The Myth and the Reality of Floyd Mayweather Jr

a good article on PBF from Thomas Hauser (BWAA Chairman) The Myth and the Reality of Floyd Mayweather Jr Thomas Hauser Mon 10-May-2010 06:06 In today’s society, Patrick Kehoe observes, “hyperbole tends to replicate itself as an electronic echo, transmitting the desired information as truth logged into infinite memory. Just keep talking, and something aggrandizing will affix to the culture at large.” One might cite Floyd Mayweather Jr in support of that theory. Mayweather is an extremely talented fighter who wants to be superstar famous and mega-rich. His record stands at 41-and-0 with 25 knockouts. In recent years, he and Manny Pacquiao have been vying for the right to be called the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world. Mayweather lives alone in a 23,000-square-foot house in Las Vegas. “When I was growing up,” he says, “seven of us lived in one bedroom. I got a closet now that’s bigger than that bedroom was.” Floyd has never been married and has four children by two different women. A seven-man security detail that conjures up images of PEDs accompanies him at public functions. He takes pride in his appearance and has no tattoos. “I like the way I look without them,” he notes. “And I’m not a follower.” Mayweather is obsessed with money to the point of having changed his sobriquet from “Pretty Boy Floyd” to “Money Mayweather.” When asked to name his heroes, he cites Bill Gates, Steve Wynn, Carlos Slim, Mark Cuban, and Warren Buffet; all hugely successful entrepreneurs. He’s often draped in expensive bling and brags about his winnings at Las Vegas sports books. The probability is that, like most gamblers, he loses more than he wins. Mayweather can be seductively charming. He’s also very much into control. When he says “jump,” the people in his inner circle tend to ask, “How high?” “I call the shots,” Floyd says. “Everything that goes my way isn’t always the right way. I know that. But I like things the way I like them.” Asked for more in the way of self-description, Mayweather offers, “I don’t like to be lied to or disrespected. I ain’t never gonna punch a clock for nobody. I was born to be a winner. I’m happy with my life. I don’t hate on people. Some people say I’m an *******, but I don’t hurt nobody. I got a heart. God must love me, because look where I’m at.” The public feuding within Mayweather’s family has been referred to as boxing’s version of The Jerry Springer Show. The most notable estrangement was between Floyd and his father and lasted for nine years. Floyd Sr fought professionally in the 1970s and ‘80s and later spent five-and-a-half years in prison for cocaine trafficking. During the chill between father and son, Floyd Sr lobbied to train fighters who would be facing Floyd Jr and declared, “Floyd thinks he’s bigger than boxing, and he ain’t. No one is bigger than boxing.” They reconciled in May 2009. Now Floyd Sr says, “My son is bigger than boxing.” Floyd has been trained by his uncle, Roger Mayweather, for most of his pro career. Roger was imprisoned in 2007 for assaulting his son’s maternal grandmother. Last year, he was indicted on charges of battery and coercion. The police report on the latter incident states that Roger punched a woman named Melissa St. Vil in the ribs several times and wrapped his hands around her throat, causing her to nearly pass out. When the police arrived, St. Vil was coughing and spitting up blood. Trial on these charges is scheduled for later this year. Floyd Jr. has had his own issues with women and the criminal justice system. In 2002, he plead guilty to two counts of domestic violence. Two years later, he was found guilty on two counts of misdemeanor battery for assaulting two women in a Las Vegas night club. The other core members of Team Mayweather are Leonard Ellerbe and Al Haymon. Ellerbe is Mayweather’s personal assistant, administrative aide, and business manager. Haymon masterminds Mayweather’s fight contracts. In most sports, a fighter has to beat the best in order to reach the top. Corrupt world sanctioning organizations and HBO’s outsized marketing power have deprived boxing of that legitimacy. (agree with this) Within this environment Mayweather has combined careful matchmaking and a cautious ring style with an attention-grabbing persona and superb boxing skills to build a brand name. Floyd craves celebrity status. He understands what it can do for him financially, not to mention his ego. As Carlo Rotello wrote in the New York Times, “He wants to be bigger than boxing can make him; kind of like what The Joker has in mind in Batman when he says he wants his face on the dollar bill.” Thus, Mayweather