That is a pretty hefty
claim, to say a welterweight boxer is better than the legendary Joe Louis,
Mohammad Ali, Sugar Ray Robinson, Jack Johnson, Jack Dempsey, or Michael Tyson.
They might just box the ears off the
arrogant cash flasher.
Floyd is the person everyone loves to hate, because
he gives everyone lots to hate.
Mayweather once gave a radio
interview in which he said people sometimes ask him why he hasn’t “given to Africa .”
“Well, what has Africa given to us?” he said.
Joe Louis |
“You hear people talking
about, ‘Well he should give that to charity’ . . . No, I should donate to
Floyd Mayweather.”
The fighter has also been
accused of beating five women, including a 2010 attack on Josie Harris in front
of their son, Koraun. He did two months in prison for the assault.
From the MGM Grand on May
2 to homes across America, boxing fans rained boos on Flamboyant Floyd — but
the only sound the welterweight champ could hear was the ka-ching of cash
registers.
The May 2 fight made him
the highest-paid champ in boxing history, Mayweather hardly seemed to notice he
was also one of the most reviled.
Mohammad Ali |
“The check’s got nine
figures on it, baby,” Mayweather bragged Sunday, as he waved the first of two $100
million checks he earned for beating Manny Pacquiao in a unanimous decision in Las Vegas . The pay-per-view revenue would drive his
total take to over $200 million.
“No pictures, though,” he
warned reporters. “Don’t want any pictures of it.”
Sugar Ray Robinson |
He did say he would take
one million dollars in bundles of $250,000 each and share them with the
prostitutes in Las Vegas . It seems only appropriate to follow up
pay-per-view with pay-to-play.
"Money"
Mayweather, as he likes to be known, loves to have bags with millions of
dollars in his bed, house, car, or whatever.
Jack Johnson |
Of course, it is good he
wins those hundreds of millions because it keeps him at the head of the pack as
one of the most irresponsible spenders of the modern celebrity era.
Floyd baby has an image to
keep up in order to be the role model he thinks he should be for all those
aspiring kids stuck in the urban ghetto.
Jack Dempsey |
Be like
"Money". He has millions of
dollars in cars.
in planes,
in mansions,
in jewelry,
and God knows what else.
The welterweight
titleholder has also earned the ire of boxing fans, who are less impressed by
his 48-0 record than they are repulsed by his constant bragging, his
selfishness, and his history of assaults on women.
Mayweather, who had a net
worth of more than $300 million before the fight, has gained a reputation for
extreme greed.
Mike Tyson |
After winning, Mayweather
jumped up onto the ropes and flexed his biceps for the crowd — which responded
with vigorous boos.
He was later caught on a
cellphone camera yelling at hecklers: “I told you so! I told you so!”
He admitted the crowd was
against him, saying he was grateful the judges were not swayed.
After the fight,
Mayweather took a pummeling on Twitter.
The Rev. Edward Beck, a
Roman Catholic priest from New York ,
wrote: “Don’t understand how we make a serial batterer of women a national
cultural hero. What does this say to our youth? #Mayweather is no winner.”
Newspaper headlines say it all.
His focus on money,
strippers, and suicide are insane influences in kids looking for hope and
guidance, not arrogance and indifference.
We need a new set of real
heroes for our youth. Greed is
yesterday's news and people like Mayweather belong in the forgotten past, not
in our face today.
.