Mayweather Jr. – The Oh has to Go!

By @TheWritersTeam - 01/01/2014 - Comments

floyd9023There is a law among boxing writers. Write about Floyd Mayweather Jr. and your article automatically draws more attention. He is undoubtedly the #1 pound-for-pound champ and the face of boxing. So it’s no surprise that what he does, other boxers try to duplicate. Both inside and outside the ring.

But by far his biggest influence on current boxers is the emphasis he puts on his undefeated status. This might sound silly because obviously who wants to lose? But it is a fact that the greats (Ali, Leonard, Robinson, Chavez, Tyson, De La Hoya to name a few) all took losses. That didn’t make them un-great. Can we really rank Ricardo Lopez, Joe Calzaghe, or Teri Marsh among them for their undefeated records? I’ll let you be the judge.

Then Mayweather came along, touting his ‘0’ with phrases like, “Forty-one have tried and forty-one have failed” (to Victor Ortiz) or “There is a game plan to beat Pacquaio. There’s no game plan to beat me.” Encompassed in all Mayweather’s PPV buys are many viewers hoping to see the king dethroned.

In recent years, boxers have obsessed with maintaining their ‘0’ for as long as possible, even if it meant avoiding the most entertaining and credible fights. Canelo is a big example, having spent the majority of his recent fights against welterweights or washed-up fighters. Austin Trout was his first real step up.

This is especially the case with heavyweight contenders like Deontay Wilder and Tyson Fury. And the fire burned brightly around Seth Mitchell and David Price while their zeroes remained intact.

Then consider Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. It took a long time for him to fight any true competition, i.e., Sergio Martinez. No one wanted him to lose his 0. In boxing, keeping the ‘0’ means keeping the hype train going.

And then there is Adrien Broner. What is the biggest reason we believed he could be “the next Mayweather?” The zero. The Philly Shell, the trash-talking, and the flashy clothes all contributed, of course, but it was that zero that really mattered. Because who else could be “the next Mayweather” but somebody undefeated? Mayweather’s identity is his zero. If he loses his zero he becomes a different fighter.

Many believe Broner can no longer be the face of boxing after his loss to Marcos Maidana. But let’s say he beats Maidana convincingly in a rematch and goes on to take down other great fighters. Let’s say he essentially becomes “the next Mayweather” in terms of marketability and PPV buys. Then let’s imagine Canelo also takes over boxing. He becomes “the next De La Hoya” if you will. Both will have defeats on their record. But guess what? That won’t matter. They’ll still be the biggest names and the most popular fighters.

Now that they’ve tasted defeated, the crucial need to carefully match them is reduced. Yes, they won’t just fighting against anyone. But it’s not like a second loss will hurt them any worse than the first if it’s against the right fighter at the right time.

While I have my doubts that Canelo or Broner will become the next faces of boxing, it’s not a bad prospect now that both have defeats. Maybe boxing can finally move on from its obsession with the zero.

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