A champ of our times

Floyd Mayweather takes home a minimum $180 million (around Rs 1,100 crores) as 60 per cent share of the $300 million pay-per-view customers paid to watch the highest-grossing boxing bout in sporting history in Las Vegas Saturday night. The unbeaten boxer (48-0) is now world champion, after winning the fight against Manny Pacquiao of the Philippines, where he is even considered a potential presidential candidate.

The fight that drew Hollywood celebs and international sportsmen to the MGM Grand was another grand success of American hype. This single biggest payday for a sportsperson is a reflection of how commercial sport has become. That has not stopped questions about the obscene riches from what many called the poorest fight for long in the welterweight category, in which a 38-year-old defensive but smart and calculating boxer subdued an usually aggressive boxer just two years his junior.

Sport reflects the times we live in, and it is no surprise that the world’s richest athlete is also a wife-beater who was in jail for domestic violence. Mayweather is not loved, and boxing historians would scoff at him if compared to past fighters. Some even likened the Mayweather-Pacquiao bout to a heist akin to the Ocean’s Eleven’s robbery of a Las Vegas casino so brilliantly portrayed by Hollywood. A sport that has seen epics like Muhammad Ali versus Joe Frazier might feel cheated on the quality count. But as they say, money makes the mare go.