Rarely, if ever, has a superstar performer, and Floyd Mayweather Jr. is all that and a bag of chips, so misread his audience.
Days go by, weeks go by, months go by and a year turns into 13 months (as of June 1) since Mayweather stepped into a boxing ring to show his special skills.
Now the chirpy, chatty Mayweather, who is now the organ grinder for Ben Thompson?s Fighthype.com website, comes out and reveals he is not in any permanent retirement.
The question, Mayweather says, is not whether he?ll ever fight again. The question is when and we all know that Mayweather doesn?t have a battery in his back, he?s not our robot and only Floyd can tell Floyd when Floyd will fight again.
But I think the public, especially those who remain keen Mayweather fans, are sick and tired of being sick and tired of all the footdragging by the undefeated fighter.
Actually, the broadest segment of the PPV TV fight buying public, really wants to know only two things as to Mayweather?s plans.
One, when and against whom will the so called tuneup bout be?
Two, will you fight Pinoy Idol Manny Pacquiao after that or not?
Nothing scientific to it but the more I speak to young African Americans?not that Mayweather fans are limited to his own race?I sense a fistic fatigue on Mayweather and his indecisive agenda.
Example, I was riding the #3 subway train to Borough Hall, Brooklyn, the other afternoon.
Three young black gents were standing by a door. One guy says he missed the Sugar Shane Mosley-Pacquiao bout and was glad when he heard how awful and one-sided it was.
I polled the trio as to whether they think shy flower Floyd will ever man up for Manny.
One man said no way, Don Jose, that ?Money? will eschew the big money rather than jeopardize his prized, spotless ring record. Advertisement
A second said the fight will happen in the near future, too much moolah on the table.
The third young man expressed no opinion.
Pacman, meanwhile, keeps clobbering overmatched foes.
Thoughtful people are aghast at the clubbing given to those poor baby seals but what of the legalized clubbing taken by Messrs. Clottey, Margarito and now Sugar Shame?
We may need a Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Prizefighters By Pacquiao.
Foes are taken career-wrecking, career-ending beatings from Pacman. These assaults go off like clockwork, twice a year.
Next up for a battering, come Nov. 12, is too small, too old now Juan Manuel Marquez. For Pacman, for the viewers on PPV and the Las Vegas audience, more of same.
Maybe Bob Arum can bring in the Marquis de Sade as the ring announcer on 11/12.
Pacquiao?s TV drawing power, said to be at 1.2 million buys for the Mosley debacle, was just a shade under Mayweather?s 1.4 million mark for his one-sided dance with Shame.
But, where Pacman is winning the fight for hearts and minds, is on Jimmy Kimmel, on Comedy Central, on visiting the U.S. Senate and the White House.
Pacquiao was featured on ?60 Minutes? while Mayweather patrols Twitter and Facebook.
Pacquiao knows his audience.
Mayweather is mistreating his.
Sad to say, Floyd will lose some of those followers forever.
Some will tune Mayweather out, some will turn into Manny fans.
What the fans want to hear and hear soon, Floyd, is who and when for the tuneup and that you are determined to fight Pacquiao next year.
Everything else is mindless chatter, background noise.
