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I have been thinking. Mostly alot about why mayweather could never reach the level of popularity that many other fighters in the sport with lesser ability and talent have achieved. When i thought about it, there are several factors.
Era
Race
Nationality
Personality
Talent.
Ill start with era. This era is first and foremost one of the lowest points for boxing. A million belts a million organizations, 400 roads to a title, too many divisions, too many promoters too much of everything. In this era fans have become confused, the days of the best fighting each other are gone, champions in the same division may never even face each other, negotiations break down, fighters duck one another without any regard for their own legacy or a need for a challenge in every division for whatever reason, money demands etc, in this era its tough to make a name for yourself. This era requires extra to be something or somebody, it requires a out of this world personality coupled with good looks, and looking good in the ring. You have to have some of the above to have any fan following these days.
Race. This is a tough one, for a young fighter these days, growing up in america and being black, you dont have much to ride on. If your boxing, you have to do all the work in the first place, but whats tougher is that when your american, all you are is black. In france you could be black, but your french, if your puerto rican born, you can be black but you could also ride the puerto rican wave, if your english its the same thing. But being american, people like to just say "oh hes black" as if black people here have no sense of culture due to the fact that american culture is the culture for blacks in america (as well as for whites in many cases). American culture is shared by all, which makes it even harder to make a clear itentidy for yourself in the first place.
Black people in america and around the world when it comes to sports have a face in every popular sport. Basketball, american football, soccer, we have one in golf, college football, etc etc. So being black and being a talented athelete is a dime a dozen type thing, so your black and can box really well, who the **** cares, we have seen it time and again, a black man being overtly dominant in one sport making it look like ****in childs play. We saw it with Ali, we saw it with Tyson, we saw it with Ray Robinson, etc etc. Its hard to seperate yourself from them because of the fact that as boxing wanes, support from your fellow americans wanes right along with it, and...
Without a flag that isnt from america to put you on the map, you have nothing to ride on, you have no crowd yelling MEXICO MEXICO, or ARGENTINA, or englishman singing songs in your favor, or eastern europeans yelling out their respective country. You have none of that, if you dont have a name of some kind, your nobody in many respects. The top black boxers are nowhere near as popular as their foreign counterparts, or counterpart that rides another flag. Its just like mexican americans in many respects, rocky juarez and juan diaz are outstanding boxers in their own respects, but they are american by way of nationality and no matter how much they rock the mexican flag with their american flag, they will never reach the level of popularity that mexicans from mexico get, in america and ****ing abroad, because nobody ****in likes this place from a popularity standpoint, people deep down even if they love living here.
For example
I had a conversation in spanish with a mexican girl i used to date and we talked about how in a match between Mexico vs USA in soccer, and how alot of the fans were being outright xenophobic and racist and making rediculous chants. And she made this comment like "YEA WE STUCK TO THOSE WHITE PEOPLE" like what the **** are you talking about, half that team is black with some asians, mixed race etc. Your not ****in "stickin it" to ****in anyone.
This is the kind of **** im talkin about, in what other country will the home countries chant be drowned out by the sounds of another country being chanted instead or outright booed. Being from the USA has alot of disadvantages in boxing these days. You hear "USA USA USA USA" that **** is gonna get booed, garunteed or drowned out in a boxing arena.
Getting to the topic at hand...i will talk about floyd and his personality, floyd early in his career didint say much of anything. He was a young olympian on the road to glory, he was pretty humble and in reality, his dad did alot of the talking in alot of instances, and where did it get him? ****ing nowhere in terms of popularity. Sure he got some big fights, but who cared? Floyd was hadly ever the popular one in the arena unless it was his hometown or against another black man.
Floyd says outlandish and outreagous things, part of this is because thats how he is, the other part is because he knows this is how he can get his name out, hate or love. Jorge Paez/Hector Camacho were a couple of loudmouths who did a WHOLE LOT of **** talking, but they had fans up the ass and nobody cared much about what they said because they were fighting for mexico/puerto rico. But who cares about fighting for america? these days thats a term reserved for troops overseas etc etc. Im a veteran and ill tell you right now, just the site of the american flag annoys people in alot of instances. You see more flags of other countries than you do of the stars in stripes in this country, that should tell you something. people want deeply to hold ontot their own cultural roots, so representing this place, with an increasing population of people who originally hail from other countries as recent as 2 or 3 generations ago, creates a sense of "ah, **** him! hes so patriotic and cheesy".
So personality is ALL you have to go on, period, and being humble doesnt get you ****. Unlike other sports, this is a one man team, you cant be a brett favre, you cant be a lebron james, you dont come into this sport with an instant 80 year team history, all you have is you. And the most humble fighters out of america have very little fan following, tyson is the perfect example of what im talking about. Its easier to hate than to love, and if you have to be hated to gain more fandom, then **** it, id do the same thing if it meant being set for life.
