An English Mayweather: How would we react?

[Bozbay]

He was influenced greatly by Naz. lots of fighters were at the time and many still are today like Prince Patel, Keith Thurman, Chris Arreola, Deontay Wilder and many more. Naz left a timeless impression on the world of boxing.

I agree, he definitely influenced Floyd but I still wouldn't say he "essentially copied". Still different characters.

[Bozbay]

He was influenced greatly by Naz. lots of fighters were at the time and many still are today like Prince Patel, Keith Thurman, Chris Arreola, Deontay Wilder and many more. Naz left a timeless impression on the world of boxing.

I think a lot of fighters today are more or less trying to copy Floyd, who wouldn't after seeing the amount of money he makes. It's almost like a cycle. But yeah, Naz was original and completely new.

[firstborn]

Prince Naz was from England and Floyd essentially copied his persona. He never used to be like that back in the day, he was a choirboy type of guy but you'll see that Floyd switched it up soon after Naz debut in the USA with the Kelly fight. Floyd copied Prince Naseem Hamed (who is from England).

It's possible, I was a huge fan myself. Not such a bad plan honestly, Naseem flamed out before he reached his true potential in the US...Mayweather might have recognized the untapped opportunity he created.

[FlatLine]

I agree, he definitely influenced Floyd but I still wouldn't say he "essentially copied". Still different characters.

Different characters in terms of their stories, for sure, but point is there already has been someone similar in the UK in terms of the swagger, ****iness and braggadocio that Floyd has. I remember an interview with Floyd where he said he was "impressed by Naz coming over from the UK making that money in the US. I wanted to be able to do that". He's talked about Naz several times in the past and said he was a fan.

But Naz persona of course was influenced by Muhammad Ali and Ali was influenced by George Wagner and so on.. People tend to influence each other. I bet you could follow that chain of being influenced by other bragging type people back thousands of years, maybe spread across all the continents, if public records went back that far.

[FlatLine]

I think a lot of fighters today are more or less trying to copy Floyd, who wouldn't after seeing the amount of money he makes. It's almost like a cycle. But yeah, Naz was original and completely new.

It's like a cycle, that's true. But the reason I mentioned those specific fighters is because I remember seeing interviews with them all where they named Hamed as an inspiration.

[Rath]

my question would be what if Floyd a Cuban?

[moochi]

Let's say there was a boxer with the skill set, style and personality of Floyd Mayweather, but was English. Hell, an English Floyd Mayweather. How do you think the British public would react to him? Would he be as hated, more loved and appreciated?

I am curious because typically, the fighters throughout history British fans loved were the 'British Bulldogs" who wanted to fight. I wonder how the public would react to a more calculated, smarter but boring fighter who had more success than anybody in British history.

Good discussion but everything has changed nowadays with the internet and social media era.

Mayweather was probably the first ever "German style" fighter to win over the fans, a lot of credit goes to his surname already being known to the boxing community and then Al Haymon transformed him. ....and above all credit goes to himself, being a gun fighter (not so exciting) and being able to influence the whole world into thinking that fights should be judged to suit his style, full credit to him.

My reference to him being German style was that I found many many german fighters were absolute super stars in germany yet i found them to not be excisting at all - eg Sven Ottke, but he was very very popular...the public appreciated it.

So to the question of an English style Mayweather, I believe that style of a fighter would NOT have had as much popularity....as many of the British casual fans won't give a fk about facebook and shiny cars, etc, but rather seeing a good brawl in the ring, hence why the Welshman Calzaghe was very popular as he'd actually brawl and remain undefeated...

Johny Nelson is a good example of a british Mayweather , slick well dressed well presented, had one of the longest reigns in defending his titles yet made FK ALL money...why??? Because he fought, guess how??....very Mayweather style, slick and defensive and pretty much full stop!

[Dr Rumack]

Could he do what Floyd did and get loads of people buying his PPV's though?
I'm not 100 percent sure on that tbh, its kind of hard to captivate the American public when you're not an actual American but speaking good English is a start.

No. Would be huge in the UK, but he would never achieve the same sort of market penetration in the US.

[Dirk Diggler UK]

Mayweather already is quite popular in the UK.

[moochi]

my question would be what if Floyd a Cuban?

he'd have been as popular as Rigo and would have lost those close fights he had with mexicans, etc... so overall he'd be about 600 million $ less off..