Floyd Mayweather is far from perfect, except inside the ring
Say what you want about Floyd Mayweather the man, but nobody can deny the rise and run of one of the truly great boxers in history.
By
Jason Keidel
•
3 min read
Texas Station sounds like a college football outpost, or a 19th Century army base, where we once prepared our troops to fight Santa Anna.
It doesn't sound like the womb of the greatest boxing career of the 21st Century.
But Texas Station casino is indeed where Floyd Mayweather Jr. had his first fight -- a wide-eyed neophyte lugging a bronze medal and bad memories around his neck, plying his pristine trade in the back of a low-end casino sitting on a weed-choked parking lot.
There was absolutely nothing special about the setting, yet it housed boxing's best talent, with Mayweather showcasing his avant garde skill set, and Al Bernstein calling it. Mayweather loves to muse in musical terms. But back then he was less than the B Side. He was the chalky stick of bubble gum in a pack of baseball cards.
Much has mutated since then. Mayweather was paid 25 grand that night. On May 2, he will make up to $180 million for fighting Manny Pacquiao at the MGM Grand, physically about five minutes from Texas Station, but a universe away in every metaphysical sense.
He was Pretty Boy Floyd that night. Now he's Money Mayweather. He's finally a man in full, the A Side headliner, the A-List celebrity. Stars come to see him now. He gets a skype call from Tom Brady, talks finance with Warren Buffet, and walks into the ring with Lil Wayne and Justin Bieber -- who combined with Money have enough Twitter followers to fill a continent. (63 million for Bieber, 22 million for "Weezy" and nearly 6 million for Mayweather.)
Mayweather calls all the shots now, as corporeal commerce, his own brand, man, and monarch of the sweet science. The bout on May 2 is his personal, professional, and financial apotheosis.
Much has been criticized about Mayweather the man, and much of it deserved. His history with domestic violence includes no less than seven incidents involving multiple women. In 2011 he pled guilty to a reduced battery domestic violence charge and no contest to two harassment charges after beating his ex-girlfriend Josie Harris in front of their two children. Mayweather eventually served 60 days in jail.
"I think the general public just doesn't know [the extent of Mayweather's past with domestic violence]," said Laila Ali, daughter of Muhammad Ali, during a recent "We Need to Talk" episode on CBS Sports Network. "And lucky for him. Because I don't think people would embrace him as much as they do if they really knew what he has going on outside the ring."
More people are probably aware of Mayweather's past than Ali is letting on, but the point is well taken. Mayweather isn't exactly a model human being. Still, from a strictly business and boxing perspective, his ascent has been nothing short of astonishing, even by the outsized surreality or sports, where nothing is commensurate with reality.
The sports world bristled when the New York Yankees signed Japanese pitcher Masahiro Tanaka to a 7-year, $155 million contract, before he'd thrown one pitch in the majors. Mayweather will make more than that in 36 minutes, provided the fight vs. Pacquiao even lasts that long.
He speaks corporate cliches when pondering Pacquiao, how this is just another fight, another night. But nothing will be normal come saturday night, even in Mayweather's opulent world. He's never made this much money, or faced this much peril. Pacquiao has been the opponent for whom the world has clamored for years for a reason. He can bang.
Some say Pacquiao is by far the most venomous foe Mayweather has ever faced. Some say the Filipino icon is tailor made for Mayweather, whose pensive, counter-punching style is perfectly contoured to counter Pac Man.
Either way, Mayweather has set himself up perfectly inside and outside the ring. Should he finally lose, he will land in an ocean of cash, in which he can swim to a most lucrative retirement or set up a nine-digit rematch.
Should he win, Floyd Mayweather Jr. will have risen from the galling poverty of Grand Rapids, Michigan, from jail, from a lava-hot lot behind the Texas Station casino, to put himself one win short of one of the most iconic marks in all of sports, Rocky Marciano's 49-0 career record. He will remain a far from perfect man chasing perfection.
