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Jamie Foxx Sang the National Anthem at the Mayweather vs. Pacquiao Fight, and People Hated It

This was the real “Fight of the Century”

May 4, 2015 12:12 GMT  ·  By
Feeling it: Jamie Foxx sings the National Anthem at the “Fight of the Century” in Vegas
   Feeling it: Jamie Foxx sings the National Anthem at the “Fight of the Century” in Vegas

When you have the biggest boxing event in the world, aka the “Fight of the Century,” happening, you want to make sure you deliver the best of everything, from the opening live performance of the National Anthem to the star-studded afterparties and gift bags.

For some reason, the organizers of the fight between Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao, which took place over the weekend in Las Vegas, chose Jamie Foxx to sing the National Anthem. The result is shown in the video below, right before some choice samples of the online reactions to it.

Hint: they weren’t good.

Jamie Foxx is a good singer, but this was bad

From the moment Foxx stepped in the ring and the organ began playing, he removed his ear piece, which, according to many media outlets, was a sign of technical issues.

He poured his heart out on the Star-Spangled Banner, which was visible from his facial expressions. Foxx is an experienced singer and he certainly has the pipes to perform the National Anthem; however, he went out of his way to make his rendition excessively dramatic, down to singing Halleluiah at the end.

There was something off about his performance, voices online, especially on social media, agree. Whether he couldn’t hear himself or that organ only got him in trouble instead of helping him perform better, but one thing is certain: Jamie Foxx didn’t rise to the occasion.

This was the biggest sporting event in years, and as such, it saw some of the biggest names in showbiz come out to attend - including singers like Beyonce. It just didn’t seem right to have Foxx butcher the National Anthem like this, voices are saying.

Twitter reacts, rips into Jamie

Again, Jamie Foxx is a good singer, as he’s proved countless times, both live and in the studio. But that doesn’t mean that the Internet is willing to overlook his snafu over the weekend.

As you can see in the second video below, even Jake Gyllenhaal was completely unimpressed with his performance, chatting and laughing throughout the whole thing.

Even less impressed was Twitter, with thousands of commenters rushing to rip into Foxx for the botched number. Some did it with humor, others with bitterness, while a few did it with indifference, but they all did it.

The same voices also said that Foxx should learn his limits and never try to do something for which he is clearly not prepared, as is the case of singing the National Anthem in such a large venue.

Check out his rendition below and the reactions to it, and drop us a line in the comments with your take on it: should Jamie Foxx consider hanging up his microphone and stick to acting from now on, or are these people making too big a deal out of nothing?

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