Fight of the Century? More Like Fraud of the Century, Fans Say

‘fought in an uneven playing field where my opponent was in control of everything, inside and outside the ring.’ So who’s winning? Well, let’s leave it to the judges, in this case, the fans. Unfortunately, they are not interested in this fight anymore and now they seek retribution. More and more boxing fans believe that Pacquiao wasn’t actually the loser of the ‘brawl’; the ones who paid big bucks to watch the so-called Fight of the Century were. As a consequence, they took the next step and filed lawsuits against, well…pretty much everybody: Pacquiao and Top Rank Promotions, HBO and Showtime, plus Mayweather and Mayweather Promotions. According to the Associated Press, more than 32 U.S. lawsuits have been filed so far blaming the Filipino for not disclosing his shoulder injury before the fight. “The fight was not great, not entertaining, not electrifying. It was boring, slow and lackluster,”one Texas lawsuit states. “If people knew that he was injured, they wouldn’t have paid $100 to watch the fight on Pay-per-view at home. They wouldn’t have paid $20 to go to the bar and watch it there,” Caleb Marker, an attorney involved in one of these cases, told NPR. In other words, for them, it was more like the Fraud of the Century than the Fight of the Century. Besides the 4.4 million pay-per-viewers who paid over $400 million, there were others who paid significantly more: one bar in California paid $2,600 to air the event while people who attended the game paid an average of over $6,000 per ticket. Overvalued? “This is no different than a car dealer selling a car that they knew was broken and not disclosing it to the consumer purchasing it,” another person involved in one of these lawsuits, Hart Robinovitch, explained. Yet, if you are one of those unhappy fans, do not get your hopes up. There is a precedent… do you remember the famous ‘Bite Fight’ between Evander Holyfield and Mike Tyson? Many lawsuits were filed after Tyson was disqualified for biting his foe’s ear in the third round. All were seeking refunds for not seeing an actual boxing match and all were dismissed. More of the same in the Pacquiao – Mayweather case? BY: FLORIAN GHEORGHE]]>