The sad tale of world class champion prize fighters is well documented, from prideful heavyweight champion Joe Louis being relegated to a doorman in Las Vegas, Muhammad Ali fighting long after he had the ability to defend himself in the ring and left as a trembling shadow of ‘The Greatest of All Time’ and Mike Tyson, who went from being the youngest heavyweight champion in the world with all the money and fame before fading to opponent status, broke and bewildered. Floyd Mayweather was keenly
The sad tale of world class champion prize fighters is well documented, from prideful heavyweight champion Joe Louis being relegated to a doorman in Las Vegas, Muhammad Ali fighting long after he had the ability to defend himself in the ring and left as a trembling shadow of ‘The Greatest of All Time’ and Mike Tyson, who went from being the youngest heavyweight champion in the world with all the money and fame before fading to opponent status, broke and bewildered.
Floyd Mayweather was keenly aware of all of those rags to riches and back to rags stories, and he vowed that none of that would happen to him.
The kid nick named ‘Pretty Boy’ with the blazing fast combinations, robbed of the chance to win Olympic Gold, from the fighting Mayweather family of Grand Rapids, Michigan closed the book on his historical career by eclipsing the 49-0 record of Rocky Marciano and becoming the first billionaire athlete on Aug. 26 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
While no one gave the Irishman a chance to beat arguably the greatest boxer during modern history, they could not wait to see it and thus plucked down $100 for the pay per view telecast, or thousands more to see it in person, be it at a movie theatre, a bar or strip club, they paid to see what wee all agree was nothing more than a spectacle.
“They disguised it well, but that was a fixed fight. I saw lots of pulled shots. Floyd showed no killer instinct. He could have murdered that guy. He did not want to hurt him,” Brown said.
Another pal Fred Hawthorne, who was in Vegas to cover the fight was privileged to follow Mayweather around afterwards, says that Mayweather boasted it was the greatest heist ever. “Mayweather was bragging how easy it was and that’s why he wore the ski mask during his ring walk.”
They both might be accurate, just as pen point as Mayweather was with his fists in his professional debut victory over Roberto Apodaca in 1996.
Top Rank Promoter Bob Arum knew from the gate that he had something special, evidenced by Mayweather’s first title two years later in 1998 when he out classed the veteran Genaro Hernández to win the WBC featherweight strap.
In 2006, it was the stylish southpaw Zab Judah, then stubborn vet Carlos Balidomir, the year following was his first real mega fight when he toppled Mexican star and Olympic Gold medalist Oscar De La Hoya by split decision to take the WBC super welterweight belt.
Oh, by the way something startling happened to each of the aforementioned fighters after the met their fate with Mayweather. Save for Alvarez, they all got worse as their career’s progressed. Not soon after, De La Hoya was drugging and wearing fishnet panty hose.
While other fighters kept focusing on titles, Mayweather zeroed in on the money and he beat Arum at his own game. Remember Arum said that Mayweather would soon be broke after leaving him.
Mayweather did something that only had previously been done by Don King, he out witted the cable networks. Joining forces with the financial wizard Al Haymon he raised the money line to a new orbit and the rest is history.
Mayweather has not been without his severe shortcomings, most notably domestic violence, the last incident in which he hit his ex-girlfriend in front of two of their children at 5 a.m. in 2010, resulted in a 90-day prison sentence.
Over a five-month span in 2001 and 2002 he pleaded guilty to two counts of battery domestic violence, but only received 48 hours of community service and two days of house arrest. Three other charges — stalking, obstruction of a police officer, and violation of a protective order — were dismissed.
A high school drop out by 1996 he had already had won three Golden Gloves tournaments.
Only five fighters ever won world titles in at least five different weight divisions.
And while he may not admit it, 50-0 was the cherry on top of billionaire dollar ice cream sundae, an accomplishment by any measure defies all logic and reason.