has expended considerable time and energy to turn himself into a magnet for media attention and build his profile outside the ring. In 2007, he appeared on Dancing with the Stars. One year later, he faced off against “Big Show” on WrestleMania. Truth and the business of combat sports rarely go hand in hand, so Floyd can be forgiven for boasting that he was paid US$20,000,000 for his wrestling foray. Golden Boy promoter Richard Schaefer puts the number at “about $3,500,000.” Still, that’s a staggering sum for a one-night acting gig. The bulwark of Mayweather’s image-making has been HBO’s TV “reality” series, 24/7. The show has been used to promote eight pay-per-view fights, including Floyd’s outings against Oscar De La Hoya, Ricky Hatton, Juan Manuel Marquez, and Shane Mosley. 24/7has propagated the view that everything Mayweather touches turns to gold and given him a platform to craft his outside-the-ring persona. To some, Floyd symbolizes crass materialism and conspicuous consumption. But as Lou Duva once noted, “Nobody goes into boxing to be loved. You’re in this game to make money.” Mayweather has made money. His 2007 fight against Oscar De La Hoya engendered a record-breaking 2,446,000 buys. Oscar was the driving force behind that promotion. But Floyd’s seven pay-per-view fights have averaged close to one million buys. “What’s this fight going to do for my legacy?” Floyd asked before squaring off against Ricky Hatton two-and-a-half years ago. “I got no fake answer. It’s not going to do nothing for my legacy. I’m fighting because I’m a business man. I’m like Bob Barker. ‘Come on down.’ If the price is right, let’s make it happen.” “People love controversy, and I’m controversial,” Mayweather offers. “If you see Tom Cruise in a movie, that’s not really him. It’s a character he’s playing. Some of what I do in public is me, and some of it is playing a character. You figure out which is which. At the end of the day, it don’t matter whether the media likes me or not. People love me. When I go places, I get a lot of love.” It might be that Mayweather confuses love with the attention he gets for being a celebrity. Either way, love isn’t central to his image. The pillars of his public persona are money and his ring prowess. Mayweather’s skill as a fighter is a matter of record, and he’s boastful when it comes to extolling his place in the sweet science. Among his claims: “I’m the face of boxing . . . I can make anybody look like a nobody . . . When fighters are facing me, they’re facing the best. When I’m facing them, I’m just facing fighters . . . Some fighters do different things good. I do everything great . . . There’s no remedy on how to beat Floyd Mayweather. It’s like a difficult math problem that no one can solve . . . I’m the king of the throne. I do what I want to do . . . All roads in boxing lead to Floyd Mayweather.” Mayweather also maintains, “I’m the reason people don’t watch heavyweights no more. I made the world pay attention to the smaller man in boxing.” That will come as a surprise to Sugar Ray Leonard, Thomas Hearns, and Roberto Duran, whose internecine warfare captivated the world several decades ago. Fans of Manny Pacquiao might also take issue. Then there’s the claim, “I’m the best fighter ever. Muhammad Ali? He lost to Leon Spinks, a guy who had seven pro fights. Sugar Ray Robinson? He didn’t win a championship after just one year like I did.” In truth, Mayweather won his first world title belt after two years, not one. Robinson had to wait six years and fight 75 fights before he was given an opportunity to fight for the championship. In his first 131 fights, Robinson lost once. During that time, he beat Sammy Angott (twice), Fritzie Zivic (twice), Tommy Bell (twice), Kid Gavilan (twice), and Jake LaMotta (five times). As for Ali; he had the toughest inquisitors of any champion ever and won five of six fights against Sonny Liston, George Foreman, and Joe Frazier. His greatness is untouched by what happened when he got old. just a quick note. You will find throughout history even the greatest of fighters avoided (or ducked) other fighters. For example Hauser makes no mention of SRR ducking Charley Burley, a man Eddie Futch (Coach Roach's mentor) said was the best fighter he had ever seen. Also doesn't mention Aaron Pryor's desperation in trying to get a fight with SRL. Also it's arguable Ali lost all 3 fights to Norton and picked up oither decisions he didn't deserve. Dempsey and other white champs of the day didn't fight black fighters, but these fighters fought the best more often than not, because that's the way boxing was in the past. Now any bum can have a belt from the numerous organisations.