Mexicans are baffled that the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight opened with Mexico’s national anthem
Julio Lopez sang Mexico's national anthem before Sunday's boxing fight between Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao.
MEXICO CITY — As the world braced to watch what was billed as the boxing fight of the century between Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather, a curious national anthem filled the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
The first song up was neither the "Lupang Hinirang" of Pacquiao’s Philippines nor the "Star Spangled Banner" of home fighter Mayweather.
It was “Mexicans, at the cry of war.”
Mexicans are normally swift to stand and salute their national anthem. But in a crowded Mexico City bar showing the fight, viewers stood bemused. Many here fired off puzzled tweets, making the issue into a top 10 trending topic.
“A gringo and a Filipino are going to fight, so it's pure logic they play the Mexican national anthem — boxing logic,” one tweeter wrote.
On-air commentators were also baffled.
“Why did they play the Mexican anthem?” asked news anchor Ciro Gomez Leyva, on his Monday morning radio news show.
“I don’t really understand,” replied his boxing specialist. “It might be because it is close to the Cinco de Mayo holiday.”
In fact, the MGM master of ceremonies said it was to celebrate the upcoming Cinco de Mayo holiday, although that wasn’t shown on most Mexican coverage.
The fight was actually a whole three days before the annual May 5 fiesta, which is celebrated more fervently by Mexican-Americans than Mexicans here.
The confusion sparked jokes and rumors on the webosphere. The spoof news site The Adobo Chronicles said Mayweather is a dual Mexican-US citizen and had insisted on both anthems.
Nice try. Mayweather was born in Michigan, the son of another American boxing legend. Although, he did once don a sombrero for a fight against Mexican-American Oscar De La Hoya. Hmmm.
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Another sports writer claimed it was a nod to Mexican TV fans — who could watch the fight for free, unlike Americans who paid $99 to see it on the small screen. Yet that doesn’t explain why viewers of a hundred other nations watching it didn’t get a special song.
It might be all about the money.
Tecate, a Mexican beer owned by Heineken, spent $5.6 million sponsoring the bout and getting its logo on the ring floor, Bloomberg Business reported. Maybe the anthem was thrown in as an extra.
However unexpected it was, crooner Julio Lopez sung Mexico’s verse well. For many Mexicans, it probably sounded even better than these renditions of the American and Filipino anthems that followed.