Mayweather-Ortiz: Floyd Carries HBO’s “24/7” On His Shoulders

By Boxing News - 09/14/2011 - Comments

Image: Mayweather-Ortiz: Floyd Carries HBO’s “24/7” On His ShouldersBy Kevin Pasquale: HBO’s magnificent “24/7”, narrated brilliantly by Liev Schrieber, (ESPN’s boxing writer Dan Rafael has commented that he would enjoy listening to Schrieber read the phone book) has become a franchise all it’s own.

It has spawned imitators (Showtime’s “Fight Camp”, a notably less impressive facsimile), and has expanded into the likes of NHL Hockey, (“Penguins/Capitals: Road to the NHL Winter Classic”) as well as NASCAR (“Jimmie Johnson: The Road To Daytona”), and even baseball (“Derek Jeter 3K”, an HBO documentary, following Derek Jeter’s chase to 3,000 hits, behind the scenes).

But boxing is where 24/7 finds it’s magic. The show’s editing and imagery is immaculate and often times breathtaking, and it’s soundtrack is painstakingly selected, and pieced together to form a riveting 25 minutes of TV programming. To further verify this point, my wife, who finds boxing as entertaining as watching paint dry, is enraptured by the series, and doesn’t miss an episode.

Miguel Cotto has appeared fleetingly on the program, as has Ricky Hatton, Roy Jones Jr., Oscar De La Hoya, and Joe Calzaghe, amongst others. The infinitely likeable and talented Manny Pacquiao will be appearing in his 5th “24/7” appearance in November (when he faces Juan Manuel Marquez, now a two-time 24/7 representee), and Floyd Mayweather is wrapping up his fifth appearance, with this weekend’s fight against Victor Ortiz.

“24/7” has become Floyd’s perfect outlet to be, well, himself. Love him or hate him.

When watching 24/7, one can’t help but be captured by Mayweather’s personality and flair, his flamboyance and cockiness. Whether acting foolish with money for the cameras while hanging out with his one of his many celebrity friends, 50 Cent, in his massive 22,000 square foot home in Vegas, shopping for Bentleys and announcing to the free world that he’ll be paying for his new ride “in cash”, or exchanging an angry tirade of endless F-bombs with his wacky father after a training session, Floyd has grabbed 24/7 by it’s bootstraps, and yanked it along for the ride, creating an enjoyable bite-sized piece of entertainment.

As they say in every walk of life, whether it be sports, acting, singing, or selling shoes: you either have it or you don’t. And Floyd has “it”, that innate ability to entertain as no other person can, when the HBO cameras are on, following him and his entourage in the weeks leading up to a fight. In an era where any person in every walk of life can be, and is, represented by a “reality show”, Mayweather stands atop the heap as the pound-for-pound king.

Does he perhaps ham things up for the camera? Of course he does. Does this “act” work? Of course. Mayweather has mastered the art of gaining millions in revenue for himself by playing the villain: he is all too aware of the polarizing effect he has on the boxing fans across the globe, and has used this fact for his ultimate benefit. Floyd knows we either love to watch him fight, so that he can maintain his unbeaten record, and he also knows just as many (or more) of us are watching him on 24/7, and will buy his next fight, to see him suffer his first loss in the ring. But that’s ok with Floyd, as he has often stated: All is good when one is pursuing the ultimate goal: more cash. Here again is where Mayweather is as good a self-promoter as he is a fighter.

His clash with Victor Ortiz also highlights the training camp of young Victor, 24 years old, and coming off of his career-defining victory over Andre Berto. Ortiz’s story is right out of a book: abandoned by both his mother by the age of seven, and five years later by his train-wreck of a father, he and his four siblings were left to fend for themselves in Kansas, Victor at just ten years of age.

He is a likable young man, and 24/7 does a fine job in capturing his past struggles, and sudden rise to fame. But much like whenever I watch “The Dark Knight”, and I find myself bored and distracted whenever Heath Ledger’s “Joker” is not on screen, I feel this same boredom and restlessness when Victor and his team are followed on 24/7. When is Floyd coming back on? I find myself asking. It can be argued that Mayweather brings out the best in the 24/7 franchise, allowing the series to shine at it’s brightest.

At the same time, Floyd can be aggravating, most times displaying a child-like petulance and temperament in front of the cameras. And, his personal problems are well documented. But, the Mayweather act still works, with almost five complete 24/7’s under his belt. I often find myself smiling while he’s mugging for the cameras, reaching into his bag of tricks to create some sort of entertainment, in any way possible. As he and his team (or hangers-on, whichever you prefer) often blurt out in the midst of his training sessions, it’s “hard work” carrying the 24/7 program on one’s shoulders, and it’s apparent that Floyd knows his counterpart simply doesn’t pack the entertainment punch the show is yearning for, so he steps up his antics, and he pulls it off. It’s hard work, but Mayweather gets it done.

With the fight just days away, all of the pundits are coming out of the woodwork with their predictions: Floyd hand-picked Ortiz, and thus will methodically break the younger man down, and dispose of him; some say Ortiz is young, strong, and hungry, and this will manifest itself in the ring, as Floyd doesn’t know what he’s gotten himself into. We’ll all know the truth very early Sunday Morning.

But again, this is not about Floyd the fighter, but Floyd the entertainer. If he defeats Ortiz, and Pacquiao defeats Marquez, the world will once again clammer for the biggest “money” fight of all time: Manny vs. Money. This may never come to be. But either way, be advised: Floyd is 34 years old, and his time in the spotlight, and in front of HBO’s cameras, could soon come to an end. So, I, for one, have decided to enjoy the Mayweather show as long as it lasts: love him or hate him.



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