why Pretty Boy became Money...

Leonard Ellerbe, chief executive officer of Mayweather Promotions, said Mayweather is reaping the rewards of a plan implemented a long time ago.
Ellerbe and Hornewer met with Arum and Todd duBoef of Top Rank more than five years ago where they presented a plan to promote Mayweather more heavily in urban markets.

Mayweather, to that point, had been marketed as the good-looking, clean cut All-American boy with otherworldly skills. Mayweather’s plan was to create a strategy that would make him attractive to the hip-hop crowd.
At that time, it was viewed as a risky strategy. Demographic studies at that time showed the boxing audience skewing heavily Hispanic with the largest fan base in the Southwest.

“We had a meticulous, carefully thought out plan,” Ellerbe said. “The urban market was untapped as a pay-per-view market and Floyd believed that before you can do anything else, you have to captivate your target audience. We look at boxing from a global standpoint, but before we could implement our strategies globally, we had to have the target audience, the young, African-American crowd, on lock.

“Young African-Americans in the inner city want to look to their own people for their stars, their role models, for their heroes. It’s no different than young Mexicans, who for years grew up wanting to be the next Julio Cesar Chavez. Floyd is a genius and doesn’t get the credit he deserves for understanding how to promote and market these fights. He was years ahead of the curve and understood long before anyone else what he had to do to build and solidify his target audience.”

In his first three pay-per-view fights, against Gatti, Zab Judah and Carlos Baldomir, Mayweather sold 369,000, 378,000 and 325,000 units respectively. They were solid figures, but they weren’t anything compared to what was to come.

And the vehicle for the explosion that ensued in 2007 was HBO’s groundbreaking reality series, “24/7.” Oscar De La Hoya was the biggest pay-per-view attraction in boxing when he signed to face Mayweather on May 5, 2007.

It was clear from the start that the bout would be one of the biggest ever – it matched two huge names and Mayweather’s father, Floyd Mayweather Sr., was at the time training De La Hoya – but promoters were looking for a way to push it to new heights.

The concept was developed to use “De La Hoya-Mayweather: 24/7” as a way. HBO deployed cameras to the training camps of each fighter to show them as they prepared for the battle.


It aired on Sundays in a perfect time slot, surrounded by top-rated series such as “The Sopranos” and “Entourage.”

It quickly turned into the Floyd Mayweather Show, however. De La Hoya was as he usually is, humble and agreeable, but rarely providing much more than the cliché moments.

Mayweather, though, was over the top, at times charming and outrageous, captivating and infuriating. He bragged about his wealth and his talent and he never passed an opportunity to mock De La Hoya.
“It was ’24/7’ that gave Floyd the ability to make himself the center of attention and bolster interest in his fights,” said Dr. Todd Boyd, holder of the Katherine and Frank Price Endowed Chair for the Study of Race and Popular Culture at the University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts. “In boxing, Muhammad Ali personified it, but it’s something that goes all the way back to Jack Johnson. He talks trash and he rallies his supporters and galvanizes those who want to see him get beaten.
“Floyd made himself a compelling figure and personality via ’24/7’ and there are few of those in boxing. After you’d watch a few episodes, you’d say to yourself,, ‘I’ve got to see this fight.’ And that’s what he was aiming for all along.”

Mayweather created the persona of “Money Mayweather,” the rich guy who had a lavish home, a fleet of luxury cars and was so well off he could go to night clubs and “make it rain” by throwing handfuls of $100 bills in the air.

He’d boast about his “Big boy mansion,” the $17 million home he purchased in an exclusive enclave in Las Vegas. He drives a Bentley and a Rolls Royce and a Lamborghini and he often wears jewelry that cost more than some people will earn in a decade.

His uncle, Roger, who is his head trainer, was always outrageous and, in a crude sort of way, entertaining. His father, who often butted heads with both Floyd Jr. and Roger, was a compelling figure unto himself.
Few other fighters have benefitted from the “24/7” format the way Mayweather has, but it’s no accident. Mayweather had dreamed up such a concept in the 1990s as a way to market himself differently.