( CNN ) This weekend , millions of people are expected to tune in to watch two men beat each other up . Why is this ? We 'll explore , but first let 's get something out of the way : The big fight between Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather wo n't `` save '' boxing , a sport that has fallen precipitously since its 20th century heyday . If anything , the so-called `` Fight of the Century '' just reinforces the sport 's problems , as two aging heroes collide in what might be the last nationally relevant fight for a very long time . There 's so much wrong with boxing 's business model , but all you really need to understand is this : Most sports fans probably ca n't name a single active boxer after Mayweather and Pacquiao . Some might know that the long-reigning heavyweight champ is a towering Ukrainian with a boring jab-happy style , but most would n't come up with his name ( Wladimir Klitschko ) . Boxing is n't fading away because we 've finally awoken to its brutality but from a combination of catastrophic mismanagement and competition from Mixed Martial Arts -- a younger , more dynamic and better-managed competitor . The rocket rise of MMA 's premier organization , the Ultimate Fighting Championship , has matched boxing 's equally dramatic decline . In the course of just two decades , the UFC has grown from a freaky-violent carny sideshow into a mainstream sport . In fact , the fan base of the UFC now rivals that of the world 's most popular fighting sport : ice hockey . Some aficionados spin elaborate defenses of the hundreds of fist fights that break out every year in NHL games , claiming they make the game safer by punishing dirty play . But that 's so weak . Everyone knows why the NHL has n't cracked down on fighting hard enough to end it : fans love it way too much . As the hockey announcer Don Cherry once said , `` When [ legendary tough guy ] Bob Probert was fighting , did you ever see anyone get out of their seat and go get coffee . '' But why do we like to watch fights in the first place ? Over the past 20 years , I 've watched boxing and MMA in a spirit of nervous fascination . Watching fighters kick , punch and strangle each other , I 'd be thinking , I 'm a civilized person . I appear not to be a sociopath . So why am I watching ? What 's wrong with me ? And what 's wrong with all of us ? Who among us has n't felt the giddy , guilty thrill of a fistfight breaking out -- whether in a schoolyard , a hockey rink or a prize ring ? We all claim to hate violence , but I think we protest too much . Inside us all , there 's a creature that adores it . How else are we to explain our yen for carnage in rough sports , films , gory video games and literature ? So is that it ? Are we drawn to a big fight like Mayweather-Pacquiao simply by bloodlust and barbarism ? Actually , I think that 's only part of the story , and not the biggest part . If we just wanted blood and pain , we would n't bother with the tame violence of pay-per-view fisticuffs . Instead , we 'd fire up a web browser and watch ISIS snuff videos for free . But many people who feel no temptation to watch Internet snuff feel sorely tempted to watch a big fight . What 's going on ? There 's a great literature on boxing , with contributions from writers such as Ernest Hemingway , Norman Mailer and Joyce Carol Oates . For them , boxing is n't really a sport . You ca n't play boxing like you can play tennis . They compared boxing to a rite , or a religion , or above all to theater , complete with spotlit performers improvising on an elevated stage . A fight was drama sweated down to the bones -- a metaphor for the whole human condition , with everything noble and ugly on display . While it may seem like a stretch , I think we are drawn to prizefights less to revel in what 's dark and nasty in human nature than to honor what 's good and noble . Prizefights set up conditions of dramatic adversity that evoke what we admire most in human beings : extremes of courage , grace , fortitude and even heroism . So should we feel virtuous as we watch Mayweather and Pacquiao 's epic brain damage contest ? I would n't go that far . Perhaps such spectacles really should , as most of the world 's medical societies insist , be abolished . Most of us feel ambivalent toward prizefighting because we should . A fight puts the darkest stuff in human nature on display : the bared fangs , the blood , the frenetic drive to do harm . But all that dark stuff draws out the best stuff , and turns a great fight into a showcase for the indomitability of human will . When Mayweather and Pacquiao clash at center ring on Saturday night , the good angels of human nature will yearn to turn away -- and to lean in .
Jonathan Gottschall : Millions to tune in to see Mayweather-Pacquiao fight , but this does n't show resurgence of declining sport of boxing . Comment: He says a fight is metaphor for the whole human condition , with everything noble and ugly on display .