Floyd Mayweather: a Legacy In Retreat

Canelo Alvarez vs. Floyd Mayweather
Floyd Mayweather stunk the joint out. There's that saying, 'win this one, look good the next time'.
The problem is, Floyd Mayweather has stunk out an entire career. Shuckin' and jivin', sneaky pot-shots, then bolts like a flushed rabbit from a hunter's dog.

There is something mystical about a boxing match which the male ego is powerless to resist. To the male viewers, our personal sense of overpowering and dominating a credible enemy is evoked - us imagining our own two dukes were at play (ever watch a boxing fan go through the movements - especially when beer's involved?) With this combat sport -these battles - we live vicariously through the FIGHTERS

Floyd Mayweather is a disgrace to FIGHTERS, the purest definition being, two people standing in front of each other in active combat. To true fighters, damage taken en rout to the victory is a badge of honor - a symbol of one's own committment to endangering himself in order to vanquish his foe to get the knockout: one guy goes out the victor, but they both go out on their shields. To the pure pugilist, there is nothing more courageous than baptism under fire. This is the purest virtue and fight appeal to fans, be it a fight between 2 guys in a back alley of a bar, or two tremendously-conditioned athletes on the biggest stage possible. Even the face-off photo-ops they make the fighters engage in is a little tease - a microcosm - of the close-combat battling the fighters are expected (and advertised) to partake in.
Floyd Mayweather circumvents this - he hates these virtues. Floyd Mayweather could care less about the primal passions stirred in the boxing public's hearts when they pay money to see two guys go toe-to-toe - he has cavalier indifference to this. Floyd will enter into combat, yea, but only with laser-guided bombs, detached, from a safe distance - no bayonets needed. His running style lacks both asthetics and virtue. He is the most evasive fighter in history and he's only able to score his backwards-momentum punches by virtue of his freakishly long reach advantage - pot-shots.

Who wants to pay to see some guy fight a skittish jackrabbit? "If I wanted to see the Tour de France, I'd go to France", Larry Merchant once lamented. "Ran like a chicken", was the view of Robert Guerrero's father on Mayweather's performance against his son. "At least Pacquiao will stand and fight" was the analysis of J.M. Marquez when comparing the two.

Mayweather fights going backward, almost like running backwards on a treadmill. No...like a kangaroo leaping backwards on a backwards treadmill. Other metaphors will suffice:
perhaps like a matador facing the charging bull, only in Mayweather's role as said matador, he doesn't stand close enough to impale with a sword, no. He'd use a 15-foot, long range spear, as to avoid any possible contact with his foe.

Or, try this one. Mayweather reminds me of the small birds that mob and harrass raptors in flight: they'll endlessly menace and pick at the larger animal, but are never brave or bold enough to full-on attack it. Floyd Mayweather fights like that.

Or perhaps, a wolf chasing a faster-running deer: imagine this chase through 12 stanzas, where the wolf is completely incapable of catching up to the deer for that duration, but always manages to get close enough for the deer to deliver a swift kick to keep the wolf at a distance. Take that scenario, that metaphor, and conflate it with the way floyd metes out just enough taps and potshots to pad the judges scorecards, who have no choice but to give the round(s) to the fleet-footed, pot-shot-sneaking Mayweather - like the fleeing deer scoring random kicks to prolong his retreats.

There's your 74.95 folks. Enjoy.

People don't buy ppvs to see scorecards padded with potshots. People pay to see, for lack of a better phrase, somebody getting knocked the **ck out.

Showtime commentator Bob Sheridan tried - rather conspicuously - to sell you on Mayweather's supposed stylistic virtues in-fight, almost willing his (manufactured) enthusiasm onto the audience, hoping they'd buy it and distract from the obvious: Floyd Mayweather was, yet again, 'stinking the joint out', refusing to engage his opponent. The showtime commentators even said in round 10 that Mayweather wouldn't be knocking out this guy. That's an implicit way of stating the obvious: Mayweather will risk nothing to give the fans their money's worth. Mayweather WILL NOT go out on his shield. He's already got 'money in the bank' so to speak(padded scorecards), and since his money is gaurenteed to him over the 6-fight deal, he's got not motive to try to impress and entertain anyone or risk anything, despite his boasts.

To the knowledgeable viewer, it was kind of obvious what the Showtime Commentator Bob Sheridan was doing: trying to protect their Company's massive investment by hyping their 'product'. But, as so often is the case with product hype, alot of B.S. was involved.

"Folks, you are watching one of the greatest fighters in the history of boxing. Be pleased you spent your money to see this. Be pleased." Well, showtime announcer, no matter how much you need for me to find pleasure in your little investment, I've got eyes and discernment of my own, and I'm NOT pleased; you can will your manufactured enthusiasm onto me, the boxing fan, all you want, but I'm still rolling my eyes watching a fighter who will not engage his opponent like a man.

As for the biased Sheridan commentary, there was something sophomoric about it: clearly not on the same level of polish, professionalism and journalistic style we've seen from the various HBO commentators.

Floyd Mayweather despite himself rouses the loyalty of at least one sector of America - disinfranchized Black young adults, to whom Floyd could do no wrong. Floyd emulates and embodies their sensibilities and mal-adaptive philosophies of life. To them, Floyd represents something apart from the iconic virtues of other defense-oriented Black fighters like Sugar Ray Leonard and Pernell Whitaker - fighters who, even while being evasive-oriented, managed to excite in a way that Floyd rarely does.

In the Sept. 14th fight, Canelo's a$$ was kicked. By himself. He gassed himself chasing phantoms to the point of exhaustion. I want my money back. I wanted to see A FIGHT.

 

Forgot these other points.

Floyd only fights in Vegas - no exceptions. Vegas, the only major venue where Floyd's precious xylocane is allowed. See, Floyd's knuckles are not as durable as other fighters', and he has to have this advantage to win fights.

And then there's the hometown promoters that dictate the hometown referees' conduct in Floyd's favor (remember how Cortez mobbed Hattons every move?).

 

True in one sense, but boxing depend on the lust and passions of the ppv-buying fans, who demand to see FIGHTING, to see COMBAT. Fighters like Mayweather send them over to Dana White in droves.

 

I've not liked Floyd since his mid-career when first I viewed his evasion-only style, but also when, at the end of these fights, he climbs the ropes and jeers angrily -with hatred in his face- to the crowd.

And then there was his, 5th fight against Kino Rodriguez. Floyd landed a devastating hook to the liver, sending his opponent down writhing in pain for moments on end. While his opponent was on the mat, Floyd stood on top of him, pushing foreward into him with his shins, hatefully taunting the man. What did this journeyman Mexican National athlete do to Floyd to inspire such hate? Nothing. It was this kind of maladaptive, crass, unprofessional display that epitomizes Mayweather.