By Lou Block
For the past 5 years the hype surrounding the “Pacman” Manny Pacquiao was unbearable to real boxing fans such as myself. The bandwagon fans who never studied or were true fans of the sweet science would latch onto Pacquiao because of the media hyping him up as the one to beat the brash and confident Floyd “Money” Mayweather Jr.
Fast forward to 2013 and the Pacman is no longer relevant, those fans who were riding his train have disappeared and no longer write articles or boast about his accomplishments. They were humiliated when Manny Pacquiao was exposed twice, first against Timothy Bradley which they cried was a robbery and then the famous one punch KO from Juan Manuel Marquez that was heard and seen around the world.
When you have a fighter who gets hyped up they usually go crashing down, and the same can be said for fighters who were protected but never got the same media exposure that Pacquiao did. Abner Mares who is a decent fighter got knocked out similar to Amir Khan another hyped up fighter who has been exposed and knocked out many times. The boxing media and promoters try to build up these goody two shoes golden boys only for it to backfire.
This is why real top level boxers throughout history are the ones who get the most hate, like Muhammad Ali, and Floyd Mayweather Jr. Whenever I see a fighter get praised big time before even proving himself against quality opposition, I will almost immediately predict this guy will be a hype job just like Pacquiao, Mares and Khan. When I first saw Mayweather box I knew he was the real deal, his posing and his stance alone was impressive. He looked so relaxed in the ring, he was like a gangster leaning on the sidewalk just brushing the haters off his shoulders.
If you have been watching boxing for as long as I have you can easily spot who is talented and who isn’t and on September 14th when Floyd Mayweather steps into the ring against Canelo Alvarez you will see an all time great in action in a fight that could break the pay-per-view buy record set by Floyd vs. Oscar De La Hoya of 2.4 million ppv buys. Nobody even cares about Manny Pacquiao vs. Brandon Rios that is why they put that fight in China because the American fans are no longer interested in Pacman because like Floyd said, “He is no longer relevant, he’s a has been.”
