You’ll run into any number of reasons why something – or someone, comes to an end, especially if its attached to the origins of tragedy. By contrast, there are so many more reasons why someone – or something – came to begin in the first place, especially if its attached to the origins of fortune.
Not only will this favor the brave; but in the sport of boxing it is inexorably linked to fortune, for the two are entwined at the highest levels of success.
If this axiom is true, then why is there such a false element attached to Floyd Mayweather that denotes failure?
For me, beginnings are often simpler and they are infinitely more special. Something which was on my mind as I covertly manipulated a room full of nappy holiday heads into an intense war at a barbershop on the south side of Chicago a few days ago. All I really had to do was merely mention Manny Pacquiao to start a torrent of emotion.
What surprised me, in a fairly packed and very urban african american setting, was just how much ire and scorn they had for Floyd on average. It seems Floyd would actually need the 6 or 7 bodyguards he uses to go get his morning paper, at least in Chicago anyway.
Most of them, barbers and patrons alike, didn’t really know a great deal about either him or Pacquiao, owing much of their feelings to perception. I was able to ascertain that his origins – in their minds – stemmed from the Oscar De La Hoya and HBO’s 24/7 series. As much as they liked him then, they seemed to resent him now.
For every “He don’t need Pacquiao. His name is “money” and he is money!”, came about three different kinds of “Well why the f*ck he always talking bout his ass then?” The owner of the shop, a colorful and thoughtful man of wisdom summed up and dismissed Floyd with this:
“Look he done forgot where he came from. And he know that Pacquiao would knock his ass right back there.”
T@z
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THE DUCK DYNASTY: ORIGINS
Floyd was losing me as a fan around the time of the De La Hoya fight in May 2007, and it was because of what I saw on HBO’s then new 24/7 series. It was not at all contrived or “fake” as has been revealed of his “All Access” features on Showtime. He showed us who he was entirely, and I’d had a comparative analysis of him over about 9 years at that point.
He bothered me.
It almost seemed as if he was this petulant teen of rare talent who fostered a feeling of entitlement you would never feel from his father or his uncle. He was clearly the class of the 1996 Olympic team, but seemed torn between being an articulate gentleman of class, and a committed asshole without any at all.
I also felt like he was influenced by the personalities of Roy Jones and Mike Tyson in a lot of ways good and bad.
Around the time Floyd completely took apart the late Genaro Hernandez and destroyed Angel Manfredy it was hard to see it, but things started getting clearer. Speed kills – and his conditioning has always been second to none. Combine that with a very polished skillset – particularly defensively – and a brilliant tactician and future all-time great emerged.
“I didn’t even know who he was,” said Angel Manfredy. “I was fornicating with women and they told me he was next. That whole fight was rigged for him to win. I didn’t want to make 130 again but his management kept flashing money until I agreed.”
Take that for what its worth, but every management team has a style in business and boxing is no different. Every manager will want a favorable match-up for his fighter, but that doesn’t mean he’ll always get it – especially as he keeps advancing in his career. Not only is it the job of the management team to scout the strengths and weaknesses of opponents, but they have to constantly scout their fighter as well.
For Floyd’s team its been fairly simple: get him in hand and foot speed mismatches, and keep him away from as many black fighters as possible – particularly southpaws. They learned from Jose Luis Castillo that Floyd would have trouble with heavy handed and relentless pressure fighters with solid chins, so Antonio Margarito was always going to be a no-no.
It infuriated Bob Arum and lead to a lot of behind-the-scenes resentment.
For every Diego Corrales that was in his wheelhouse due to the late warrior’s serious deficit in hand and foot speed, there was a black fighter in DeMarcos Corley that examined their fears. For every Arturo Gatti (RIP), whom Floyd derisively referred to as “a C+ fighter” going in that they knew he would rip apart, there was the blatant avoidance of Kostya Tsyzu and Vivian Harris.
He fought a long in the tooth and out of his weight class Sharmba Mitchell in his hometown of Washington, D.C., rather than face the deadly Tsyzu. Later, he wanted nothing to do with fellow welterweight champ Carlos Baldomir, who’d just beaten Zab Judah in 2006. Why would he opt to face Judah instead? Because Judah was seen as the lesser of the two, despite being a fast, black southpaw.
It almost didn’t work, as he was dropped and on very even terms with Judah before his elite conditioning took over. We all them saw him run from Baldomir, despite showing up to the ring in a gladiator suit, something which when questioned by HBO’s Larry Merchant – made him cry.
