Major sports take the back seat for a day

National Football League.

National Basketball Association.

Major League Baseball.

National Association for Stock Car Automobile Racing.

National Hockey League.

Not today.

Sure, the NBA had an exciting Game 7 between the Rockets and the Jazz which I'll cover in another post. They also got their 1st 2nd round series under way, as the Pistons easily handled the Bulls at home. But the nation wasn't really watching.

Yeah, the NHL had a few cruicial Game 5s . One sent the New Jersey Devils home packing, and the other gave the Red Wings a key 3 - 2 series lead over the Sharks. Even less people were watching then usual.

Baseball had a whole day's worth of action, but they aren't even in the playoffs. They stood no chance.

Today, it was all about horses and boxers.

The Kentucky Derby, the greatest tradition in horse racing and step one towards winning the elusive Triple Crown, was the main focal point of the afternoon.

One of the race's favorites, Street Sense, did not disappoint, racing all the way from the 19th position to beat out the rest of the pack and win it all. It was an exciting race, especially due to the race Hard Spun ran. I picked Hard Spun before the race to do some damage, and very early on in the race, he jumped out to an early lead. Front runners almost always fade, especially in a race of this magnitude; but not Hard Spun. He got such good separation from the rest of the pack and somehow kept his pace that it actually looked like he had a shot to win right down to the wire; it took a great effort by Street Sense to beat him. Horse racing really is an incredible sport, and it is ashame that it had to take the undercard today to the big fight.

I picked Mayweather, but I never got around to blogging about it; which is probably good, because judging how the rest of my predictions went today, I probably would have made him lose. You can't ever count De La Hoya out of any fight; his good looks sometimes distract people from how excellent of a boxer he is. And he has fought any and all comers; and those who have beaten him have certainly had their hands full while doing so. He's got heart, smarts, and a world of talent; but Floyd Mayweather really is THAT good.

He doesn't box spectacularly; he doesn't need to. With technique, speed, defense, and patience, he can outwill and outlast any boxer he faces. Neither boxer got knocked down, and De La Hoya fans (and somewhat ridiculously Judge Tom Kaczmarek) obviously wanted to believe De La Hoya won the fight, but look no further than the stats; Mayweather landed more punches while throwing over 100 less (207 of 481 to De La Hoya's 122 of 587), and landed more power punches (138) then De La Hoya landed punches all together (he had 82 registered power punches).

Love him or hate him, Mayweather is damn good. I love him. I love that he embraces the villain reputation. Everyone hates Barry Bonds, but Barry doesn't go around ripping his opponents to shreds verbally. Barry doesn't talk about how Hank Aaron is old and week and how he's going to snatch that old man's record from his hands. Barry is a villain because of his actions. Mayweather is a villain because he can be. What better picture to use as the first image to grace the Dime;
The man came out wearing the colors of the Mexican flag and a huge sombrero. Are you kidding me? He loves every minute of it; and he can back it up, too. He's a perfect character for the sport of boxing; and if it could be saved, he'd have something to do with it.

But after tonight, I'm beginning to think it can't be. As much as people were hyped for this fight, plenty of people I talked to weren't going to get to see it; they weren't going to order it for $55, and they didn't have any friends willing to, either. The fact that they have to charge for the larger fights; because boxing doesn't gross enough to survive without pay-per-view; absolutely kills any chance that it can raise in popularity.

On top of that, the amount of time off a boxer needs to prepare for his next fight is also a buzz-kill of sorts for the sport. It can't really be avoided, but lets say a ton of people got pumped up for this fight, and are now either huge Mayweather fans OR they can't wait to see him get beat. How long do they have to wait until his next fight? And unlike De La Hoya, his next fight likely won't be nearly as big or exciting of a name. So after this fight, the one that would supposedly "save boxing", one of the stars is facing retirement, and the other is facing a year or more off before we get to see him in the ring again; against someone who isn't as fun to watch as De La Hoya was.

The last reason boxing is beyond saving? The heavyweight division. Greats of the sport come in all shapes and sizes and are of all weight classes, no one is denying that. But heavyweight boxing really is boxing at its best; the biggest, the strongest, and the simple fact that one punch can always end it. Lennox Lewis was great, but he had no one to fight. Nowadays...

World Champion Wladimir Klitschko, Ray Austin, Samuel Peter, Lamon Brewster, and Chris Byrd are the top 5 ranked heavyweights.

Who, who, who, who, and who?

I'm exaggerating slightly; I knew who Klitschko was before I looked it up. But the point remains, not only does boxing need some great talent/character combos like Mayweather (and by character I don't mean great guy, I mean like personality), but it needs lots of them. And they need to fight each other and create some exciting rivalries. How do you take a sport that no one cares about with a bunch of guys you can't market and make it into the great sport it once was?

If you find out, give the NHL a call too. Thanks.