There was an obvious and clear-cut winner Saturday night when the Floyd Mayweather-Manny Pacquiao fight ended.
Forget, for the moment, that Mayweather was the winner by unanimous decision of the judges.
Forget, for the moment, that Mayweather made $100 million before his share of the pay-per-view, which could take the total to more than $180 million for 36 minutes of dodging and defense.
Forget, for the moment, that Pacquiao's share could be $139 million, which amounts to billions of dollars in Philippine pesos.
Forget, for the moment, that the pay-per-view price of the fight was way overpriced at $100. Folks who didn't know that Mayweather is a smaller version of Bernard Hopkins, dodging and defense, got what they deserved.
Remember, neither of these fighters are in their prime. This fight should have happened six years ago.
There was, however, one apparent knockout winner -- something called Periscope on Twitter.
Thousands who bought the fight turned their iPhones or iPads at their televisions and then logged on to Twitter's Periscope app, where others who tuned in to the app could pick up their broadcast for free.
Apparently some who watched the fight for free feel they paid about the right price to watch two aging fighters -- Mayweather is 38 and Pacquiao is 36 -- go through the motions on the way to the bank to deposit more money than a lot of countries make in decades.
Days before the fight, when the hype was heating up, Mayweather compared himself to Muhammad Ali as one of the greatest fighters of all time.
Here's a small difference:
Ali was fond of saying, "Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee." And he did.
Even in the "Rumble In The Jungle" fight against George Foreman, when Ali used the ropes so much that his defense was tagged "rope-a-dope," he won by knockout in the eighth round.
Ali fought 56 times and won all but five times, 37 by knockout.
Mayweather floats like a butterfly and stings like a butterfly. Of his 48 professional fights, 26 were by knockout with the last coming in 2011.
Whatever, it has worked. It was reported going into Saturday night's fight that his net worth was $380 million. It would be especially difficult for anyone to end up broke if they have a net worth of more than $500 million, if you include Saturday's payday minus a huge chunk of taxes.
Much of Saturday's fight was Pacquiao chasing Mayweather around the ring, but that was expected by those who have ever watched Mayweather.
Mayweather and Hopkins are Hall of Famers, enduring figures in a brutal sport, but they've done it mostly without intimidating (although Hopkins did scare the dickens out of yours truly before a workout when he got in my face and said smart bettors were betting on him).
Neither is in the class of the "Best Ever."
That is reserved for a couple of Sugar Rays, Robinson and Leonard; Ali; Joe Louis; and even Jack Johnson, who went 77-13-14.
The list goes on and on.
Any top 10 can be subjective, and a case can made for many, but they all had one thing in common: They were mostly good for the sport of boxing.
Boxing doesn't have any heroes now.
Boxing has smart guys who want to make all they can while they can, and while that's easy to understand, it isn't what boxing needs.
It needs an American heavyweight champion with charisma. It needs a middleweight champion who also champions a cause.
Boxing is slipping in popularity, and maybe it is Periscope to the rescue.
Sports on 05/05/2015