If floyd wasnt american, if he was latino, if he was anything else other than a black american, he would be 4x what he is now, with far more following, i garuntee it. Im an artist, also assist in animation techniques and am working on my own animated movie ideas, i also make music. If i became famous in one of those things, if i started waving a puerto rican flag and all that **** id be an instant hero in puerto rico, and dont act like it aint true, just look at john ruiz.
Floyd has to do this ****, i mean, he coule be humble, he could be lovable, but again, look at jermaine taylor, outside of his hometown, hes not exactly burning out and selling out arenas at a crazy pace, with popularity status like ray leonard is he? And ray leonard is who everyone says floyd should be like, correct? Like i said. that ****in era is over.
Last is talent. This is something my grandfather told me about. My grandfather once said that ray robinson had an aura about him..he was so good, so great, nobody could relate to him, nobody could relate how good he was, everyone was just waiting to see him lose, because he was so invincible and so great in the ring, nobody could understand how could he be so good? When he lost everyone rejoiced, they were so happy to see someone so good fall, and worst yet, ray robinson was an *******.
Im gonna catch hear for saying this, but guys like Julio Cesar Chavez, Arturo Gatti, Barerra, Morales, Jake Lamotta etc etc all have styles that are crowd pleasing, exciting, people relate to people who take punishment, who struggle. But mayweather has more ring intelligence and more talent than ALL OF THEM, yet he will never reach that plateau because hes so talented, nobody can relate to it. Mayweather doesnt play for the atlanta falcons, the san antonio spurs, his talents help nobody but himself. Think about pernell whitaker, he was also better than all the fighters i mentioned, but he NEVER had that fan following because he was so unhittible even towards the end of his coked out career.
People DO NOT relate to invinciblity, guys like Hatton, Margarito, De La Hoya they have been through wars, Mayweather hasnt been through any of that because hes ****in good, and the one time he looked like he might struggle, he rematched him and beat him so desicively all the **** in the fist JLC fight meant NOTHING. Yet mayweather is so good, people reach for that fight like OMG BUT HE DID LOSE!!! Mayweather struggled, but he didint lose and he blamed it on injury and i bieleve him because in the 2nd fight, it was basically a breeze, and he looked like a different fighter from the first fight.
My point is, people dont relate to mayweather in many ways, like whitaker he will have his time as a p4p great, then eventually his career will be over, while he will have some popularity, it will be nothing like others who areless talented than him because of the factors i listed.
Look at alot of you..mexican flags..puerto rican flags, english flags and fighters, alot of you play towards nationality..but how many american flags do you see? just about zero.
Era
Race
Nationality
Personality
Talent.
Ill start with era. This era is first and foremost one of the lowest points for boxing. A million belts a million organizations, 400 roads to a title, too many divisions, too many promoters too much of everything. In this era fans have become confused, the days of the best fighting each other are gone, champions in the same division may never even face each other, negotiations break down, fighters duck one another without any regard for their own legacy or a need for a challenge in every division for whatever reason, money demands etc, in this era its tough to make a name for yourself. This era requires extra to be something or somebody, it requires a out of this world personality coupled with good looks, and looking good in the ring. You have to have some of the above to have any fan following these days.
Race. This is a tough one, for a young fighter these days, growing up in america and being black, you dont have much to ride on. If your boxing, you have to do all the work in the first place, but whats tougher is that when your american, all you are is black. In france you could be black, but your french, if your puerto rican born, you can be black but you could also ride the puerto rican wave, if your english its the same thing. But being american, people like to just say "oh hes black" as if black people here have no sense of culture due to the fact that american culture is the culture for blacks in america (as well as for whites in many cases). American culture is shared by all, which makes it even harder to make a clear itentidy for yourself in the first place.
Black people in america and around the world when it comes to sports have a face in every popular sport. Basketball, american football, soccer, we have one in golf, college football, etc etc. So being black and being a talented athelete is a dime a dozen type thing, so your black and can box really well, who the **** cares, we have seen it time and again, a black man being overtly dominant in one sport making it look like ****in childs play. We saw it with Ali, we saw it with Tyson, we saw it with Ray Robinson, etc etc. Its hard to seperate yourself from them because of the fact that as boxing wanes, support from your fellow americans wanes right along with it, and...
Without a flag that isnt from america to put you on the map, you have nothing to ride on, you have no crowd yelling MEXICO MEXICO, or ARGENTINA, or englishman singing songs in your favor, or eastern europeans yelling out their respective country. You have none of that, if you dont have a name of some kind, your nobody in many respects. The top black boxers are nowhere near as popular as their foreign counterparts, or counterpart that rides another flag. Its just like mexican americans in many respects, rocky juarez and juan diaz are outstanding boxers in their own respects, but they are american by way of nationality and no matter how much they rock the mexican flag with their american flag, they will never reach the level of popularity that mexicans from mexico get, in america and ****ing abroad, because nobody ****in likes this place from a popularity standpoint, people deep down even if they love living here.
