By Joseph Davey
For me and I’m sure many boxing fans, Saturday’s superfight between Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao brings with it equal parts excitement for the bout itself and disdain for it’s coverage. For years at a time, mainstream sports media avoids boxing as if it were a plague that could infect the very image of America’s most “wholesome” sports. If baseball, basketball and the NFL were an all American backyard barbecue, boxing would be the drunk uncle everyone tries to forget is there. Sure he has some good stories, but they’re the same few you’ve heard a million times.
When a super fight does come along that’s worthy of public consideration, the talking heads of sports TV respond by dredging up the “I remember whens” and inevitably talking about the same three fighters (Ali, Leonard and Tyson) and how they relate to the upcoming fight. For men and women who can break down and analyze the 1983 Super Bowl and the 72 World Series like it happened yesterday and possess a near encyclopedic knowledge of every stat ever collected, their lack of insight into boxing is almost cringe inducing. It’s as if boxing is constantly happening in the past. The current crop of fighters just never seems to measure up to the greats of yesteryear.
Even boxing’s own fan base is often guilty of focusing on how much better those bygone fighters are than our current ones. But like all things in life, the past has a way of smoothing out the rough edges and leaving us with a rosy and nostalgic memory of what once was. Case in point is the seemingly constant comparison between Floyd Mayweather and Sugar Ray Leonard that the media is so fond of making.
A common refrain is “yeah Mayweather is good, maybe even great, but Leonard is a legend”. After such comments we hear things like “Leonard fought fighters in their prime!” and “Leonard always fought the best there was! He wan’t afraid to take risks!” All of which are mostly true. But Leonard’s career, looked at objectively, suffers from the same criticisms now being leveled a Mayweather. Early in his career, Leonard did fight fighters in their prime. His wins over Wilfred Benitez, Roberto Duran and Tommy Hearns were all career defining wins over equally great fighters in their prime. And all of them were the best available fighters at the time Leonard fought them. But Mayweather had a very similar run early in his career with victories over Genaro Hernandez, Diego Corrales and Jose Luis Castillo; all of whom were in their primes.
No one criticizes Mayweather for this stretch of his career because like Leonard, these wins were over the best in the division and represented fighters who were at the peak of their careers. But after those wins, Mayweather has been criticized for hand picking opponents who are past their prime, making them come up in weight to fight him and in the case of the impending Pacquiao fight, waiting until Pacquiao looked vulnerable to make the fight. This is the point where most media members bring up Leonard as an anti-Mayweather example; a man who never took the easy route and only fought the best at the peak of their powers. But the passage of time has seemingly erased the reality that it was Leonard who championed the tactics employed by Floyd to gain an edge over his opponents. In his bid to win the light heavyweight title, Leonard made titleist Don Lalonde weigh in at 168 for the bout; 7 pounds under the light heavy limit. The same 7 pounds Mayweather had Juan Manuel Marquez come up in weight to challenge him for the welterweight title. And as incomprehensible as it is, many writers and analysts use Leonard’s win over Marvin Hagler as THE example of Leonard going out of his comfort zone to fight the best.
They all seem to forget that the Hagler fight was first proposed in 1982, a full 5 years before the two fought. Of the 8 fights Hagler had in those 5 years, one was a close decision win over Roberto Duran and two were legendarily brutal wars against Tommy Hearns and John Mugabi. It was only after Hagler took massive punishment against Mugabi and looked past his best that Leonard came out of retirement and signed to fight him.
People cite ongoing eye issues as the reason Leonard took so long to make the fight, but it rings about as hollow as Floyd’s drug testing issues holding up the Pacquiao fight. It may have been an issue for a short time, but neither was the reason the bouts were held up for 5 years. Whether Leonard is a better fighter is certainly a legitimate debate, but the way in which people forget that Leonard employed many of the same tactics as Floyd has as much to do with nostalgia as it does with the personas of each fighter. Leonard was universally loved by the public at large and Mayweather is almost as universally reviled.
It’s another favorite topic of discussion among the mainstream sporting press: Mayweather the domestic abuser. On the surface it’s a just criticism. What Floyd does outside the ring is over the top, obnoxious and in the case of his domestic violence issues, down right abhorrent. He at times is almost equal parts villainous persona and actual villain. There are no excuses for anyone, let alone a major sports figure, to commit such horrible acts against women. Yet, the way in which these sportscasters talk of his crimes as if they were synonymous with the problems that plague boxing and only boxing is laughable.
