By Keith Idec

As we prepare to watch five fights this Thanksgiving weekend, it seems like an appropriate time to appreciate some of the combatants in Showtime’s doubleheader and HBO’s tripleheader.

Manny Pacquiao, the humble humanitarian with much more important things on his mind than boxing, and Sergio Martinez, the modest, movie star-looking middleweight champion with the strong social conscience, aren’t the only fighters doing the sport proud both in and out of the ring.

Andre Ward (22-0, 13 KOs), who’ll defend his WBA super middleweight title against Australia’s Sakio Bika (28-4-2, 19 KOs) in Showtime’s main event, is a God-fearing family man who treats his opponents, the residents of his native Oakland, Calif., and seemingly everyone else with respect. Andre Berto (26-0, 21 KOs), the Winter Haven, Fla., fighter who’ll make a mandatory defense of his WBC welterweight title against Mexico’s Freddy Hernandez (29-1, 20 KOs) in HBO’s second bout, has handled a natural disaster in his family’s native Haiti in such an inspiring, philanthropic manner that you hope he makes as much money as possible to aid that cause.

Mexico’s Juan Manuel Marquez (51-5-1, 37 KOs), who’ll square off against Australia’s Michael Katsidis (27-2, 22 KOs) in HBO’s main event, has honored his country and his family by going about his business in the consummately professional way he has throughout his Hall-of-Fame career. And Katsidis is eager to honor the memory of his late brother, Stathi, by beating Marquez just five weeks after Stathi Katsidis died from a drug overdose in Brisbane.

For his sake and his family’s sake, let’s hope Floyd Mayweather Jr. is paying attention to all of them.

To be blunt, Mayweather’s life away from boxing has become a complete mess. While we all selfishly want nothing more than to see him and Pacquiao finally settle the pound-for-pound debate in the ring, maybe Mayweather would be best served by leaving boxing alone for a while, so that someone — a family member, a friend, a professional — can help him find peace in a life that he should be enjoying as a 33-year-old multi-millionaire at the top of his game.

Unfortunately, it’s starting to seem as though a week won’t go by without some sort of Mayweather drama. If he can’t handle the demands of a highly public life he has worked so hard to build now, when his career is at its peak, those that care about Mayweather should be deathly afraid of what will happen when his boxing career is over, when he absolutely, positively won’t know what to do with all his free time.

In that respect, maybe a long, hard training camp for his long-awaited showdown with Pacquiao is just what he needs to stay out of trouble.

The self-inflicted obstacle, of course, is that Mayweather is due in court in January for a prelimary hearing on several felony charges stemming from an alleged assault Sept. 9 on his former girlfriend, Josie Harris, in the Mayweather-owned  Las Vegas home in which Harris lives with their three children. The outcome of that case could make all this Pacquiao-Mayweather drama a moot point.

If Mayweather is headed to jail, which is a very real possibility based on the charges and his criminal history, Pacquiao (52-3-2, 38 KOs) will have to fight Marquez, Berto, Timothy Bradley (26-0, 11 KOs, 1 NC), Devon Alexander (21-0, 13 KOs) or someone else in the spring, anyway.

And even if Mayweather is free to train for a payday probably in excess of $40 million for opposing Pacquiao, Mayweather might deem his legal entanglement too distracting for training. You couldn’t really fault him for feeling that way, as long as he doesn’t try to fight someone other than Pacquiao on HBO’s dime while awaiting his fate.

Either it’s a debilitating distraction or it isn’t. The caliber of opponent shouldn’t matter.

But if Mayweather insists on facing someone not named Manny Pacquiao in the spring, HBO Sports president Ross Greenburg should call his bluff by making Mayweather Promotions stage its own pay-per-view show, the way Top Rank Inc. does business when neither HBO nor Showtime buys the broadcast rights to one of its cards. That way, assuming Showtime wouldn’t get involved, Mayweather would be on the hook financially and would take a real risk by boxing an inferior foe.

That would be the most direct way the paying public could send a message to Mayweather (41-0, 25 KOs) for failing to face Pacquiao. If HBO Sports produces a non-Pacquiao pay-per-view event for Mayweather and a real promotional company, Golden Boy Promotions, does all the marketing and public relations work for him, Mayweather would make fools of everyone involved in the promotion.

Regardless, the shame here is that this simply shouldn’t have happened. Floyd Mayweather Jr. should’ve become the early-21st century’s Ray Leonard. He has the skills, the million-dollar smile and the often-engaging personality to make most fight fans and mainstream American sports fans cheer for him.

As an undefeated, first-ballot Hall-of-Fame fighter from the United States, he should be the face of boxing, not facing jail time.

You’ll still hear Mayweather boast from time to time about being just that, the face of boxing, but that’s a laughable claim at this point. At least publicly, Mayweather has degenerated into a mean-spirited bully, allegedly one that attacks women.

That’s sad because, at heart, Mayweather doesn’t seem like a terrible person. Insecure, immature and obnoxious? Sometimes, sure. But he never came across as a malicious man completely devoid of morality.

If you’d argue he shouldn’t be considered a role model, even if he consistently did the right thing, maybe you’re right. What’s indisputable is that, particularly over these past few months, he has hardly set a commendable example for his children.

Ultimately, that matters much, much more than what occurs in a boxing ring.

While we shouldn’t pretend to know all the facts about the night he allegedly attacked Harris, the alleged Nov. 15 incident in which a security guard claims Mayweather poked him several times in the face outside his home in Las Vegas or how Mayweather allegedly tried to run a former acquaintance/employee, Quincey Williams, off the road earlier this week in Las Vegas, it is fairly obvious that Mayweather needs some help.

His staff of bodyguards and ‘yes’ men are mostly enablers, so we shouldn’t expect them to help him. His uncle/trainer, Roger Mayweather, has his own problems, thus he wouldn’t be much help, either.

But maybe Mayweather’s once-estranged father, the man Mayweather realized a couple years ago he needed back in his life, can assist his son. Or maybe 50 Cent, a close friend and someone Mayweather really respects, can guide him through this tumultuous time in his life.

Curtis Jackson clearly is an intelligent man who has managed to keep himself out of trouble, even in the demanding, often-dangerous world of hip hop, where he has encountered his fair share of enemies. Who knows? Maybe it’ll be an objective professional who’ll help Mayweather stop this self-destructive pattern of immature, irresponsible behavior.

Whomever it is, someone should help him, before it’s too late. Until then, we’re left to wonder why Floyd Mayweather Jr., not Manny Pacquiao,.has become his own worst enemy.

Keith Idec covers boxing for The Record and Herald News, of Woodland Park, NJ., and BoxingScene.com.