How getting old could help Floyd Mayweather Jr. stay relevant
LAS VEGAS – Even in this town of chance, where slight of hand and sturdiness of spirit built a desert outpost that operates within its own social ecosystem, selling Floyd Mayweather’s latest $32 million stroll is proving quite a challenge.
All of the usual promotional measures are in place; Mayweather’s face remains emblazoned stories high on the eastern face of the MGM Grand, videos play everywhere you turn amid the September heat, and the obligatory big-fight slogan is seen all over Sin City.
“Mayhem” is promised when Mayweather takes on Marcos Maidana in a rematch that is a marriage – or a remarriage – of necessity as much as a genuine need for a score to be settled. The first fight was an entertaining early-May scrap that gave some thrills and spills and ended in an odd majority decision, but was ultimately comfortable for the champion.
However, Mayweather needs fights to fill out his six-bout deal with Showtime with a measure of credibility and despite his extraordinarily high opinion of himself and a ceaseless posse of congratulatory sycophants permanently in tow, even he must realize that there is a danger of some relative public indifference setting in.
Yes, there were thousands in attendance for Friday’s weigh-in, and let’s face it, no other current fighter is positioned to attract that sort of crowd for seeing two dudes strip to their skivvies for a few seconds. In those moments on Friday afternoon, Maidana tipped the scales at 146 pounds, Mayweather weighed in at 146.5.
The solid attendance may have more to do with a pre-fight weigh-in being possibly the last free show you can get in Vegas, unless you count the Bellagio fountains and those timeshare scams. Even so, what Mayweather and the promotion really want is for paying backsides on seats come Saturday night, rather than gratis observers a day earlier.
A range of fight tickets are still available both in the casino and online and there is sentiment that television pay per views, pushed up to a wallet-busting $74.95 for HD, are selling slowly, so much that they could duck in at under a million buys for the second straight fight.
Such trends can be difficult to reverse and unless Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao finally get it on (yeah, right), it is hard to see how the 37-year-old is going to get the mainstream juices flowing again.
The only alternative might be one that he doesn’t want to consider. Mayweather is a man who rarely hears the word “no," so it is hard to imagine he would enjoy feeling any effects of the aging process’ inevitable touch.
However, a lost step here, a fractionally stunted reflex there, could actually serve to make Mayweather more entertaining and frankly, more watchable to the wider public.
With so many of his fights been snoozers, despite their technical brilliance, a situation where Father Time acted as a partial equalizer, thus increasing the possibility of a Mayweather defeat – and by extension, a hard-fought contest – would appeal to many of those who prefer a dose of drama in return for their credit card details.
If unstoppable forces of nature make him more hittable, less tireless, a better spectacle naturally follows.
Always divisive, Mayweather knows that there are many watchers, or potential watchers, who would rather see him flattened than eke out another technical decision.
Given his recent behavior, those who love to hate can surely have only increased in number. Accusations of domestic violence from his former fiancée Shantel Jackson were not only troubling in their own right, but also served as a reminder – or an introduction to those unfamiliar with the boxer’s checkered history – that he has been arrested or cited for seven separate physical assaults on five different women.
Even boxers as famous as Mayweather operate in a different existence to many athletes and to a certain extent are off the radar when they are not in the window leading up to fights.
The Jackson affidavit, plus comments appearing to offer some support to NFL outcast Ray Rice, albeit later retracted, did his image no favor either. Given that anyone with even a rudimentary knowledge of boxing knows that part of each PPV sale goes into the pocket of the main star, those words were as stupid as they were inappropriate.
Not every athlete is a good guy or a nice guy and Mayweather would have a hard time convincing a neutral that he is either. Flaws can be overlooked by even the most hard-hearted observer; numerous attacks on females require a far more forgiving approach.
Boxing is a tough sport with tough men and has had felons as champions on numerous occasions. For one who wants to remain about “Money” though, wants to maximize earnings as a crossover star, something a little cleaner, if not squeaky, might be needed.
Save for that, the only way to keep the salivating masses coming back in droves might be regression, aided by a touch from Father Time. If Mayweather’s ego can face that, it could be another avenue of wealth as his career winds down.
