Mexicans Baffled That the Mayweather-Pacquiao Fight Opened with Mexico's National Anthem Ioan Grillo - GlobalPost
go to original May 6, 2015

Mexico national anthem sung by Julio López (IvanovicSports)

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.

...One 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.

Read the rest at GlobalPost

Photo: Jamie Squire/Getty Images

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