To This Day I Still Can't Believe What Floyd Mayweather Accomplished

Before I start this post, which will no doubt be very long, detailed and boring to some - If I see some fanboys calling other people retards for discussing boxing on a serious level, they'll get blocked instantly. It's not the point of this post; even though I like a good troll myself every once while. Also, everyone here knows that I am not a particular fan of Mayweahter. I respect him and see him as one of boxing's greatest ever fighters (somewhere in the top 30), but I do find his style incredibly boring. Now, I was thinking about him - and I still can't believe what this guy accomplished in his career. Every part of boxing history tells me this guy is a MASSIVE over-achiever. Incredible over-achiever. Everything through hundreds of years of boxing history, tells us that Floyd should never have been a popular guy in boxing. At least not to the extent he was. Looking through memory lane, we can understand how you need to be at least one of three things to be a star in America, but preferably all three: Be a heavyweight Be a knockout puncher Be an exciting personality Floyd Mayweather is neither of these. He's flashy yes. But it's repetitive. It's not exciting to watch him talk about how rich he is or how many cars he has - Actually it's rather tedious and predictable. I personally found it way more exciting when he was clowning ODLH for wearing dresses or Marquez for drinking home-made tea. But this was weirdly (to me) before he was a big big star - Before he could hold a 1million PPVs on his own. Let's look at some facts: Floyd talks a lot of smack but doesn't actually deliver When I say this, I don't mean it in the sense that he's not winning or technically brilliant, he is. One of the best. But he talks about kicking ass and "I'm going to F you up" and stuff like that. Yet goes in the ring and... doesn't even remotely come close to that. He's a points guy. Every. Single. Time. Now there's no problem with that - It's fine for us hardcore boxing fans in small doses. My surprise is that the casual boxing fan still buys it. When is the last time the casual boxing fan came out and said "Wow, that was a great fight!" Maybe at a stretch the Maidana fight? But was it really because it was exciting, or was it just because it was exciting for Floyd's very low standards? What really surprises me is that the casual fan - and this is a key point here as these are the guys who buy the PPVs at large - even after being disappointed time after time, still bought the PPVs the next time. Was it just because of the anticipation of Mayweather vs Pacquiao happening down the line? I'll be honest with you - May 5th, 2015 I was on a beach in Malaysia called 'the perhentians', and by this time I didn't even care about the fight. I didn't watch it live and only saw the result on boxingscene the next day on my phone and thought "Thank God I didn't waste my time AGAIN". I'm thinking of Roy Jones Jr. I was lucky enough to grow up watching this guy in my teen years, and I thought this guy was superman with boxing gloves on. He had two of the of important ingredients mentioned above to be a popular fighter: power and personality. He was smart, inventive and actually KICKED ASS. But he never made it close to being a PPV star - He was actually a regular guy on HBO doing good numbers sure, but he wasn't a STAR. Of course we had the 90s heavyweight era in that time, so I guess people were less hungry for a light heavyweight with a big mouth when you have Mike Tyson. I feel Floyd's level of commercial value was pretty accurate when he fought Judah and Gatti. The sort of Crawford level of today. Everything in boxing history tells me that's where he should have peaked - in terms of numbers. But he mastered the game, and you have to take your hat off to that level of hustle. But I'll never understand how he did it.

Comments (20)

Yeah I get that man and I agree with the majority of it. I just don’t agree with you saying he didn’t have an exciting personality. I personally find the whole braggadocious personality quite tedious at times myself but there’s no doubt many people find it interesting for both positive and negative reasons. I guess that's subjective. I just don't think it was something people particularly felt like was exciting. I'm talking post Mosley - where he made most of his money. Just very repetitive and also he was fighting a lot of guys who barely spoke english like Cotto, Maidana, Canelo etc. Hard to talk trash to these guys I suppose.

7y ago

RJJ9402GOAT

No no I totally understand what he's done. What I don't understand is how fans kept buying into it. He created a persona, yes. But he didn't knock anyone out, he wasn't a particularly articulate guy or someone people naturally gravitated towards i.e. say a Muhammad Ali or Conor McGregor. And finally, he wasn't a handsome guy like Oscar either. And he wasn't a heavyweight. I haven't seen anyone else in the history of boxing who became such a star without any of the attributes mentioned. Yeah I get that man and I agree with the majority of it. I just don’t agree with you saying he didn’t have an exciting personality. I personally find the whole braggadocious personality quite tedious at times myself but there’s no doubt many people find it interesting for both positive and negative reasons.

