Thoughts on The Fight of The Century

The domain of professional sports is most interesting because these athletes make the job look so easy that their supporters sometimes forget to be objective. In the next couple of days, the city of Las vegas will host a major boxing event pitting Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao. Both have fans and critics in large numbers but this fight has its own underlying story. It may make sense for the promoters to refer to this upcoming match as the "fight of the century" but thats hyperbole because the century is still too young.

Because this fight has been so long in coming, the punditry claims that Floyd Mayweather Jr. has ducked the his opponent for fear of losing. Despite the firm belief by Floyd Mayweather's detractors, I find this claim unconvincing because the same pundits claim that he is too interested in making money. So why would he have avoided a big payday like this for so long?

About the fight, I wager that Floyd Mayweather Jr. will prevail over Manny Pacquiao. My reason is just because I trust the analysis by real boxing analysts and thinkers and not people whose commentary starts with the deserved criticism of Mr. Mayweather's unsavoury behaviour. But the fundamental error of these analysts is to assume that floyd's  Floyd's indiscipline in personal relations translates into his behaviour in the ring. This analysis by fivethirtyeight.com goes through the data and comes to the conclusion that the odds favour Mayweather Jr.

I will update this post soon after the match is over and provide my impressions of what was the difference between the boxers would be.