By Don Donatello
He had just beaten, Oscar De La Hoya, the biggest draw and PPV King of boxing. Floyd Mayweather Jr. has done it, he supplanted the top draw, most popular, and celebrated fighter in boxing. The Mayweather/De La Hoya fight became the biggest PPV event in history. It sold 2.4 million PPV buys, breaking the old record in a rematch between Evander Holyfield and Mike Tyson in 1997 of 1.99 million.
In Oscar’s last six PPV events, four of them averaged around 952.5K
Oscar’s fights before Mayweather
Fernando Vargas – 935K
Sugar Shane Mosley – 950K
Bernard Hopkins – 1 Million
Ricardo Mayorga – 925
Mayweather’s three previous PPV fights before Oscar, he averaged 338K buys, the highest PPV sale was against Zab Judah.
Mayweather’s fights before Oscar
Arturo Gatti – 340K
Zab Judah -350K
Carlos Baldomir – 325K
Mayweather immediately took credit for the 2.4 million PPV. Mayweather proved he was right in his claim by breaking the 2.4 million record in his very next fight with Ricky Hatton. I understand ghetto math, 850K is larger than 2.4 million. Do you see the 8? Do you see the 2? Which is larger, an 8 or a 2? Ghetto math and logic, baby! It works every time.
Mayweather went after Oscar like Uncle Roger went after his crack pipe. Negotiations about money went back and forth between the parties. Finally, Oscar gave Mayweather an ultimatum. Mayweather blinked and chickened out and accepted Oscar’s final offer. Terms were not disclosed but the initial numbers were 25 million for Oscar, 10 million for Mayweather, plus PPV incentives for both.
The fight with Oscar gave Mayweather the exposure he needed to become boxing’s next superstar. He was the reigning P4P King and he just fought in the biggest PPV event ever. Mayweather started to flex his new found economic muscle. Oscar immediately challenged Mayweather for a rematch. Mayweather accepted, but only if his monetary demands were met. The price was $50 million dollars for a rematch. The rematch never came to fruition. Having beaten Oscar by only a split decision, Mayweather did what was going to be his calling card; accept no risk and fight only opponents where he had as many advantage as possible be it in age, size, strength, power, or technical skills. Take no risk.
Mayweather was atop of the boxing world, life was very good; he owned boxing. Everyone wanted a fight with the new PPV king, Floyd Mayweather. The smaller Ricky Hatton came calling. Undefeated and wanting to cash in on his record, Hatton challenged Mayweather. Fights between two undefeated champions are a promoter’s dream match. Mayweather was the Welterweight champion, and Hatton was the Jr. Welterweight champion. Hatton left his natural weight and went up to fight Mayweather at WW; no catch weight was ever considered. Numbers indicate that Mayweather got 25 million and Hatton received 10 million.
After beating Hatton by TKO in the 10th round, Floyd was now going to implement Plan B. Muhammad Ali and Sugar Ray Leonard used the ploy successfully. Floyd announced his retirement from boxing. Thinking that he was the only mega star in boxing, Floyd thought boxing would become idle and everyone would be screaming and pleading for him to unretire and return to the sport. He would demand unheard amounts of money to fight, but he would also pick and choose the most beatable opponent to face. KAABOOOOM! Plan B exploded in Mayweather’s face. Ghetto logic failed this time.
No one believed in Mayweather’s Plan B, people saw the BS before. In Mayweather’s absence from December of 2007 to September of 2009, exciting fights were made:
Pacquiao/Barrera 2
Pacquiao/Marquez 2
Pacquiao/Oscar
Pacquaio/Hatton
Clottey/Cotto
Hopkins/Calzaghe
Roy Jones/Calzaghe
Taylor/Pavlik 1
Taylor/Pavlik 2
Barrera/Marquez
Marquez/Diaz 1
Margarito/Mosley
Mosley/Cotto
Pavlik/Hopkins
Campbell/Diaz
Julio Diaz/ Juan Diaz
Katsidis/Diaz
The fans remembered Floyd’s boring fights like Baldomir/Floyd, Oscar/Floyd, and Wrestlemania Floyd/Hatton.
