It all may be too late and not many believe that September will see the last of ?Money? Mayweather in the ring?
Have our eyes deceived us yet again? More to the point and heavily due to the fact of the person in question, have our eyes fooled us before our common sense could do so? Once you enter the main lair of the Mayweather Boxing Club in Chinatown of Las Vegas, visitors are helpless but to view the signs which adorn more than one point in the expansive gym. ?No cell phones while Floyd Mayweather is training. Leave phones in your car,? one signs read. The notice to all pulls no punches as it adds further notice to leave no confusion as it elaborates, ?No videos, pictures, texting or phone calls. Violators will be asked to leave the premises and will not be allowed to return.? The staff is usually well beyond stringent in enforcing the posted rules as well.
Since the undefeated pound-for-pound king became a household name of sorts about eight years ago, his life has been encapsulated in a fish bowl, much of it a result of his own doing. He hasn?t fought on premium cable TV in a very long time, yet some networks eagerly televise the infomercials disguised as insight in the form of either ?24/7? or ?All Access?. Much of what has been shown over the near past decade has amused some while at the same time turned the collective stomachs of others. Either way, the man knows how to sell a fight, whether through enticing the paying public to see his wizardry in the ring or beckoning the boxing gods to finally hand him his first loss. What has become perfectly clear to many in the recent bouts of the Las Vegas based champion is that a complimentary piece has been necessary to push his pay-per-view numbers to new heights.
See such examples as Oscar De La Hoya, Ricky Hatton, Juan Manuel Marquez, Miguel Cotto or Saul ?Canelo? Alvarez to further solidify such a claim. His bout with Manny Pacquiao last May broke every imaginable record, including that of rotten tomatoes in the eyes of more than a few people. Even those who didn?t actively follow boxing knew of the two biggest names in the sport and would always ask when and if they?d ever fight one another. Here we are now, just a pinch outside of two weeks until Floyd Mayweather (48-0, 26 KOs) makes his promised final trip to the ring, at least as a fighter. His September 12 bout with former welterweight titleholder Andre Berto (30-3, 23 KOs) at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas has not exactly been greeted with positive and gleeful sentiments.
Many within the boxing know are predicting that the interest, turnout and pay TV totals will land somewhere between a spittoon and a commode. Even though Floyd was quick to point out during the press conference to announce the bout that the public was under no pressure to pay to see the contest, the ticking hand may at last have been felt on Wednesday evening out in the Nevada desert oasis of Sin City.
Mayweather has never (at least in recent memory) allowed television cameras to film, much less broadcast any of his sparring sessions. That all changed Wednesday evening as Floyd?s media workout to promote his bout with Berto included several rounds of televised sparring with a few willing participants. One thing that was admirable, if not astonishing, was the endurance and overall level of fitness displayed by the native of Grand Rapids, Michigan. Floyd?s practice sessions consisted of six one-minute rounds and very little rest save for a few sips of water or for a new sparring partner to join in the modern version of decimation.
Much as is the case in his actual bouts, Mayweather took a while to warm up but then looked highly impressive as time wore on. We got to see a sparring session for free while some will pay upwards of sixty five dollars to see target practice on TV next month. Is he pulling out the last ditch efforts to sell a fight that multitudes of fans don?t care to see? Conversely, could the soon to be retired champion be in a giving mood to the tune of finally allowing the public to see what they never could previously?
The glass may be half empty here when one considers that not only are tickets to the bout not selling very well at all, but the MGM Grand has hotel and ticket packages for the weekend to boot. We?ve not seen much instances of this in the past. As previously mentioned, Floyd did well in his televised practice runs, although we may of course only been privy to what he wanted us to see and how he wanted it presented.
Nevertheless, it all may be too late and not many believe that September will see the last of ?Money? Mayweather in the ring. The brand new, state of the art Las Vegas Arena will open in sometime in the first quarter of 2016, so maybe we?ll all be happier in the springtime.
