What I (Greg Michaels) Learned About Sports Bars + Boxing

Last night, for the first time in years I went out with the guys to a bar. I never do it mostly because of logistics, because I don't see my family a lot during the week and like being home if I'm drinking because it's safer.

A friend of mine, a few of his family members and I went to Buffalo Wild Wings to watch the Floyd Mayweather-Manny Pacquiao fight. It really was a fun night; I had a couple beers early, a basket of BBQ boneless wings and overall spent about $40 including the $15 cover charge. That was well worth it. As for $100 for the pay-per-view at home, no, that would have been a complete waste of money.

I wanted to watch this fight mostly because of the hype. I wasn't a boxing fan at heart going into the night and knew very little about the sport last night at 7 p.m. when I showed up at the bar.

Here is what I learned about boxing, it in many ways seems like NASCAR or in some ways like basketball where the opponents if somewhat evenly matched just go "all in" for the knockout or finish in the last round or two or like in the case of a race, the last few laps. It's a sport with calculation and strategy. At least more so than I thought originally.

Am I a bigger fan of boxing than before?  Maybe slightly, the fight was at times pretty intense to watch for such an anticipated match.

As I mentioned, the last time I went out with friends to a bar was years ago and thinking about it further, it was almost 20 years ago.  This was probably the first time I spent the late evening at a sports bar without working a broadcast.

The best part of the night was when HBO-PPV went to a live shot to do an interview with Tom Brady and the place erupted with applause and shouts of joy. It happened twice. Nothing gets a New England crowd going like unexpected video of the Patriots quarterback. No one could hear what Brady had to say as the place was way too loud.

The crowd at Buffalo Wild Wings certainly was cheering for Pacquiao over Mayweather but it wasn't to be. In the end after a full 12 rounds, Mayweather won by a unanimous decision and now stands at 48-0 in his career.

For more details on the fight, like payouts, round wins and over all statistics, click here.