Hey Floyd Mayweather, JR Fans: Here’s One For You, Maybe he is Just Plain Old Scared of Manny Pacquiao!
Loading ...
By “Big” Bill Bradshaw
Italia 1990: It was the year of the Soccer World Cup and Ireland was in the grip of a football frenzy. We had qualified to play in the tournament for the first time and such was the passion of the fans that even newborn babies broke with tradition and launched into a chorus of “Ole, Ole, Ole” as soon as the doctor smacked their ass. It was a great time to be alive and, even though the Italian’s broke all our hearts in the quarter finals, we still partied on for the best part of a decade…or two. I remember going from bar to bar and ending up, arms linked, with total strangers as we sang songs and said farewells safe in the knowledge that we would never meet again…the moment was everything. Sport can be a unifying force in such circumstances but that passion can also be harnessed in a powerfully negative even obsessive way. This is often apparent in boxing but can be acutely concentrated in the hardened ranks of the Floyd Mayweather, JR. fans. I would go as far as to say that the extremists are not fans at all, they are Floyd fundamentalists.
Social media has become swamped with updates on the proposed bout between Mayweather and Pacquiao to the point where anything becomes news…rubbish becomes news…lies, rumor and innuendo become worthy of print. “Breaking News: Pacquiao nods off watching TV, Mayweather camp claims Arum put Pac in voodoo trance to stop talks….insiders say Manny has slept before”. Let’s just establish the facts before we cast a cursory eye over these crazies. 2014 was a pivotal year in the career of both fighters. For Mayweather, it was the year of Marcos Maidana who dragged Floyd into the pocket in a fight that should have been a draw. It was a typical Tony Meeks refereed bout where tough guys count but the dogs on the street knew that no one will take a decision against Mayweather in Las Vegas. In the rematch, Kenny Bayless was called upon to keep a safe distance between the fighters and, as always, he obliged. 24 rounds in the ring with Maidana proved that Floyd did well to stay away but came up short in a brawl. Pacquiao, on the other hand, had a lackluster revenge win against Tim Bradley and he destroyed the woefully outclassed Chris Algieri in a November mauling. Since then the Filipino has done everything humanly possible to entice ‘The Best Ever’ into facing him in the square ring. Talks were forced upon Floyd in a bid to save his credibility but, I suspect that he had no intention of ever agreeing terms. He made his usual demands which Pacquiao accepted and that’s when the wheels came off the playpen bus.
It was reported on December 28th last that Al Haymon had made Miguel Cotto a considerable offer to face Floyd in a May 2nd rematch. If true, this would be a double edged sword as it would offer Floyd an opponent he’s already beaten and it would sway the PPV figures that Golden Boy had expected in a Canelo vs Cotto bout. Oscar recently announced that all negotiations are off between the fighters as Cotto simply didn’t respond to his offer….surprise surprise. Now there appears to be a glitch in the talks between Mayweather and Pacquiao with an announcement, one way or another, expected by the end of January. How many more times will TMT pull this stunt before people say enough is enough. I’m just surprised that the WBC, who ‘demanded’ the fight, can’t find the backbone to strip Floyd of the title for simply doing as he pleases regardless. Nobody is bigger than boxing….nobody!
With regards to Floyd’s fanatical fans…they operate in a realm that is devoid of reality, a zone where they feed off each other’s insecurity like obese and wrinkled porn stars engaged in whatever acts of depravity it takes to make a buck in ‘the entertainments industry’. Their abuse is both vulgar and illiterate and often underpinned with racism. That a fight fan would have followed all the greats from Jack Johnson to Andre Ward would mean nothing to these idiots as a comment suggesting that Floyd is not, in fact, The Best Ever is a clear indication of someone who can’t accept a black man doing well. We are all just shades of brown folks, from chocolate to cream, and shame on the vile scum who would use the shade of a man’s skin in any argument. Then there’s the ‘Hater’…definition: Anyone with point of view that does not glorify or pay homage to the lord our God, Floyd Mayweather. The ‘Hater’ is an insensitive bastard who deliberately inflames a conversation with such scurrilous remarks as “Pacquaio is a good fighter”…”I thought Castillo beat Floyd in the first fight”….and “So…what other boxers do you like?”. To top it all off, Floyd fans have a twisted sense of nobility. They will berate you for discussing Mayweather’s problems outside the ring as “this is just about the boxing” but, at the same time, they are swamping social media with photos of Oscar in high heels and tights. To suggest that any man is entitled to his personal pleasures providing it doesn’t involve criminality, threats or assault means that you are a “Hater or a Pactard who doesn’t know s**t about boxing”. There is no logic that can be applied, no sense of civility that can be brought to the discussion, no exchange of opinion that doesn’t warrant a shower when it’s over.
If the Mayweather/Pacquiao talks collapse and I believe they will, it will have been a construct of TMT to ensure that Floyd maintains his 0 record without having to risk it all against Pacquiao. Were he to do so and lose, it would mean that all he has achieved means nothing. The Castillo defeat would come back to haunt him, the controversy over the decision against Oscar, the retirement rather than take the rematch, the avoidance of Antonio Margarito, the ducking of Pacquiao, the possibility that the first Maidana fight was actually a draw…these would be raised should he lose to Pacquiao and the fanatics would have no place to hide. So I suspect there will be a huge sigh of relief if it’s announced that the fight will not happen and the finger of blame will, somehow, be pointed at Manny Pacquiao and Bob Arum. Business as usual will be restored.
Purchase your copy of “Big” Bill’s Book: Hello Welcome