7y ago

Real_King_Kong

Beating a healthy prime lineal champ in sexy Sergio would have made him #1 atg I don't think he would have gotten a prime sergio tho...he woulda most likely gotten the leftover scraps like cotto did. Floyd was probably kicking himself after watching cotto cruise to an easy victory.

7y ago

Johnwoo8686

Floyd became a star because he was both talented and controversial. We live in a society where people who have no discernible talent or skill can become famous and gain millions of followers on social media just by being controversial. Controversy sells in our society. But Talent also sells. Floyd had both qualities needed to become a superstar. He had raw talent and a controversial personality, two things that help people become famous today and he combined them both into one package. He was politically incorrect at a time when political correctness was a it's peak. Saying things like "I'm better than Muhammad Ali" was seen as almost sacrilegious because of the way Ali had become deified in boxing. But Floyd went out and proved himself over and over again in boxing while hyping himself up to an almost absurd level. He brought in supporters who wanted to see him continue succeeding and haters who wanted to see him humbled and those two clashing audiences buying his pay per views is what made him the star he became today.

7y ago

there is no way laced up gets laid.

7y ago

El_Gitano

7y ago

MrRolltide91

I think all the stars just aligned at the perfect time. By 2007 he was established to hardcores and the P4P #1 but unknown to casuals. Oscar fight came at the perfect time, perfect combination for a super fight, beloved fan favourite vs the undefeated, brash, ****y P4P #1. Him winning shot him to stardom because people wanted to see him lose even more. But on the other hand he was slowly building a core fanbase. Then came Hatton which was a big fight, same kind of combination as the Oscar fight (lesser scale) The next stage was the Pacquaio rivlary, that helped both build their star power. By 2011/12, Floyd's now a household name, with a core fanbase and ALOT of people who are dying to see him lose. As long has he stayed undefeated and had his "unbeatable" charactef and playing the character of a prick he was going to sell PPV's. It's a total one off. Can't see someone with the fighting style and charisma of Floyd doing this again. This......

7y ago

Chuckguy

Not sure he needed to do any more...but he did miss an opportunity to be lineal mw champion, which would have significantly added to his legacy. Beating a healthy prime lineal champ in sexy Sergio would have made him #1 atg

7y ago

Kuyukut

fraud jr's career was carefully scripted by the people around him. If he took the same road as most of the atg's went through it would be hard for fraud jr to reach even the status attained by broner.

7y ago

Chuckguy

I'm not referring to his in-ring accomplishments as clearly stated in the post. Your post was too long to read bro sorry my add kicks in/ s far as marketing himself he was a genius. I’ve said it several times on here that I have had the pleasure to hang with Floyd and he is nothing like he comes across when the cameras are on. He is chill respectful and a fun dude but once the cameras are on it changes lol. He himself told me it’s all a show and it worked brilliant for him so props to him for embracing the villain role and making a sh it load of money in doing so

7y ago

Luilun

Mayweather is lucky he had Al haymon to guide him with out Al Haymon he would have been stuck with Bob Arum and would have had to fight Margarito and others in their Prime He probably you have had to fight the 2009 Pacquaio who was using steroids which would have resulted in a loss. He would have had to fight Madaina in those punchers gloves and he would have been knock out . So he had luck in his corner

7y ago

Real_King_Kong

Could been a 6 weight champ. Should have tried to beat Sergio martinez. Coulda done more. Not sure he needed to do any more...but he did miss an opportunity to be lineal mw champion, which would have significantly added to his legacy.

7y ago

Graz

True. All true. But name one other fighter in history with that kind of style (non-puncher, technical, not a heavyweight) who sold that much? Exactly how you described his style is why I find it so surprising that people kept buying the PPVs. I can’t really think of another fighter with his marketing skills. He even had people buying into his UFC fighting debut. Floyd was kind of like a train wreck, just couldn’t look away. :)

7y ago

LockardTheGOAT

Floyd's success isn't a surprise; He was apparently just that thoroughly dislikeable that he was able to break all kinds of PPV records by making people want to see him lose. I am surprised the Pacquiao and McGregor fights did as many as 4M+ buys, that's kind of insane; But otherwise...

