Attention Floyd Mayweather, JR. – Al Haymon is Tired of Your Nonsense Too
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By “Big” Bill Bradshaw
Life is a long list of clichés. There’s one for every occasion and, here in Ireland, they often involve alcohol and someone at a fireside with a fiddle. When a child is born, we ‘wet the babies head with a wee dram from a big bottle’. When times are bad, we ‘drown our sorrows’. When times are good, we ‘paint the town red’. When it rains, we say ‘It’s only a night for a high stool’ and when the sun shines we ‘cut a bee line to a beer garden’.
When someone sheds their mortal coil, we ‘raise a toast to the poor bastards honor’ and an old fashioned Irish wake involves toasting the said poor bastard for several days if the mood catches us. Half the wakes in Ireland are attended by total strangers who just show up for the shindig. But away from the grave matters of death and depression, the world of high finance is where one would do well to learn the clichés ‘never judge a book by the cover’ and ‘all that glitters is not gold’. It would appear that no one read these to Floyd Mayweather before he scrawled his X on the contract with Al Haymon.
Mayweather has been cotton balled for years. Back in the days when he was singing Bob Arums praises to anyone bored enough to listen; Floyd was treated like an endangered species by his old Top Rank mentor. Arum knew the value of a dollar and he knew well that Floyd would be the goose with the golden eggs for many years to come. Floyd doesn’t like southpaws and Arum scratched them off the list. The sports cars piled up and everyone smoked Cuban cigars. Mayweather was allowed to get away with just about anything as the money men jumped to his defense at the mere suggestion the train would ever stop rolling on. Money was no object. He was forced to pay $600,000 for not making weight against JMM. Mayweather didn’t even come close to making weight but that was okay…it’s our boy Floyd..C’mon…think of the ching ching ching. He made false allegations against Pacquiao and paid a fortune in compensation but…it’s Floyd and shame on you all for suggesting he obviously did it to avoid fighting someone who would kick his ass as Manny would. Floyd Mayweather’s people would tell you that he is an honorable man and that the truly savage and psychotic beating that he gave to the mother of his children and the terrifying threats he made to those kids was merely a guy letting off a little steam. But ‘age waits for no man’ and things have changed for Floyd ‘Moany’ Mayweather.
When Al Haymon came into the picture, it looked as if Floyd had joined the ranks of Wall Street as a mega deal broker. Not bad for a convicted thug but that association could now prove to be Mayweather’s downfall. Whereas Arum imagined several lucrative years with Floyd and Oscar was counting the paydays down the road, Al Haymon is aware that, at almost 38, Mayweather’s PPV days are numbered and, come next September, his contract runs out. The partnership has already run into trouble with a legal action by De La Hoya preventing Richard Schaefer from coming to the tea party for the moment and Leonard Ellerbe being resurrected from the ‘where are they now’ farm…I wonder if he had Floyd SR’s old room. Unlike the abrasive Mayweather, Haymon has gotten on particularly well with Arum during negotiations. As far as Al is concerned, Mayweather’s value is limited to two fights and he intends to make as much money as possible from the Floyd during that time. With almost $300 million on offer for the biggest bout in boxing history, reports have circulated that Haymon has told Mayweather to stick all that nervous energy where the sun don’t shine and sign the contract. Floyd’s legacy, the 0 record, means nothing whatsoever when it comes to commerce and the dollar is king.
For the first time ever, Floyd has nowhere to hide. Big bad Bob is happily telling the world of how he protected little Floyd during his Top Rank years and the biggest names in the game are going public to say the legacy stops here if Mayweather doesn’t fight Pacquiao on May 2nd. Floyd desperately appealed to Haymon in December to get him out of the proposed bout and, it was announced that a $50 million offer was made to Cotto on December 28th.
Haymon believed that Floyd would fight Pacquiao in his September swan song but, following the uproar amongst fans, Al has strongly advised Mayweather to take this fight and to take it now. With no place left to go, Floyd is waiting on Pacquiao to look away first. Top Rank gave Floyd a deadline of January 30th to sign contacts and TMT asked for an extension of time. They are now waiting for Pacquiao to become dejected by the delay and announce a plan B fight, in which case Floyd will crawl out from the chicken coup and cluck to all that Pacquiao ran. But it seems as if Top Rank know the rules of play and they are willing to let Mayweather sink so far into the mud that even his old jail cell would look like a better place to be.
With reports coming out that Floyd wants ZERO part of Pacquiao and the Cotto fight is back on the agenda, it remains to be seen how Al Haymon will feel about being associated with such a public figure of fun. I suspect that he is doing everything in his power to help Floyd find a backbone and give the world and Al’s bank balance the bout it deserves. Should he succeed, Floyd will be entering the ring on May 2nd to face a man that he simply doesn’t feel he can beat. Should Haymon not succeed, Floyd will be seen for the coward that he is. But, to quote the great J.R.R Tolkien “a man that flies from his fear may find he has only taken a shortcut to meet it.”
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