So much had been made of this fight, which had been ballyhooed as the "Fight of the Century," and now in the penitential brightness of the ring Oscar De La Hoya, the most popular fighter in the world and Floyd Mayweather Jr., boxing's best pound for pound, awaited their fate as the judges handed in their scoring cards. But there was more to it than just the super welterweight belt: the world was judging the sport of boxing.
Boxing's popularity has been unraveling for some time now, but De La Hoya-Mayweather Jr. became the Super Bowl of boxing, the most-anticipated fight of the year, if not the last two decades. It pitted archetypes: self-effacing De La Hoya vs.
trash-talking Mayweather. The MGM Grand sold out its 16,200-seat arena in three hours, generating $19 million, a Nevada boxing record; the fight had its own HBO reality series; ringside seats were fetching $20,000; and, while the final numbers won't be known until mid-week, the fight was set to top all pay-per-view records making De La Hoya at least $23.3 million and Mayweather at least $10 million.
Las Vegas was once again the center of the sports universe, swamped with fight fans and those who just wanted to be a part of an American spectacle. An unprecedented 7,000 rowdy fanatics, digital cameras flashing, went to Friday's weigh-in, a much-ignored ceremony in which the fighters stand on a scale in their underwear. On fight night, 19 HBO television cameras followed the action with one dedicated to getting facial reactions from the fifty deep contingent of celebrities, including Helen Mirren, Sacha Baron Cohen, Sean Combs, Tobey Maguire, Russell Crowe, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Jennifer Lopez, whose husband, Marc Anthony crooned the national anthem.
No one really expected it to go for 12 rounds. Mayweather Jr. and De La Hoya might have sweet smiles but they have apocalyptic fists, and they had been talking poorly about each other for four months.
"I truly feel that Mayweather Jr. needs a humbling experience," said De La Hoya. "I'm gonna beat you 'til you respect me, I'm gonna beat you 'til you call me Pretty," said Mayweather.
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