Will Floyd Mayweather ever fight Manny Pacquiao?

Whether it is the fact that Mayweather is facing a 90-day jail sentence on June 1, or that boxing is feeling pressured by the emergence of Mixed Martial Arts on FOX and FX, Mayweather has taken this “dream fight” into his own hands.

When Mayweather’s jail sentence was pushed back to June, Mayweather began calling out Pacquiao by tweeting, “Manny Pacquiao I’m calling you out let’s fight May 5th and give the world what they want to see.”

A fight that almost did not get scheduled, picked up steam when Pacquiao said there is no one he would rather fight than Mayweather, and Mayweather picked up the phone and called Pacquiao last week.

The fact that Mayweather is taking the initiative to make the fight happen might surprise many, because of the general consensus that Mayweather is scared to fight Pacquiao. Mass communication professor Lloyd Chiasson shares that same opinion.

“I think he’d be 42-1 if he fought Pacquiao,” Chiasson said.

General studies senior from Houma and tailback on the football team Jesse Turner disagrees.

“I think it would be a great fight,” Turner said. “Everybody says Mayweather is scared of Pacquiao, but I disagree with that. When it comes down to it, Mayweather would probably knock him out in the first or second round. Mayweather is the best pound-for-pound fighter I’ve ever seen.”

Though the possibility of this mega-fight taking place has risen in the past couple of weeks, the fight is still in danger of not happening because Pacquiao wants to split a 50/50 purse and Mayweather will not have it.

Now with talks of a rematch between Pacquiao and Miguel Cotto taking form, the potential PPV blockbuster might get put on hold once again. And with the Ultimate Fighting Championship landing a seven-year deal with Fox, boxing’s popularity is starting to suffer.

Out of 25 random Nicholls students, 68 percent of them said they would prefer MMA over boxing, while 20 percent said they would prefer boxing and 12 percent said neither.

“It’s just so much action,” physical therapy sophomore Joel Piccolo from New Orleans, said. “Boxing is like old school, and the new generation loves MMA better than boxing. I don’t think boxing will completely die out, but it’ll definitely lose popularity.”

While one New Orleans native, Piccolo, might prefer MMA, another New Orleans native, mass communication senior Gerard Gruenig, prefers boxing.

“I’d rather watch boxing because it’s classic. It’s been done the same way for so long and also I took a sports literature class and I’ve been keeping my eye on it,” Gruenig said.

As for Chiasson, he seems torn on the issue.

“That’s hard to answer,” Chiasson said. “I’d like to see boxing get more legit, get the criminal element out of it and return to what it was in its hey day, but I think this new kind of fighting is really popular. I tend to watch it more quickly than I would a regular boxing match, so I guess I have to say I like what I’m seeing. This is true fighting in the sense that every part of your body can be used.”

However, the majority of those students did say they would tune in to watch Mayweather and Pacquiao fight even if they preferred MMA.

Even if students do not watch it, it is up to Mayweather and Pacquiao to get a deal done. With Mayweather turning 35 next month, the window for this fight to happen and still be relevant is closing rather quickly.

Boxing’s PPV struggles continue to increase, and it is becoming more and more clear to the public. UFC’s PPV numbers matched PPV titan World Wrestling Entertainment in 2006 and has since passed HBO to become the new PPV king.

So does this fight between Mayweather and Pacquiao have to happen?

“I don’t think it has to happen,” Chiasson said. “We may be seeing the beginning of the end with boxing, however everybody said radio would die when television came along.”