Mayweather Hatton: Floyd Wants To Repair His Image

By Boxing News - 11/29/2007 - Comments

Perhaps stung by the massive amount of criticism that has come his way since the airing of Mayweather-Hatton 24/7 HBO boxing special, Floyd Mayweather Jr. (38-0, 24 KOs), is now suddenly trying to repair his public image of the trash-talking, mean spirited, money-focused fighter, hoping that he can convince the public that he is actually a nice guy. Mayweather, 30, has his work cut our for him, because during all of the promotion tours, including the HBO Mayweather-Hatton 24/7 reality series, Mayweather has come across as a cruel trash talker, constantly insulting Hatton both to his face and behind his back.

At the same time, Mayweather has come off as an out of control egomaniac with his constant praise of himself, going so far recently to proclaim himself as the greatest fighter of all time – even better than Muhammed Ali and Sugar Ray Robinson. Perhaps it was the last straw with the public, as they collectively appear to taken a decided disliking to Mayweather, as judged by the constant criticism of him in boxing forums on the internet.

In trying to conduct damage control, Mayweather had this to say recently, “”Everybody is entitled to judge a person how they want to do – but I’ve got a good heart,” Mayweather said. “I never did anything illegal and all I did was go out there to dedicate myself to the craft of boxing.” “Each fight has to have a good guy and a bad guy,” he said. “When I fought Oscar De La Hoya I was the bad guy, but when I fought Zab Judah I was the good guy – because he was even worse than I was. “ Mayweather may have a point when he talks about each fight needing a good and a bad guy, but Mayweather has come across essentially the same person for his entire career, and it doesn’t seem like an act to him. Indeed, this appears to be who Mayweather is as a person.

While I personally believe Mayweather is a decent guy underneath all his self promotional bluster, he’s got to take a good look at himself and consider how he’s coming across to people, because he seems painfully out of touch with his true image. I mean, it’s one thing to be confident about beating Ricky Hatton, but quite another thing when you take the insults to lowest level and appear cruel in the process.

If Hatton was trading barbs with him on equal footing, it wouldn’t be so bad and it might even be funny. However, Hatton is clearly out of his league with the trash-talking Mayweather and is getting bullied in the process. Believe me, it doesn’t look good to see someone get verbally beaten up when they don’t have the tools to defend themselves, and people naturally begin to feel sorry for the one being beaten up rather than identifying with the bully.

Either Mayweather is too thick headed to understand or he’s doing this on purpose like he says. As for rebuilding his image, I don’t think it’s possible for him to stay in character long enough to ignore hiss natural instincts of wanting to insult others. Just my two cents.