Boxing didn’t sit in idle during his retirement, as he hope would happen; in contrast, boxing had a resurgence. And leading the way and grabbing the mantle of boxing was Manny “Pacman” Pacquiao. No one missed Floyd Mayweather. Promoters were not desperate for him to return as he had hoped. Why would they? They had a new mega star of boxing, more exciting, more entertaining, less running, and with a global appeal. Had Pacquiao been an American, he would break all PPV numbers. According to the U.S. Census, there are approximately 9 million of Asian descent living in the USA, 23% Chinese, 20% Filipino, 12% Asian Indian, Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese share about 10%. America has over 300 million people.
“Strike while the iron is hot.” Have you guys heard of that saying? Apparently, Floyd has not. Floyd blundered in the handling of his career. He did not strike while the iron was hot. Instead of striking, he packed his tools of the trade and left the ring. Pacquiao on the other hand striked when the iron was hot, now the iron is smoldering hot. In the strike Manny Pacquiao garnered the Fighter of the Decade award and current P4P title; included are multiple Fighter of the Year in 2008 and 2009, and Knock Out of the Year in his fight with Ricky Hatton in 2009. Pacquiao’s success in boxing garnered numerous accolades and awards including the prestigious cover person for Time Magazine and being elected to Congress in his country, the Philippines.
Things could have been different. Suppose Manny Pacquiao never came around to grab the mantle of boxing in Mayweather’s absence and return. Suppose Pacquiao never traveled to the US where he eventually hooked up with famed boxing trainer Freddie Roach? Mayweather’s Plan B would have worked wonderfully. Fighter of the Decade would be Floyd Maywether jr., P4P title would belong to him, and he might just be the cover person on Time Magazine. The multiple corporate endorsements that Floyd wanted would have come his way. Floyd would be the sole mega star of boxing if Pacquiao never made that trip to the US.
Mayweather’s attempt to game boxing by retiring backfired in his face. Instead of trying to hold boxing hostage for huge amount of money, he could have just let his game do the talking and rake in the money. That is exactly what Pacquiao is doing now, he kept taking risk and fighting bigger opponents, striking while the iron is hot.
Envious, jealous, and bitter of Pacquiao’s foothold on boxing, and are not willing to fight him in the ring, the Mayweather clan set out to destroy him outside the ring. Sensing that a fight with Pacquiao would be disastrous, they went on a campaign that was started by Floyd Mayweather Sr. Without providing any proof, the Mayweather clan started to spread unfounded accusation of steroid use by Pacquiao. The clueless Mayweather fans parroted and cackled the very same words of a convicted drug trafficker, Mayweather Sr. Senior’s crack addicted brother, Roger, also jumped into the fray, even the long lost brother by the name of Jeff Mayweather was able to string a few words on the subject. Oscar De La Hoya and his promotional company, GBP (Golden Boy Promotions), wanting to be Mayweather’s promoters, jumped into the Mayweather’s bandwagon. They even used the much smaller Juan Manuel Marquez to prop up Mayweather’s return to boxing. They made Marquez jump up two division from his natural weight to sacrifice him to Mayweather. Marquez’s trainer, Nacho Beristain, tried to send smoke signals to the media that his fighter was being use to market Mayweather’s return. His rant went unheard and was drowned be the hyper hype machine of HBO’s 24/7 program.
Without Manny Pacquiao, the Mayweathers would be singing in the rain. No amount of rain would put a damper on the Mayweathers’ parade. “. .life would be a dream, sweetheart, sh-boom, sh-boom .fa-la-la-la…” Unfortunately for the Mayweathers, Pacquiao is the one singing in the rain. He came into the Mayweather’s home and whip out a can of ownage, the economy size, in packs of three.
Pacquiao KO’d Mayweather and took his girlfriend (the USA) and made it his. In Mayweather’s backyard, Pacquiao not only took Mayweather’s girlfriend, he took his silverware, bling, trophies, endorsements, awards, accolades, money, fame, TV appearances, notoriety, etc.
Now you can see why the Mayweathers and their delusional nut hugging fans are so bitter. It goes with the territory of being at the very top of life. . . . . . . .sh-boom, sh-boom . .
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