*The dust has now finally settled from this near perfect storm that was called “The Fight Of The Century” and when it rumbled through Las Vegas last weekend it shook up a lot of folk in boxing.
There were some who held nothing but pessimistic thoughts and comments regarding this pugilistic event that took place at the T-Mobile Arena between veteran undefeated boxing champion, Floyd Mayweather Jr., who decided to come out of retirement to go against a loud mouth trash talking ultimate fighting champion who had never laced on the gloves of boxing in his life.
A lot of people were saying that it couldn’t possibly be a real fight because of that. And there were some folk who had the audacity to call Conor Mcgregor “the new great white hope.”
But before I go any further I must reflect back into the days of yesteryear folks when on July 4 1910 in Reno, Nevada where the very first “Fight Of The Century” took place in an outdoor arena in front of some 40,000 (mostly white fans) James Jeffries came out of retirement to go against the very first black heavyweight champion Jack Johnson in an effort to bring the title back to white folks. And the results turned out nearly the same then as the referee stepped in and called a halt to the bout in the twelfth.
Jeffries received a royal “butt” whopping from then champion Jack Johnson so bad that referee ( and promoter) Tex Rickard declared it a technical knockout.
And as history repeated itself last week in a much anticipated and much awaited fight referee Robert Bird stepped in and called a halt to this one at 59 seconds in the tenth round. The similarities in both of these events is striking indeed as they were each held in Nevada (one in Reno, the other in Las Vegas) and they were both big events that people from came to from far and near just to be able to say that “I was there”. The very fact that you had in each event a black fighter going against a white made it all too compelling to watch.
When this writer first arrived in Las Vegas midweek for the final press conference you could actually feel the energy and spirit in the air of a spectacular showdown about to take place. And then on Friday afternoon for the weight-in I was astonished to see some 15,000 people who each paid 100 bucks nearly fill up the T-Mobile Arena to cheer their favorite fighter on.
And I hear that so many people tuned in to the pay per view to watch the fight that it put a dent in the weekend movie box office results. Everyone wanted to watch this one go down just like they did on July 4 1910.
Mayweather said at the post-fight press that he’s done with boxing, and Mcgregor says he’ll go back to ultimate fighting. As I always say, we’ll see what happens.
Coming up in a few weeks another big fight looms in Las Vegas with Saul “Canelo” Alvarez going against Gennady “GGG” Golovkin for the undisputed world middleweight championship. And it’s all being brought to you by Oscar De La Hoya and Golden Boy Promotions Saturday September 16 at the T-Mobile Arena and telecast live on HBO pay per view.
“When the tide goes out, that’s when you’ll find out who’s been swimming naked.”-Warren Buffett
*Mohammed Mubarak can be reached at [email protected] for your comments. He is an artist as well and you can go to mubarakart.com or qmubarak06 on instagram and view his works.
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