Tuesday, April 1, 2008

Floyd $$$ Mayweather

I have to preface this by stating that I am an avid boxing fan, but I found Floyd Mayweather's foray into the WWE a disgrace, Floyd not only disgraced boxing, but disgraced himself and his legacy. Floyd is unquestionably the best boxer in the world, he is an all time great, winning titles at six weight classes. He made over 45 million dollars last year for boxing and defeating Oscar DeLahoys and Ricky Hatton, at 30 years old in the prime of his boxing career he could achieve anything in the sport, there are big matches he could have against Miguel Cotto, Shane Mosley, or a number of other fighters that would be lucrative and great for the sport that helped take him from Floyd Pretty Boy to Floyd $$$ Mayweather. Instead Floyd has turned his back on boxing and instead focusing his attention on wrestling. I understand that large amounts of money like the 20 million Floyd reportedly received for wrestlemania can make a man do strange things, but the best boxer in the world wasting his prime by fighting a scripted match at wrestlemania against a 7 ft man that could in any other arena except the "sport" of wrestling swat him like a fly is tragic. Floyd obviously sees a world outside of boxing, and he is trying to make himself a crossover star, like Ali and DeLahoya, but both of those men gained that stardom through boxing, not through cheap publicity stunts. Floyd has a gift he is an artist in the ring blessed with all the physical attributes a great boxer could hope for, yet he runs from the sport that made him. Imagine if Picasso had decided he didn't want to paint because someone offered him a few more dollars to be a stonemason, the world would have lost some of its most wonderful art,. Floyd is that good of a boxer he is Picasso in the ring. I know now with the paychecks and endorsements rolling in boxing is probably a complete afterthought to $$$ Mayweather, but it is safe to assume one day when he takes a sstep back adn hears boxing historians ask what could have been had he really focused on boxing he will realize there is more to life than money.

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