Manny Pacquiao promoter Bob Arum has injected the heretofore nonexistent “race issue” into the May 2 Super Fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr.
Arum, a cantankerous figure who turns age 84 in December, may have done this unwittingly as he is well known for going “off script” or “off message” on controversial topics, I’m not sure.
“Most Americans you would think will be rooting for Mayweather,” Arum said in an interview with Sky Sports HQ. “But the contrast is true. The majority of Americans are rooting for Manny.”
Why do I say there’s a racial component to what, on the surface, appears to be ordinary, cheerleader remarks by the octogenarian promoter and former Justice Department lawyer?
Put “white” in front Americans and now read his comments.
(Here’s a 2009 Fan House interview by Ariel Helwani, in which Arum injected race into a discussion of the relative merits of boxing versus the UFC:
“For me, I look at the UFC audience and the boxing audience as being two different audiences entirely. Our audience in boxing is ethnic, hispanic, Filipino, Puerto Rican, Mexican and the hardcore boxing fans who can’t watch, like me, who can’t watch UFC. UFC are a bunch of skinhead white guys watching people in the ring who also look like skinhead white guys.”
Flashing back to this week, Arum went further, saying the Super Fight is seen by many as a cultural clash between what he labeled Mayweather’s “ostentatious materialism” and the highly religious Filipino’s “Chrisitan beliefs” and “charitable endeavors.”
If Arum had stopped there, I wouldn’t be scribbling this. But he didn’t and so I am.
To mix metaphors, now that the horse has left the barn, let’s speak honestly.
A vast majority of Americans, nearly all of them Caucasian, will be rooting for and cheering on underdog Pacman.
Just as it’s my belief that 90 plus percent of black Americans, especially those in Mayweather’s age group (he’s 38) and younger will be supporting the flashy, unbeaten boxer.
No one is implying that there is a burning racial divide or debate here.
I don’t think we’ve had that nonsense as part of a major fight promotion going back to when black American and great heavyweight champ Larry Holmes fought Irish Gerry Cooney. That’s when Cooney co-manager Dennis “The Menace” Rappaport urged his fighter “to win it for America” in a fight between a guy from Easton, Pa., and one from Huntington, New York.
Ironically, Holmes is no Mayweather fan and speaks forthrightly of his admiration for the Pinoy Idol.
Historically, boxing was built on the backs of ethnic and racial rivalries and contrasts. The expression “Great White Hope” doesn’t have anything to do with Larry Bird or anyone in pro basketball.
If one searched the archipelago that is the Philippines hard enough and long enough, you might even find a Pacquiao countryman who is, for whatever reason, backing Mayweather. Maybe there are some young Filipinos who dig Mayweather’s swagger.
It’s hard to figure how anyone can criticize black Americans or any American for being in Floyd’s corner for any proud Pinoy who backs Manny.
What would clearly be racism is being against Mayweather because he’s black or against Pacquiao because he is Asian. But Uncle Bob is wrong about the fight being about Mayweather’s open and notorious materialism and Pacman’s do gooder status.
That “fight” ended when the fight was made, when Manny and Floyd signed their deals.
Materialistic Mayweather is glomming 60 percent of all revenue.
Not that Pacquiao’s payoff will be chopped liver but you get the point.
The only remaning question is this: is Holmes the only black American publicly rooting for Pacquiao?
As the comedian Judy Tenuta liked to say, “It could happen.”
I wonder if there are any groups such as “Skinheads For Pacquiao” or “Skinheads For Mayweather?”
And don’t forget this Cinco de Mayo weekend, “Mayweather Loves Mexico.”
Maybe Mayeweather crony Justin Bieber knows something about the skinhead slant.
