Mayweather: The Puppet Master

By Boxing News - 07/21/2014 - Comments

floyd988By Jermill Pennington: Leading up to the Floyd Mayweather Jr.(46-0-26 kos) vs. Marcos Maidana (35-4-31kos) 2 bout it seems the posturing and gamesmanship has begun. During the five city promotional tour for the fight both camps engaged in some serious trash talking.

For Maidana you would imagine all the slandering being thrown around would seem a bit frustrating being that he can’t join the fun due to a language barrier. However, his trainer Robert Garcia has been more than willing engage in the verbal combat that has taken place over the past week.

Garcia an ex-fighter turned trainer now 38 years of age was a fighter in the early years of Mayweather’s career. Garcia had himself a fine career, racking up 34 wins with 25 coming by way of ko, and only 3 loses at the hands of the likes of Diego Corrales and Joel Casamayor. Garcia is no stranger to out of the ring scuffles, we seen an altercation take place leading in to the Manny Pacquiao vs. Brandon Rios fight. In what seemed to be a misunderstanding of workout times the two camps nearly came to blows. Now on an even bigger stage with stakes at their highest, Garcia and his camp must be sure they aren’t playing checkers while Mayweather is playing chess

Do you remember the movie 8 Mile? If so you can recall the scene toward the end where rapper Eminem’s strategy was to disarm his opponent by insulting himself in all the ways he imagined his opponent would. Systematically leaving his opponent with nothing to say all the while desensitizing the audience to the verbal barbs. This thought came to me while watching Friday’s presser in Los Angeles. Reminder, days before in Washington DC Mayweather had went on the attack telling the audience how Robert Garcia had been ko’d by Ben Tackie and Diego Corrales. Coming in to Friday’s presser in Los Angeles it seemed Garcia and camp came prepared for the verbal jousting. Garcia started by showing a pair of giant gloves proclaiming they were the gloves Mayweather had agreed to use in the upcoming fight. Using the 8mile strategy, Garcia then went on to address what he felt Mayweather would come up to the podium and say. In what seemed a bit odd to me Garcia began talking about how he and his kids sit around watching fights on Youtube where he lost by TKO. “I have pride losing to a warrior like Diego Corrales”.

Garcia then offered Floyd to take it to the back “Floyd, me and you don’t need ppv, we can take it to the back”. Garcia continued by questioning the loyalty of Mayweather’s entourage “everyone with us are friends since day one, after your people are no longer on payroll they will be gone”. While all this was going on Mayweather sat on a table near his team shaking his head and rubbing his hands.

When it was Floyd’s turn to speak I was sure he would have some venom to spew in response to Garcia’s attacks. To my surprise Mayweather did not even acknowledge anything that Garcia said. Mayweather with poise I have not seen from him went on to slowly thank everyone that has any involvement in his career. Not known for having class, Mayweather and camp were class personified. To add exclamation, Mayweather did not address a single thing Garcia said. And to be honest Garcia had some of the best trash talk directed toward Mayweather that I have ever heard and still he said nothing.

There were two things I took from the encounter. One was that Garcia literally said nothing about Maidana or the fight itself. His focus seemed to be more on attacking Mayweather and making sure that we understand that he is comfortable with the loses in his career. And two, they have to be sure that they aren’t letting Mayweather dictate their emotions. Mayweather loves to dictate the pace in the ring, but for a master gamesmen dictating the emotions outside the ring is a whole different level.

Is it unthinkable to think that Mayweather may understand that whatever amount of focus he takes from their preparation only works in his favor? Them being concerned about gloves only leaves a doubt in your mind, I would think it is better to convince yourself you don’t need them, instead they choose to make them a focus. Garcia wanting to fight Mayweather could be a show, but him going as far as to talk about Mayweather’s women to me tells that things have gotten a bit personal.

I believe this is purely tactical on behalf of the Mayweather camp. With the pull he has he can come in at the last minute and take your gloves away while walking away saying “were good”. What that means is Mayweather and camp are telling the guy who needs the money, “we don’t “so it’s on you if you want the fight to happen or not. In my estimation if I were Garcia I would tell Maidana to forget about those gloves entirely. If were Garcia I would tell Floyd I have retired from the fight game and the only job I have is to train my fighter to beat you.

There’s a thin line between checkers and chess, the difference can go unseen to the untrained eye. With athletes that have been atop their sport for years they find things to motivate them. I have heard stories of Michael Jordan picking fights with reporters, fans, opposing coaches and anyone that would engage him only to get himself going. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Mayweather again go on the attack, only to be gracious the next time around. If I were in Garcia’s camp I would try not to engage in these type games. Chino not able to speak or understand much actually works to his advantage. He doesn’t care about Lil Wayne and Justin Bieber, all he knows is to fight, by engaging in all the theatrics in my estimation you are taking away from that.



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