Now four days removed from the controversy-drenched return of Floyd Mayweather Jr to the boxing world, the reverse Fred Flintstone-clad “Money” man gets back to his normal life, and boxing fans are, perhaps in his world, left behind.
He’s at home in Las Vegas, celebrating his win, basking in the glow of the sports world paying him so much attention. He’s not a sportsman. But he’s a sports star, one who can bring the wannabe pundits of an allegedly dead or dying sport out of the woodwork. They’re everywhere, and they’ve all got a strong opinion.
Mayweather has been called boxing’s greatest villain, and has been compared to a professional wrestling heel. Floyd has dabbled in that world on a couple of occasions, and despite his presence in boxing, he wasn’t a natural there. But as pro wrestling is incredibly stupid once outside of its own bubble (you need no further evidence than a recent boxing press conference appearance by WWE star The Miz), so was Mayweather’s comparatively amateur hour, unpolished routine.
But the greatest heel of them all, and one of the great legends in pro wrestling’s history, was Ric Flair. At his peak, he asked, “What’s causin’ all this?”
Ric Flair was the answer, of course. And in the case of boxing’s sudden surge in buzz and hype and attention, the answer to the question is Floyd Mayweather. You don’t have to love him or hate him, even — you just have to acknowledge that you know he exists.
There is but one other figure in boxing who can do this in the United States, and now we’re less than two months away from the next fight in the phenomenal, unlikely career of Manny Pacquiao.
