The boxing world was built upon a plantation owner-slave mentality. That’s a bitter pill to swallow for a sport dominated by African American and Latino athletes.
But this isn’t necessarily a race thing.
This business model has been in place from the very first moment someone thought to make fighting a business. Long before Jack Johnson broke barriers, Irish immigrants were being pushed into a ring to risk life and limb, battling for an obscenely small percentage of the event’s total take. And just like big time boxing in this day and age, when the guys could no longer fight, when they were completely used up, they would be tossed on the street to fend for themselves, often, remarkably, in debt to their promoter and/or manager.
Now, the money is better and the sport is more glamorous, but the basic business model is the same. Fighters, even main stage stars, are given a fraction of what they could make-and very often only given a portion of that figure because of advances given to them to make up for a shortfall in the last paycheck.
The idea is to keep the fighters fluent enough to not complain, but cash-poor enough to always be dependent on the next payday. It’s an old trick of indentured servitude. Think turn of the century coal miners, loaned money for the necessities of life against future paydays, only to find themselves in a perpetual cycle of servitude to the coal mine owner, always working to bring themselves up to zero.
The situation is not so dire in boxing, but the strategy is the same. It’s the real reason fighters hang around too long and have no recourse but to be thrown to the lions when their time is up.
And that’s why Floyd Mayweather could be considered the most dangerous man in boxing.
When Mayweather left Bob Arum and Top Rank in 2006, it wasn’t the first time that a big star fired his promoter in exchange for a bit of autonomy. However, it was one of the very few times that the fighter would actually remain independent and manage to be even bigger and better on his own.
Advisor Al Haymon-the behind-the-scenes player vilified by the boxing establishment and rump-kissing media-has a lot to do with Mayweather’s ability to flourish outside of the system.
A mainstream entertainment manager by trade, Haymon digs into the boxing business like it’s show business, forcing fair compensation and conducting business like an actual businessman. Unlike most of boxing’s power brokers, there’s no carnival barker in Haymon. It’s all business. Charts and graphs, demographics, and five-year strategies. And when it comes time to negotiate, there’s none of the wink-wink, nudge-nudge boy’s club BS that often takes place behind closed doors. It’s real talk, guaranteed money, or we’re out the door.
Haymon, because of his unwillingness to follow boxing convention and appease the media with bartered access and free swag, fell out of favor with the media and has been portrayed as a shadowy villain hell bent on destroying the sport. But as the media piled on and guys like Arum vowed to never do business with him, fighters flocked to the man.
The word on the street was that Haymon could get you TV dates, honest compensation, and a fair shake. Looking at the career trajectory of Mayweather and several other Haymon clients, it was hard to deny any of that.
And as Floyd Mayweather sits on top of the world, master of his own domain and infinitely rich because of it, he serves as an example for the next generation of fighter. Whether it was by design or by happy coincidence, Mayweather proved that boxing could be run like an actual business and that, when run like a reputable endeavor, it can actually prosper.
Media attacks on Mayweather throughout the years have gone above and beyond the normal criticisms leveled at fighters. They have been aimed at crushing his legacy and destroying his reputation. For the last several years, the deeply-compromised media has been used like attack dogs hunting down an escaped slave.
And while destroying Mayweather, they were elevating a fighter like Manny Pacquiao, Mayweather’s chief rival and a fighter very much kept like an exotic pet by Arum and Top Rank. It was the not-so-subtle suggestion that Pacquiao, very much an example of the old school boxing business model, was the “good guy” and Mayweather, once referred to as “uppity” by the managing editor of one major boxing site, was a greedy villain.
Now, though, with Pacquiao opting to become an Asian casino attraction and Mayweather existing as the only big ticket superstar in the U.S., the media blasting has slowed down a bit. Across the board, he’s enjoying a level of respect that has never been given to him before-at least not since parting ways with Top Rank.
Floyd Mayweather, five-division world champ and undisputed pound-for-pound kingpin, has beaten the system, he has out-lasted the critics, and has escaped the attack dogs-that makes him a dangerous, dangerous man.
