by Babatis Banda: When one passes away, and especially in my culture, all the nice things are said about the deceased as the obituary is being read. Usually, the employers are also given an opportunity to say something at the burial of their deceased colleague.
More often than not, we have heard how somebody was hard working and how they were about to be promoted, how difficult it will be to replace them and so on and so forth. All the praise comes at the late hour, when the accolades, the praises are worthless.
One Floyd Mayweather Junior comes into mind in the midst of an atmosphere of pure hate, envy and senseless controversies. When Floyd fights, he is in there alone in that squared circle, even amidst his home town fans, he would be booed. The reasons are varied depending on how you look at it. Some will hate him for the cocky, brash individual he is.
Some will hate him for his lifestyle, the money and the partying. Some hate him for being so skilled and his personal belief in his skills. Some blatantly hate him for what he does to other boxers in the ring. Floyd does not say things to please other people, to twist their arms for their loyalty. Floyd calls a spade a spade, and he will not hesitate to tell you what he feels about anything, he says it as he sees it. That is just Floyd and that what makes him the character he is.
Floyd does not hide the fact that he boxes for money. He does not shy away from saying what it is. Some boxers lie that they do it for the entertainment of their fans….that is a pure lie, boxing is a dangerous game and it is business.
If there is anybody who does it for their fans, or for fun, why do they negotiate for a decent pay-cheque? Why do they mind what they get paid at the end of it all? The fact that Floyd says that he puts himself first is an indication of his honesty, we all pay to see the violence that is inherent in all human beings.
To ask Floyd to show compassion to his foes or to question his sportsmanship over a legal incident is mind-boggling in the case of Victor Ortiz. I feel so incensed when Floyd is always the victim even when he is right. Others like Ortiz will get away with a sadistic head-butt, nobody wants to talk about it.
Manny gets away with his refusal to show sportsmanship behavior by taking RBT and yet, for some, it is OK. I wonder if it was Floyd who head-butted Ortiz, and then he got knocked out cold. In some places, I am sure traffic would have come to a standstill in celebration. I also wonder if it was Floyd who was refusing to take the test how some people would feast on it and make things really difficult for him. All the same, the goodness is that Floyd appears undaunted and he doesn’t really care. He makes the most money in the sport and he draws the most pay-per views more than anybody else. Ultimately, his objectives are met.
With all this negativity against Floyd, only the best survive and he is the best. His style is tailored to beat anybody in his weight class and it takes only honesty to watch him and agree that indeed, he is the greatest. When he is gone and no more, the boxing world will put him to the rightful place he belongs in history…the very top as is always the case.
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