the way for them through one of the darker times in American history.