The next great rivalry in sports?

I did not pay $99 for Floyd Mayweather vs. Manny Pacquiao and wouldn’t pay 99 cents for Mayweather-Pacquiao II. I would, however, pay good money — well, I don’t know about “good money,” but certainly “some money” — to see Magnus Carlsen vs. Fabiano Caruana.

Chess, baby!

(Chess was my best sport as a kid, but then I was told it was not a sport. Then poker became my best sport, but again I was informed it was not a sport. So now I’ve settled on RACKO, which is a sport every day and twice on Sunday. Back off, haters.)

I’m biased here — I always have believed there should be more billiards and bowling on TV, and, well, chess deserves camera time, too. All three are cheap to produce and all three are easy to watch. Frankly, you don’t need a single replay in any of these pursuits, unless you are obsessed with seeing “knight to d5” in slow motion.

Alas, here is the thing I learned about chess by the time I was a teenager: Everyone better than me, I was never going to beat. It’s that simple; this makes chess a tough, long-term pursuit. I knew that if I chose the Caro-Kann Defense and my superior-skilled opponent countered with the Advance Variation, my bishops would be in a body bag by dusk.

To be honest, the entire chess world can be divided into three broad classes:

•  Schlubs such as myself.

•  Really good players.

•  Grandmasters.

Schlubs never beat really good players, and really good players never beat grandmasters.

But what fascinates some of us is when grandmasters — geniuses of their generation — clash. So Bobby Fischer-Boris Spassky (the 1972 “Match of the Century”) or Carlsen-Caruana is like Alexander Hamilton dueling Aaron Burr to the death, except with pawns instead of pistols.

In the case of Carlsen and Caruana, they have contrasting playing styles. I don’t want to bore non-chess aficionados, but it’s sort of the difference between Tony Bennett and Bon Jovi.

Anyhow, Carlsen-Caruana could be the next great rivalry, this era’s Ali-Frazier, Bird-Magic, Borg-McEnroe.

Carlsen, a 24-year-old Norwegian, is the reigning world chess champion. Caruana, 22, is the No. 2-ranked player in the world.