Floyd outboxes Oscar in fight that doesn’t live up to the hype

I’m glad I didn’t pay $59.99 to watch that fight (on Pay-per-view, and a reported $35K for ring-side seats).

Thanks to the magic of the interwebs (and Sopcast), I was able to watch the fight for free on my laptop from the comfort of my old leather recliner.

Six months of hype and an HBO show giving us 24/7 coverage of each fighter’s training camp. Only to be followed by as boring and undramatic a fight as one could imagine.

And once again the old addage that “styles make fights” proves that sometimes styles also break fights.

In the fight that was supposed to save boxing, Floyd Mayweather used his superior boxing skills — mostly of the defensive variety — and and superior conditioning to win a split decision over Oscar De la Hoya, who just had nothing left in his tank (or apparently his heart, either) after the 8th round.

There were no knockdowns and no staggering blows. It boiled down to a battle of technical skills, for which Floyd had the edge.

As someone who appreciates the sweet science of boxing, I appreciated Floyd’s ability to not get hit. But it doesn’t mean that it wasn’t a boring fight.

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I’m a big fan of boxing — I fought as an amateur for six years when I was a kid. There was a time I would purchase the Pay-per-view for all the big fights, invite the guys over, ice down some beers, order some pies, and revel in the skill and spectacle that is the sweet science of boxing.

But it’s been a long time since I’ve been that excited about the sport. And probably won’t be again until Don King is dead and gone, and his legacy of corruption and influence in the sport is long behind us.