By Keith Idec
Something should’ve become very obvious to fight fans worldwide over the past week.
Floyd Mayweather Jr. needs boxing as much as the sport needs him.
Without it in his daily life, Mayweather’s one-year “vacation” has taken dubious detours to the Internet and now Clark County Detention Center in Nevada in just one week. He clearly has too much time on his hands and this seven-day debacle should lead anyone around him with any sense to make Mayweather consider returning to boxing as soon as possible, in any way possible.
This doesn’t necessarily mean Mayweather should try to schedule a fight right away. Truthfully, there aren’t many boxing fans, casual or hardcore, who want to watch the undefeated Mayweather fight anyone other than Manny Pacquiao in his next bout.
With Pacquiao penciled in for a Nov. 13 fight against Antonio Margarito, Mayweather-Pacquiao probably wouldn’t be scheduled for any sooner than May ?, mostly due to financial factors. Mayweather would have an extremely tough time selling an interim fight against another opponent to HBO Sports executives and the paying public, largely because he handled “negotiations” for the Pacquiao showdown in such an obnoxiously odd, misleading manner.
But Mayweather (41-0, 25 KOs) can make constructive use of his idle time while waiting for his Filipino nemesis by contributing in various ways to the sport that has made him ridiculously rich and either famous or infamous, depending on how much or little Mayweather makes your blood boil. He already donates a lot of time and money to various causes in his adopted hometown of Las Vegas and his native Grand Rapids, Mich.
Feeding homeless people and making the wishes of ill children come true obviously are endearing endeavors. But maybe Mayweather could head to gyms in Las Vegas to work with amateurs, the aspiring “Money” men this star-starved sport so desperately needs to develop as the 33-year-old Mayweather and the 31-year-old Pacquiao head toward the end of their physical primes.
Or, if he truly cares as much about the growth and health of the sport as he says, Mayweather might want to try building his self-named promotional company into more than a transparent shell entity that seemingly exists to make Mayweather’s financial life easier, not to develop prospects into bankable boxers. If that doesn’t interest the gifted five-division champion, why not help develop Olympic hopefuls at the U.S. Olympic Boxing Team’s training headquarters in Colorado Springs, Colo.?
If anyone understands the importance of Olympic competition and how it opens doors for future pros, it is Mayweather.
He won a bronze medal at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, where he was the victim of a highly controversial decision defeat to Bulgaria’s Serafim Todorov in the featherweight semifinals. His Olympic experience led to him signing with Top Rank Inc., which, whether Mayweather wants to admit it or not, placed him on the path toward superstardom from 1996-2005.
Besides, it could keep him from the type of self-destructive behavior that over the past week has damaged whatever was left of Mayweather’s half-ruined reputation.
As if his asinine attempt at humor on Ustream.tv last week wasn’t bad enough, Mayweather went above and beyond to attractive negative attention this week. According to the Las Vegas Review Journal, Mayweather was arrested Friday morning and charged with grand larceny, reportedly for taking the cell phone of Josie Harris, Mayweather’s ex-girlfriend and the mother of three of his four children.
Harris also applied for a temporary order of protection against Mayweather, whom she claims punched her in the head, pulled her hair and tried to break her arm after entering her home as she slept. Las Vegas Police Deparment officers escorted Mayweather from Harris’ home at about 3 a.m. PDT on Friday.
This inevitably will become a ‘he said, she said’ situation, but Mayweather could be sentenced to as many as five years in prison for stealing items valued at less than $2,500 from Harris’ home. She reportedly was treated for minor injuries at Southern Hills Hospital and Medical Center and released.
Mayweather, meanwhile, was released from Clark County Detention Center on $3,000 bail.
Harris claims Mayweather’s maniacal behavior stemmed from her relationship with another man. She also said he came to her home sometime last week, presumably around the time he posted that vulgar video in which he made sophomoric Filipino jokes about Pacquiao and called Pacquiao a “faggot.”
Anyone that truly cares for Mayweather must be wondering what’s next, especially if he doesn’t start boxing again until sometime in 2011.
When boxing is the epicenter of Mayweather’s universe, Mayweather mostly conducts himself as a consummate professional. His commendable conduct when his foul-filled fight against Zab Judah was temporarily stopped 4½ years ago comes to mind.
It’s when he isn’t in or around the ring that Mayweather’s family members, friends and fans have every right to grow more worried by the day about his mental well being. He looks lost without boxing, without the adulation of a loyal army of supporters and the motivation provided by perhaps an even larger group of detractors.
We should be resigned to the fact that Mayweather will come back when he feels like it, and not a second sooner. That’ll probably occur around the time he notices that his stacks of cash have dwindled to an unacceptable level.
We also should hope that Mayweather’s trips to his ex-girlfriend’s house don’t land him in jail. Harris’ health and safety are more important issues, but then Mayweather would have a legitimate excuse to avoid answering boxing’s burning pound-for-pound question in the ring.
Those are matters for several months down the road, though. For now, keeping Mayweather from following this pathetic pattern of boorish and now illegal behavior should be extremely important for those close enough to him to genuinely want what’s best for him and his four children.
Bringing boxing back into Mayweather’s life, in whatever way possible, is of utmost importance if he is to restore some normalcy in his personal life. Mayweather obviously needs boxing as much as it needs him.
Keith Idec covers boxing for The Record and Herald News, of Woodland Park, N.J., and BoxingScene.com.
