Don’t follow boxing very often, but you want to know the gist of Saturday’s mega-fight between Floyd Mayweather and Miguel Cotto? Follow boxing all the time, and want one place that rounds up all the links about the junior middleweight showdown you could ever want? This Ultimate Guide to the May 5 pay-per-view bout is for you, no matter what kind you are.
We begin, per usual, with a review of this site’s coverage this week. I examined what was at stake for both Mayweather and Cotto; Alex McClintock previewed the undercard; I broke down the keys to the fight in two installments; Scott Kraus pointed his satirical gaze at the fight; I provided a final preview and prediction; and the entire staff gathered ’round a table and gave their thoughts on the bout.
Nothing gets me pumped up for a big fight more than actually watching each fighter’s Greatest Hits videos, as selected by HBO. They’re below. For what it’s worth, the ones they picked for Cotto are excellent, although I would sub out Kelsey Pinto for Ricardo Torres. The selections for Mayweather’s fights are less impressive, with no mention still of Jose Luis Castillo giving him the toughest fight of his life, among other more meaningful bouts. Thus, for the complete records of both men, visit BoxRec. HBO’s 24/7 catches hell from some hardcore fans for rehashing storylines and formulas, but for the best glimpse of their personalities for people who aren’t familiar with them, it’s still the go-to format. Here is episode #1, but you can catch the final episode tonight on HBO, plus they’ll be re-run all day on HBO Zone Saturday, plus there’s HBO GO for subscribers, etc.
Are you going to the fight live? Good for you, you are a wealthy person! If you are wealthy and haven’t bought tickets yet, you can still get them via legitimate means, because the fight hasn’t sold out. If you want to buy the pay-per-view, your cable or satellite provider is willing to accept your $59.95 or $69.95 for high definition. (The Tecate rebate used to ease the pain some, but apparently Corona is the beer of choice for this fight, and I can find no information about the usual discount offered for purchasing Tecate. Boooooo.) If you’re into the communal thing and want to save a bit more cash, even, you can watch it at select movie theaters for around $20. After you pay all of these amounts for however you prefer to watch it, you can then read about how Mayweather is the best-paid athlete in the United States in salary and prizes, and know that the extra $5 he and he alone charges for PPVs is helping this important cause.
The weigh-in today at 5:45 p.m. ET is going to feature a lot of semi-celebrities saying a lot of corny things and go on way too long. But approximately 1 trillion websites will be streaming it live, and Mayweather tried to choke Victor Ortiz at the last one, and it’ll be interesting to see how big Mayweather looks as he moves up to junior middleweight for just the second time.
If it’s a fight involving Mayweather or Manny Pacquiao, that means the mainstream media cares about boxing for a few days, except The Washington Post, of course. (Some of these pubs, to be fair, cover boxing more than just right before a Pac or May fight.) At The Wall Street Journal, Gordon Marino takes a broad overview of the fight itself. USA Today’s Bob Velin scrutinizes Mayweather’s attitude coming into the bout, as does The New York Daily News’ Tim Smith. ESPN’s Fight Credential consolidates all of the Worldwide Leader’s coverage. Yahoo’s Kevin Iole writes separate features on Mayweather and Cotto. The New York Times’ Greg Bishop focuses on Mayweather’s upcoming jail stint. The Los Angeles Times’ Lance Pugmire looks at Cotto’s chances of victory, even if I can’t find that article on the Times’ website proper.
We leave you with a small gallery of Mayweather and 50 Cent lovin’ on one another. They’re like “The Fox and the Hound,” those two. It’s that adorable. Type “floyd mayweather 50 cent” into Google Images for dozens more. (One wonders if Leonard Ellerbe is getting jealous.)
