While I have often found Floyd Mayweather crass and tasteless in the past I’ve always found him entertaining. He is a natural villain and good at it. The role brought him to the top of the sport and made his name. Some of it was always an act – it’s hard to be so consistently irritable- but there was always a sense of genuineness beneath it. Floyd was angry and it mattered to him what people thought. He wasn’t going to sit and grin, he would say what he felt.
Floyd was like Shakespeare’s Richard III, who said:
Since I cannot prove a lover, To entertain these fair well-spoken days, — I am determined to prove a villain, And hate the idle pleasures of these days.
He was proud of his stand as the bad boy, unapologetic, and in that way appealing. It’s easy to be sympathetic to someone with righteous anger – even if misplaced – if we feel it is genuine.
What is harder to abide is shifting rationale and temperament. Whether one thinks Manny Pacquiao is using steroids or not at least there can be a credible discussion. Floyd Mayweather and his family clearly think Manny Pacquiao is using some sort of PED. Floyd Sr. and Roger Mayweather say so openly and with conviction. If their reasoning is specious that’s one thing, but their genuine feeling isn’t open for debate.
Floyd Mayweather used to rage from the podium with the same fire and conviction, but since his return to the ring he has become a more political animal. He is more willing to let other people speak for him, and when he does give interviews he has generally been more cautious than before.
This is most clearly shown in his recent interview with Sky Sports, where Mayweather argues that he is trying to reform not only boxing, but the rest of the sporting world as well. That is simply not true.
Floyd Mayweather thinks Manny Pacquiao is using steroids. It is clearly his strongly held belief. I don’t particularly mind this, what bothers me is the artifice. I miss the Floyd from the video above, the Floyd that would tell Arturo Gatti exactly what he thought of him. He was compelling and interesting even if you disagreed with him.
This newer, more political, Floyd, is simply an insult to our intelligence. It’s not Mayweather’s intention to reform sports, nor should it be. He is in the business to make money and advancing his career. That is as it should be and we shouldn’t ask for more.
All I ask is for the return of the Mayweather we initially knew. He was self-serving, confident, and angry, but he was a real person.
Give me a real villain over an artificial hero any day.