For example
I had a conversation in spanish with a mexican girl i used to date and we talked about how in a match between Mexico vs USA in soccer, and how alot of the fans were being outright xenophobic and racist and making rediculous chants. And she made this comment like "YEA WE STUCK TO THOSE WHITE PEOPLE" like what the **** are you talking about, half that team is black with some asians, mixed race etc. Your not ****in "stickin it" to ****in anyone.
This is the kind of **** im talkin about, in what other country will the home countries chant be drowned out by the sounds of another country being chanted instead or outright booed. Being from the USA has alot of disadvantages in boxing these days. You hear "USA USA USA USA" that **** is gonna get booed, garunteed or drowned out in a boxing arena.
Getting to the topic at hand...i will talk about floyd and his personality, floyd early in his career didint say much of anything. He was a young olympian on the road to glory, he was pretty humble and in reality, his dad did alot of the talking in alot of instances, and where did it get him? ****ing nowhere in terms of popularity. Sure he got some big fights, but who cared? Floyd was hadly ever the popular one in the arena unless it was his hometown or against another black man.
Floyd says outlandish and outreagous things, part of this is because thats how he is, the other part is because he knows this is how he can get his name out, hate or love. Jorge Paez/Hector Camacho were a couple of loudmouths who did a WHOLE LOT of **** talking, but they had fans up the ass and nobody cared much about what they said because they were fighting for mexico/puerto rico. But who cares about fighting for america? these days thats a term reserved for troops overseas etc etc. Im a veteran and ill tell you right now, just the site of the american flag annoys people in alot of instances. You see more flags of other countries than you do of the stars in stripes in this country, that should tell you something. people want deeply to hold ontot their own cultural roots, so representing this place, with an increasing population of people who originally hail from other countries as recent as 2 or 3 generations ago, creates a sense of "ah, **** him! hes so patriotic and cheesy".
So personality is ALL you have to go on, period, and being humble doesnt get you ****. Unlike other sports, this is a one man team, you cant be a brett favre, you cant be a lebron james, you dont come into this sport with an instant 80 year team history, all you have is you. And the most humble fighters out of america have very little fan following, tyson is the perfect example of what im talking about. Its easier to hate than to love, and if you have to be hated to gain more fandom, then **** it, id do the same thing if it meant being set for life.
If floyd wasnt american, if he was latino, if he was anything else other than a black american, he would be 4x what he is now, with far more following, i garuntee it. Im an artist, also assist in animation techniques and am working on my own animated movie ideas, i also make music. If i became famous in one of those things, if i started waving a puerto rican flag and all that **** id be an instant hero in puerto rico, and dont act like it aint true, just look at john ruiz.
Floyd has to do this ****, i mean, he coule be humble, he could be lovable, but again, look at jermaine taylor, outside of his hometown, hes not exactly burning out and selling out arenas at a crazy pace, with popularity status like ray leonard is he? And ray leonard is who everyone says floyd should be like, correct? Like i said. that ****in era is over.
Last is talent. This is something my grandfather told me about. My grandfather once said that ray robinson had an aura about him..he was so good, so great, nobody could relate to him, nobody could relate how good he was, everyone was just waiting to see him lose, because he was so invincible and so great in the ring, nobody could understand how could he be so good? When he lost everyone rejoiced, they were so happy to see someone so good fall, and worst yet, ray robinson was an *******.
Im gonna catch hear for saying this, but guys like Julio Cesar Chavez, Arturo Gatti, Barerra, Morales, Jake Lamotta etc etc all have styles that are crowd pleasing, exciting, people relate to people who take punishment, who struggle. But mayweather has more ring intelligence and more talent than ALL OF THEM, yet he will never reach that plateau because hes so talented, nobody can relate to it. Mayweather doesnt play for the atlanta falcons, the san antonio spurs, his talents help nobody but himself. Think about pernell whitaker, he was also better than all the fighters i mentioned, but he NEVER had that fan following because he was so unhittible even towards the end of his coked out career.
People DO NOT relate to invinciblity, guys like Hatton, Margarito, De La Hoya they have been through wars, Mayweather hasnt been through any of that because hes ****in good, and the one time he looked like he might struggle, he rematched him and beat him so desicively all the **** in the fist JLC fight meant NOTHING. Yet mayweather is so good, people reach for that fight like OMG BUT HE DID LOSE!!! Mayweather struggled, but he didint lose and he blamed it on injury and i bieleve him because in the 2nd fight, it was basically a breeze, and he looked like a different fighter from the first fight.
My point is, people dont relate to mayweather in many ways, like whitaker he will have his time as a p4p great, then eventually his career will be over, while he will have some popularity, it will be nothing like others who areless talented than him because of the factors i listed.
Look at alot of you..mexican flags..puerto rican flags, english flags and fighters, alot of you play towards nationality..but how many american flags do you see? just about zero.
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