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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 ******s 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:
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:
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.
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.
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