7y ago

DrCool

He did it by fighting the best wiling to fight him. Every fight for a decade. After ODLH, fighters knew they would make the most money by far, by fighting Floyd. So almost all the top guys would fight him. And he would always fight the best. RJJ didn't do that. That is why he was never a ppv star. Sure, he fought a few top guys, but for the most part, once he became champ at lhw, he didn't take many chances. Floyd might not have took many chances in the ring, but he did with his opponents. Also, Floyd that fought Gatti and Judah was well above Crawford in terms of money and fan interest. Both those fights did 350k ppv buys. Bud had one ppv that did less than 50k buys. Floyd became a star by kicking ass at lower weights. He was very exciting to watch. When he fought Corrales, Corrales was actually ranked higher than Floyd in p4p. He was a ko machine. And Floyd floored him five times and won by ko. He was always small for a ww, but that is where the money was. After ODLH he was a bonafide ppv star. He maintained it a few ways. During hi retirement post Hatton he was in WWE and on Daning with the Stars. And he fought #3 p4p JMM, who Pac refused to rematch, in his first fight back. And after that he continually fought the best willing to fight him. His level of opposition was and continues to be unmatched. Fans want to see the best fight the best. That is what Floyd did. That is how he made almost a billion dollars in the ring.

7y ago

whirlout

Am not sure I will put it all on being a marketing genius less than I will attribute it to him being the beneficiary of a weak marketable era of fighters. Let's not forget Dela hoya, Trinidad, Naseem all of those guys with personalities were basically out of the way when Floyd sprung up. His aura and persona (young, black, rich flashy) was built on people wanting to see him lose for being braggadocious and pompous. Broner was on his way to doing same, unfortunately for him, he wasn't as skilled or committed to the game quickly realizing he was a shell of the guy he was trying to emulate. Fortunately for Floyd, he was a tremendous fighter and a son of a gun who was dedicated to his craft inside that ring but also very calculated when he would take certain fights at welterweight (his words not mine). The challenge would have been to see him prime for prime with Cotto and Pacquaio, the two fighters you can pull out of his era. Am not the biggest Money Mayweather fan though I fux with Pretty Boy, the one thing I will salute him for is his incredible work ethic and what looks to me like his incredible loyalty to his crew. It probably wouldn't be for me, but its gotta be hard making multi millions and still go to the gym and train like a savage or better yet, still enter the ring to get punched in the face.

7y ago

Vadrigar

I agree he was great at marketing - And I would have been fooled into buying the Oscar fight too. And maybe a few more. But after five 24/7s and all of the fights being duds, I'm still surprised people still bought it! I never hated Floyd. I also never really liked him. I thought he was just weirdly dull. There isn't anything about him as a person that's interesting imo. He's just tedious and sort of basic. Not that smart, not funnily dumb. Just a basic guy who repeats a lot of things and buys a lot of cars. I guess that's why I'm still so shocked!! From what I understand you expected him to be a Pernell Whitaker type figure. Selling decent numbers but never becoming mainstream. Instead he made a LOT more money than Pernell Whitaker.

7y ago

IronDanHamza

I think the WWE stuff helped him abit too. Had a lot of eye balls on him that weren't there before. I think that was a smart move while he wasn't fighting in 2008. Floyd knows how to keep himself relevant. He's doing it now with this MMA speculation knowing full well he will never actually do it. And people still fall for it. I think that WrestleMania vs The Big Show was one of the highest selling PPV's in WWE history or atleast at the time it was.

7y ago

ruedboy

You gotta remember that boxing fans are a captive audience and we're always hoping against hope for a decent fight. Look at the hype we've had to listen to for recent fights by Crawford and Spence. If either of their opponents had won, it would have gone down as one of the biggest upsets in boxing history but the media is trying to convince us that these victories meant something. A big part of Floyd's shtick was the undefeated record. It created a buzz. Floyd made lots of money, but everybody around Mayweather made money, especially the boxing establishment. With no objective media to keep boxing honest, it was a huge hype job and just continues to be so.

7y ago

IronDanHamza

Yes you are right. And I guess that's just something I can't quite get to terms with. The arrogance was materialistic more than based on his skills at times. And I can understand that the boxing fans bought into it. But the casual, especially because THEY KNEW they were with 99% certainty buying a boring fight, and they still bought it. I mean, it takes ridiculously good sales skills to sell something to someone who already knows he's probably not going to be satisfied with the product :lol1: It's truly mindblowingly impressive. Most weren't tuning in for the actual fight itself they were tuning in incase it was finally the time where Mayweather was humbled.

7y ago