Floyd is an incredibly easy target for this because of his refusal, in many cases, to even answer questions about the abuse. When he does, it’s done with such lack of remorse that he paints the worst possible picture: a man who is the face of a violent sport and has no remorse for using his trade on defenseless women. It is at the least a fairly accurate portrayal. For a man whose job is to render trained men unconscious to put his hands on a woman is a display of the worst qualities in human beings. The conclusion that is often made though, is that boxing is the wild west. It tolerates the worst acts of man so long as the millions of dollars at stake aren’t put in jeopardy. And it’s true.
Things like steroid use, criminal behavior and underhanded politics are the norm for boxing. With multiple belts in each weight division and “title fights” that take place between fighters no one, including boxing fans have ever heard of, it’s easy for the average sports fan to sit back and agree that “man, boxing messed up.” Yet for all of it’s flaws (and there are many), boxing is the most honest sport out there. Don’t believe me? Look at the NFL.
Few people batted an eye when Ray Rice was suspended for a paltry 2 games following his “alleged” domestic abuse allegations. It was only after the disgusting video of him knocking his wife unconscious that the NFL took real action against him. Anyone who thinks Rice would have sat out more than his 2 game suspension had the video not leaked is dreaming. Players routinely fail drug tests and get into “altercations” outside of the NFL, yet next to nothing is done.
Kobe Bryant, still revered in the U.S. as well as around the world, settled out of court on civil charges that he raped a 19 year old hotel employee. He then publicly apologized to the fans and the woman who accused him of rape; yet in the same breath contended he did not rape her. A year later, he signed a multi-year, $136 million dollar contract with the Lakers. His sponsors returned. People swept it under the rug and comedians joked about it on late night TV.
In a way, Floyd Mayweather asking “where’s the video” in response to his domestic violence incidents is his way of saying “why do they get away with it and not me?” Because in the mainstream sports world, it seems all America wants is a half baked apology and promise not to do it again. Sports fans want to see their “heroes” back on the field. And by swallowing their righteous indignation in order to see players return to action, boxing serves as the perfect scapegoat to relieve the American conscience. “Yes, what (sports star) did was bad, but did you see Mayweather?!” He didn’t even apologize!” The same holds true with money.
College football fans are more than happy to watch every meaningless bowl game despite the fact that they’re nothing more than hyped up cash grabs. And cash grabs off of the backs of athletes that are literally earning nothing for their effort. Boxing’s multiple belts are such thinly veiled attempts to squeeze money out of the fighters that they stand as a reminder of the greed inherent in the sport. But for some reason bowl games and the relentless sponsorship ads that run through every major sporting event are passed off by the general public as legitimate forms of sports revenue. The bottom line is all sports are about money. The difference between boxing and the mainstream sports is simply that of appearance.
Major League Baseball and the NFL hide their greed in boardrooms and closed door meetings. Boxing simply removes the veil and lets the public see the truth. The squabbles between promoters and networks that has been at the forefront of the run up to Mayweather – Pacquiao is merely a peek into the sordid world that is professional sports. In boxing, the fighters, trainers and promoters have always worn their hearts on their sleeve. The sport has always represented the best and worst in human nature. For those of us who love it, the raw honesty of the fighters in and out of the ring is why we keep turning in after the bright lights of a super fight have gone dark. it’s why we buy premium cable packages and shell out 99.95 to watch our “Superbowl”. It’s life in microcosm without the pretense of false appearances.
Boxing is the good, bad and ugly of the sporting world. On Saturday, Floyd Mayweather will be fighting for money. More money than any athlete has ever earned in one night of sports. He’s totally unapologetic about his reprehensible actions outside the ring. And yes, he’s fighting for his place in sports history. The question we should all be asking is whether we value the sport over the man. To claim boxing is everything wrong with sports is to gloss over the more difficult issues at play every time an athlete doesn’t live up to the ideals society has expected of them. When the fake apologies are removed and the money is on the table for everyone to see, we should all be asking ourselves whether we care more about the larger issues or just want to see a contest played out at it’s highest level. On May 2nd, maybe we should be asking ourselves whether sometimes, it may be worth our money to see if the bad guy gets what’s coming. At the very least, all sports fans should have boxing to thank for that.