THE BRILLIANCE OF AL HAYMON
Arum was livid, the two parted ways, and then the true manifestation of who he is surfaced under the brilliance of Al Haymon. After successfully selling Floyd to the world as a bad guy on the groundbreaking 24/7 series in conjunction with De La Hoya to make him a star, he gets him Ricky Hatton at 147. This is significant because because not only was Hatton unbeaten and at his pressure fighting best at 140, but they’d already seen how ineffective he was at 147 against Luis Collazo.
Hatton’s huge following and real mortality at that weight class made this fight come to life, and it was smart. Even smarter, was orchestrating Floyd’s “retirement” (or significant break) after that grueling fight – which Floyd ended in spectacular fashion. Haymon knew how deep and dangerous the welterweight division was, and the likelihood that Floyd – and his undefeated record – wouldn’t emerge from it totally unscathed.
A major point of fascination for me around that time was seeing just how fond Floyd was of Manny Pacquiao. He doesn’t go to fights often, so it was very telling to witness him cheering wildly for Pacquiao in the rematch with Erik Morales. They were 17lbs apart at in 2007 when he “retired”, but by Spring 2009 – Pacquiao was on his comeback radar.
And he hated him.
Everything he and Al Haymon have done – from cheating Marquez on the scales, to allegedly using PED’s for Mosley, to taking another monster break in between the aggressive and flawed southpaw Victor Ortiz fight ( a farce of a fight where he afterwards declared “Pacquiao – You’re Next”, only to later deny it), to getting an assumed lessor version of Cotto before a ponderous southpaw in Robert Guerrero… All of it was with Pacquiao in mind. This, to either prepare for him, or somehow “duck” and avoid him altogether.
And its almost worked.
MAYWEATHER’S HATRED OF PACQUIAO IS HIS COWARDLY REVENGE FOR BEING INTIMIDATED BY HIM.
I’ve never known of a fighter to post pictures of another fighter’s achievement as if it were his own. He told us all that Olympic drug testing was something Pacquiao needed to participate in to fight and something he would do going forward- yet where was this present beyond the Mosley fight? Pretty telling that Marcos Maidana was deemed by Floyd Sr. as the “dirtiest fighter my son has ever faced”, but why wasn’t he tested?
Either Bob Arum had to go or he was turned down by Pacquiao when he made an offer (you make a $40 million offer on a $200 million dollar fight? Give me a f*ckin break.). Youtube racist videos, “I’m my own boss”, “He has to avenge losses”… On and on and on. The problem is, everytime he’s opened his mouth he’s had to stick both of his feet in them.
Newsflash: HE’S SCARED OF PACQUIAO.
Now that Pacquiao has looked utterly dominate again – particularly in besting Timothy Bradley and white-washing Chris Algieri recently, that argument goes completely out of the window. With the logic he uses, why couldn’t Pacquiao post pictures of Amir Khan KTFO by Danny Garcia and asking why he desperately tried to face Amir without him avenging that loss?
We just watched Showtime make an arrangement with HBO allowing Bernard Hopkins to challenge Sergey Kovalev. The fight was alarmingly easy to make and further underscored Floyd’s duckery of Pacquiao. If you’re “TBE”, how can you consider yourself the best in the world – let alone the best ever – if you refuse to face what we think is your best challenge ever? I wonder how he felt watching Hopkins challenge one of the most dangerous fighters in the world in Kovalev at damn near 50.
(Long ass sigh…)
FLOYD: THINK ABOUT WHAT YOU’RE DOING TO “FLOYD MAYWEATHER”
You know Floyd on social media (as I’m sure you’re aware) they call you “Fraud” and your supporters “Flomo’s”, but you don’t do anything to give them a reason to not do this. And I mean, just a thought, but your rather “suspect” relationship with Justin Beiber is a little, well… disturbing.
But anyway.
Whatever hopes that Pacquiao would merely go away, or that you could somehow finance karma without any interest, hasn’t proven to be smart. You are still 2 years older than Pacquiao, and 24 rounds with Maidana has now made that difference glaring. Wanna know what I think? “You” still have a 5 year-old scouting report on Pacquiao that you can’t stand looking at.
You correctly see footwork, hand-speed, unpredictable movement and a punch output you cannot gauge from a southpaw stance that your orthodox defense is not designed to defend. This from a man who doesn’t clinch, flinch or fails to stop coming. Not only does he not fear you – but he despises you.
I’m not so sure if you’ve watched “The Duck Dynasty”on A&E, or if you had “Duck” for Thanksgiving, but both would’ve been fitting. Showtime now believes it, HBO knew it when you left the network to avoid Pacquiao, and now the whole world knows Floyd.
There’s what we are… …and what we want to be.
All it takes is a leap of faith. After all, you’re uh, eh-mm, “TBE”.
