By Jim Dower: As many people expected him to, unbeaten Floyd Mayweather Jr. quickly came out on Friday and apologized for his racist comments made towards Manny Pacquiao on Ustream during a 10 minute video on the internet. In his new video, Mayweather said “I do want to apologize for the other night. A lot of people were saying I made racist comments but anybody that knows me knows that I don’t have a racist bone in my body. I have nothing but love in my heart. Anybody affected by what I said I apologize as a man. I was just having fun. I didn’t mean it.”
The question here is whether Mayweather’s apology will be enough to win back fans he may have lost due to his tirade. Also, nothing has been said from Mayweather’s corporate sponsors yet, but you have to wonder whether they will continue to want to work with Mayweather. The good news is that Mayweather’s comments haven’t been aired all over television the same way that pro golfer Tiger Woods’s marriage problems were shown. Woods ended up losing a lot of his sponsors because of his issues.
In his most recent video, Mayweather also said this: “He [Pacquiao] thinks he’s one of the best but I am the best. For all you Pacquiao fans, stand behind him believe that he’s going to win. All 41 of my other opponents have believed they would win but it didn’t happen. I believe in my skills [and] I believe in my talents.”
Mayweather also had this to say about Top Rank promoter Bob Arum, whose son John Arum was found dead on a mountainside in Washington state on Friday:
“God bless to Bob Arum and his whole family. All love to Arum and his family.”
Mayweather may not have been aware of what the reaction would be from fans when he made his initial video the other night. He was with a group of friends and appeared to be having a good time while the video caught everything that Mayweather said about Pacquiao. The reaction to the video from boxing fans and writers has been overwhelmingly negative. Indeed, it’s hard to find any support whatsoever for Mayweather at this point. An apology is a good first step but Mayweather may need to make some kind of additional overture to show how sorry he is for his negative video. This isn’t something that can be easily forgotten.
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