Feb. 23--Floyd Mayweather confirmed on Friday that his highly anticipated fight with rival Manny Pacquiao is finally happening -- albeit a couple years too late. Mayweather and Pacquiao were in their early 30s when the fight was first schedule for 2010 but are now 37 and 36, respectively. And because Pacquiao lost twice in 2012, the match no longer has the same shine and significance it once had. Will we still watch on May 2? Of course. The bout is expected to break all kinds of records. But these are two fighters who are well past their prime. And like the pop culture events listed below, you can't help but wonder what could have been had it taken place sooner.
"Dumb and Dumber To"
A sequel to the classic 1994 comedy, "Dumb and Dumber," would have made sense in the 90s when Jim Carrey and the Farrelly brothers were red hot. Instead, the sequel was released a whopping 20 years later, mostly due to Carrey. He and co-star Jeff Daniels tried to pull off the same low brow humor in the same goofy wigs from the original, the difference was the actors were now in their 50s and the jokes just weren't funny. The sequel was far from a bomb, but it didn't perform nearly as well as the original at the world wide box office and was hammered by critics. I don't think TNT and TBS will replay this movie to death like it does the original.
Guns N' Roses' "Chinese Democracy"
This album had been delayed so many times, it became a running joke. Dr Pepper ran a promotion in 2008 offering a free can of soda to everyone in the U.S. if Guns N' Roses singer Axl Rose -- the lone original member left in the group -- finally released "his 17-year-in-the-making belabored masterpiece" that year. Rose and the replacement bandmates came through and released "Chinese Democracy" in 2008 and the album was...fine, I guess. Rolling Stone named it No. 12 on its best albums of 2008 list. The album sold well overseas but underperformed domestically, dropping to No. 18 on the Billboard 200 chart in just its second week. Can you name a song on the album? Neither can I.
Shaq's and Kobe's truce
Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant appeared destined to dominate the NBA together in the oughts. The Los Angeles Lakers stars led their team to the NBA Finals four times in five years and won three titles together, but the two despised each other so much that O'Neal was traded to the Miami Heat in 2004. O'Neal and Bryant barely acknowledged each other after that until O'Neal decided to bury the hatchet prior to a Heat-Lakers game in 2006 because NBA legend Bill Russell advised him to do so. Both men did well without each other (O'Neal won a title with the Heat, Bryant won two more with the Lakers). Still, it's scary to think of what they could have achieved had they been able to reconcile while O'Neal was on the Lakers.
"The Expendables"
Imagine if the NBA superstars from the 1992 Dream Team came out of retirement to suit up for the US in the 2016 Summer Olympics. "The Expendables" franchise is kind of like that. The series features some of the biggest action heroes from the 80s and 90s (Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bruce Willis, Jean-Claude Van Damme) now in their 50s and 60s. If Liam Neeson has taught us anything, it's that you're never too old to be an action hero -- oh, and his family is not to be trifled with. But c'mon, this franchise should have been released in the 90s, when stupidity and over the top sequences came naturally in action movies and wasn't so forced and self aware. Instead, the "Expendables" franchise, sometimes referred to as "geezers with guns," launched in 2010 and felt almost like a 90s action movie spoof. These guys deserve better than that. On the other hand, the first movie made a killing at the box office and spawned two sequels with another on the way, so what do I know?
Eddie Murphy's return to "SNL"
The most anticipated moment of the "Saturday Night Live" 40th anniversary special ended up being the most disappointing. Murphy -- who stayed away from "SNL" for more than 30 years, mostly due to a joke David Spade made about his career on the show -- finally returned to Studio 8H and spoke on camera for less than a minute, barely cracking a joke. Maybe we shouldn't have been surprised. This isn't the same Murphy we grew up with. This Murphy is not here to entertain you. He's more cautious and reclusive than he used to be and now prefers to star in family friendly movies. To each their own. Selfishly though, we always hoped that when Murphy did finally make his triumphant return to "SNL," we'd see flashes of that edge that made him a star. It appears that window closed years ago.
Sting's WWE debut
WCW's biggest stars jumped ship to WWE within a couple years of WWE buying WCW in 2001 -- except for Sting. The six-time WCW World Heavyweight Champion instead spent over a decade in TNA, telling the UK's Daily Star, "Something in me never trusted what would happen (in WWE), based entirely on the track record with other WCW guys..." This meant we were getting Sting v. Jeff Jarrett in TNA when we really wanted Sting v. Shawn Michaels or Sting v. The Undertaker in WWE. Finally, a 55-year-old Sting appeared on WWE's Survivor Series pay per view last November to set up a match with Triple H at Wrestlemania. The problem is Sting isn't the wrestler he used to be and WWE's roster doesn't include as many big name potential opponents for Sting as it used to. Imagine how his career would have played out had he joined WWE during the star-studded Attitude Era.
Ronaldo's arrival in America
There was a time when the average American sports fan could only name one or two soccer players, one of which was Brazilian striker Ronaldo. Because of his drawing power, the three-time FIFA World Player of the Year seemed destined to join the list of stars who finished their careers in MLS. "(W)ithout a doubt, the American market is one of my goals for the future," Ronaldo said in 2006, according to the AP. There were reports of a contract offer from the New York Red Bulls that same year, but Ronaldo opted to play in Italy the next year and then Brazil not long after that before retiring in 2011. In January, Ronaldo became a part-owner of the North American Soccer League's Fort Lauderdale Strikers and, despite being 38 and retired, has said he is open to suiting up for the team later in the season for a couple games. When Americans were clamoring for Ronaldo back in the day, this wasn't what we had in mind.
