PACMAN vs. HITMAN: What? East Meets West?

February 10th, 2009

I don’t know about you guys, but I really don’t like this slogan for the fight. I mean we’re talking about what could possibly be the “Fight Of The Year” here. Two passionate fighters will be going at it along with their emotional fan bases, a hope of a nation for one, and pride of another country.

And what title do we have to live with: East Meets West. I feel like I’ll be watching the NBA All Star games with this. Maybe it’s just me, but personally I think we can do a better job of giving this great fight a name. I really was expecting something with a huge punch of a title, as hard as both of the gentlemen’s punches on May 2nd will be. Very curious, who came up with East meets West slogan. Again, maybe its just me, but I did have a recent article posted last month, “Pacquiao-Hatton” Let’s Get it on! There were a lot of more interesting slogans that 8CN readers came up with.

I felt the energy brewing back then and I feel it stronger now that the fight is on. You and I are going to get it on and talk about this “fight” until FIGHT NIGHT. I am however going to refer to this fight with a different slogan other than East meets West that they came up with. I may defer to you, our readers to give a good smacking title. I may look at the other ideas posted from the talk-smack from my previous post (below).

Ultimately, no matter what you call this fight, this is going to be a good one. And you heard it here first, guranteed, “this fight will not suck” (Cooney). What is at stake for this fight? One, a possible redemption and final opportunity for greatness for the Hitman, and for the PAC, a step closer to boxing immortality. We all know how they both got here, but we need to give this fight a name that it deserves.

In the history of boxing, the greatest fights always had a great title and slogan to match with, here’s some of the more memorable ones:

Thrilla In Manila (Frazier-Ali -3, possibly the greatest fight in history)
The Fight Of The Century (Ali-Frazier 1, or maybe this one is the greatest fight)
Rumble In The Jungle (Ali-Foreman)
Undefeated (Hatton-Mayweather)
The War (Hagler-Hearns)
Fight Of The Mellinium (Trinidad vs. De La Hoya)
Undisputed (Dela Hoya-Hopkins)
The Brawl In Montreal (Leonard-Duran)
The Showdown (Leonard-Hearns)
The Superfight (Hagler-Leonard)
The Battle (Cotto-Margarito)
Dream Match (De La Hoya-Pacquiao)
Back with a vengence (Trinidad-Mayorga)
Bad Blood (De la hoya-Vargas)
The World Awaits (Mayweather-De la Hoya)

Thrilla In Manila, became such an iconic slogan. A lot of movies and art works, writings used it today as a reference, even inspiration. That’s what a good fight can do, and with a good billing, it will stick through time. I’m sure I missed out a lot more in this list, and 8CN readers I’m sure can fill up this list up with more memorable fight billings. Let’s hear it, TALK SMACK.