Love him or hate him, nobody tweaks the public like Floyd Mayweather Jr.
The latest media manipulation took place on the first episode of HBO’s 24/7 series, hyping the September 17 bout between Mayweather and Victor Ortiz.
While Victor Ortiz’s back story as a child abandoned by both mother and father is compelling, Mayweather stole the show with a knock-down, drag-out verbal battle with his father, Floyd Sr.
In the closing moments of the program, Mayweather and father were seen debating about two female fighters, trained in their respective gyms and set to fight one another. When the discussion touched on Sr.’s place in Floyd’s development as a fighter, things got heated quickly and resulted in an ugly, spiteful, and hurtful argument that had Mayweather security staff stepping in to separate the two.
“Nobody asked you to come here,” Mayweather shouted at his father during the exchange. “Get the [expletive] out of my gym.”
“Come put me out, [expletive]!” Mayweather Sr. fired back.
“You couldn’t fight worth [expletive]! You couldn’t fight worth [expletive]!” Jr. answered, working himself into a rage. “You were nothing but a [expletive] cab driver! You weren’t [expletive] as a fighter, how you gonna be something as a trainer?”
Mayweather Jr. would finish off the first episode of Mayweather-Ortiz 24/7 with an angry monologue, culminating in one final shot aimed at his father: “Roger Mayweather made the Mayweather name and I took it to the next level. When it’s all said and done, there’s only two [expletive] Mayweathers that count? Roger Mayweather and Floyd Mayweather?and [expletive] I’m not no Jr.”
The angry, bitter exchange immediately sent fight fans to their computers and cell phones, flooding social media sites and message boards with their thoughts on what they had just seen.
While the general consensus was that the always-brash Mayweather went too far this time, others questioned whether the entire event had simply been staged for the benefit of the cameras.
After all, just a couple of days ago, Mayweather had filed legal documents, essentially admitting to play-acting as a bad guy. Mayweather, the defendant in an ongoing defamation suit, initiated by Manny Pacquiao, said that his cocky “Money” persona was created for publicity purposes and that even his club-hopping lifestyle was really just a series of “calculated promotional events designed to appeal to his fan base and maintain his public presence.”
But the anger shown on this last episode of Mayweather drama seemed too real to be staged. It goes beyond boxing and reveals how a young man’s psyche can be shaped without a father’s input.
Mayweather Sr., who laid the groundwork for his son’s in-ring style and early formation as a fighter, was in and out of young Floyd’s life. Then, as the young fighter was making waves as an amateur sensation, Floyd Sr. was convicted of drug trafficking and sent to federal prison.
