By Robert “Big Moe” Elmore: The four fighters that beat Oscar before Floyd beat him (Bernard Hopkins; Shane Mosley’s 2x; Felix Trinidad), for whatever reason, they didn’t become “the man to beat”. But Floyd Mayweather has become “the man to beat”.
I will say that the business has changed since the days of Oscar De La (who is currently number one in pay per view sales), but Floyd has transcended the sport as far as pay days and big fights go. But since Floyd defeated De La Hoya, the haters have latched this Catch 22 on Floyd.
We’ve heard fighters say “I’ll fight anybody” to get the public’s attention. What’s often lost in that statement is “if the price is right”. Floyd can’t do this. People forget that boxing is a business and making good decisions can be the difference between a fighter retiring comfortably and struggling to pay bills.
Where other fighters are allowed to make “business decisions”, Floyd’s business decisions have equated to ducking. If it were really all about fighting anybody, then why didn’t we see Erislandy Lara/Ishe Smith fight take place? It doesn’t take a rocket science to figure out that Lara fighting Canelo brings a big pay and more publicity. Fighting Smith wouldn’t do that. But this is what haters want him to do; fight someone who doesn’t bring anything business wise (fan base) to the table.
This way if the pay per view event flops then they can claim that he is not the star he claims to be. For example, in 2006 Mayweather was set to fight Antonio Margarito. Top Ranks CEO Bob Arum told ESPN, that Floyd had no problem fight Margarito, but wanted a 10 million dollar guarantee to fight Miguel Cotto and Ricky Hatton. Arum only was only willing to give 7 million for those fights (Mayweather turns down 8 million to fight Margarito; Dan Rafeal).
Floyd fighting Margarito wouldn’t have done anything for Floyd’s career for where he was trying to go. Fighting Carlos Baldomir did. He made 8 million and one dollar and picked a title along the way. Shane Mosley and Paul Williams both fought Margarito and didn’t become “that guy”. Nobody was kicking down their door for big fights and both fighters remained the b side for future fights. Even when Floyd makes a good business decision it’s still met with criticism. His fight with Canelo generated 2.2 million buys and a record breaking 150 million in total revenue. Haters claimed the fight did well because of Canelo and the undercard. Well duh. What is wrong with stacking a fight card?
If one knows that this fighter brings something from the east, this fighter from the west, and so forth then why not team up with them to make a big event? We have seen what lack luster undercards have yielded with Cotto/Martinez (375,000 buys) and Canelo/Angulo (365,000 buys). This is why I don’t buy into the fact that Canelo was “largely” responsible for the Floyd fight. Yes, he did bring a lot to the table, but his pay per view numbers from the Angulo fight told a different story.
Floyd has proved his worth. His overall average for pay per view (not counting the Miadana fight because no official number has been released) bouts is 1.48 million buys. There is a stigma in boxing that “this fight must fight this fighter to prove himself”, but nobody gets it like Mayweather. For example, fans are claiming that Floyd must to fight Gennady Golovkin (GGG), yet GGG doesn’t have to move up to fight Andre Ward. Every time he has fought (especially at welterweight) he has been outweighed by 10 or 15 pounds. But let’s say GGG took the fight. He would have to come down to 154 pounds. If Floyd wins, the excuse will be “GGG was weight drained”.
Then there is this Manny Pacquiao thing. Pacquiao is considered a threat to Mayweather in the eyes of many fans even after being knockout cold by Juan Manuel Marquez. There would be no way in the world Mayweather would be any kind of anything to Pac had Floyd been lying face down in the ring. But this is how bad haters want him to lose. They have hitched there wagon up to everyone who thought might be a threat to Floyd before the fight. After Floyd dismantles them, the excuses have flown; and will fly and their wagon will be hitched to another fighter. And this will continue until he retires. Floyd has many people who enjoy him watching him and he has those who pay to see him lose. But to some, he will always be in that catch 22 box.
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