(Photo credit: Esther Lin) By Ken Woods: Floyd Mayweather often gets criticized by the media and boxing public alike. He has faced it for the majority of his career, but not only is the reproach unwarranted, but we have heard it all before.
Jack Johnson was the first African-American heavyweight champion. He was supremely skilled, a counter puncher, trash talker, and undeniably confident in his abilities to defeat any opponent put in front of him. There were reports that he would carry other fighters, prolong matches to brutalize them, and even hold opponents up who were falling down.
Johnson excelled in the ring and lived a lavish life outside of it. He aimlessly threw his money around, gallivanted with white women, which in the early 1900s was a cardinal sin for a black man, partied wildly, and drove the finest cars made at the time.
The press would lambast him in the newspaper every chance they got. They would say Johnson’s fighting style was boring, cowardly, and even devious. Johnson’s style was to be patient, counter, use footwork and mobility, maintain a staunch defense, and beat his foes with precision and speed rather than brute force. Does that sound familiar?
Every time Johnson beat an opponent, the press would build another boxer up to challenge him. No matter how impressively Johnson beat one foe, there was always another the press and fans alike were sure would beat him the next time. Does this sound more familiar?
The media really wanted Johnson to face Jim Jeffries, who was a retired heavyweight champion. The media was sure he would get the job done and finally shut Johnson’s mouth for good. The fight took many years to make, with Jeffries refusing to fight him until the pressure was too immense and money too high to pass on this fight. Jeffries came out of retirement and succumbed to a brutal 15-round knockout loss, ending any speculation as to who was the best.
Johnson’s career parallels Mayweather’s career in many ways. Mayweather does all the things mentioned above, whether it’s the fighting style or the lifestyle, and he receives the same treatment. Yet what is disheartening is that the condemnation from more than a century ago is still the same. The sports writers and public were living in an oppressive racial climate at the time, so their criticism can be somewhat explained. What is the explanation today? The same things that were said about Johnson are being said about Mayweather, yet the conditions of the social order have changed vastly.
This begs the question: Are the criticisms slung towards Mayweather racially based? We can be pretty sure the denigration Johnson faced had something to do with race. Or is it simply the lifestyle that he leads? It seems detractors will find a reason to discredit his success in the ring, but it’s something deeper than what goes on in the ring.
Before Mayweather’s upcoming fight with Saul Alvarez, many were saying he would never face Alvarez because he was too young and strong, now the rhetoric is Mayweather only faced him because he is too green and inexperienced. So what really is the underlying issue with Mayweather?
It seems our society has not moved past the rhetoric from more than 100 years ago.
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