Boxing Doesn't Need Mayweather, But It Can Sure Use Him

I'm kind of conflicted about last night's boxing shenanigans. For starters, I care very little about the sport. There's a laundry list a mile long filled with things wrong with it. The only one I'll really mention here is that the best athletes no longer look at boxing as an avenue out - and they haven't for a couple of decades. The best American athletes gravitate towards the NBA if they're tall, football if they're big and everything else if they can't hack it in those. With baseball, skateboarding, hockey, soccer, boxing and mixed martial arts getting the scraps that the big two team sports aren't, the nation doesn't care nearly as much as it did about any of those as it used to.

Yes, baseball is still #2 in terms of popularity, but many of the best and brightest in the sport aren't the true "athletes" who could have done any sport they felt like, but happened to choose baseball. Insert your own Explosive and Athletic joke if you so desire, but I'm not referring to race. In general, baseball players are not the raw, physical athletic specimens you see playing power forward or defensive end. Regardless of skin color, it's just not usually the Joe Athlete that could dunk a ball, throw 40 yards in the air, run a 4.5 40, golf with no handicap of the world that becomes a baseball player.

What I'm trying to say is that the future Pretty Boy Floyd's of the world are not becoming boxers. They've found a better avenue to use their athleticism to make money that doesn't require getting punched in the head ten thousand times. Make no mistake, Mayweather is a phenomenal athlete. Fast and powerful, adept at not taking damage, and great instincts. Boxing used to get some of the cream of the crop because that was their best shot out of abject poverty - now they go elsewhere.

Getting back to Saturday night, I find myself looking at it from different angles. For starters, I'm fairly certain that Cortez, the ref, did not actually restart the fight, and simply went with what happened, because to go in any other direction means the blame falls squarely on his shoulders. If you look at his ugly mug as the events transpire, he is astounded by what is happening, and after Ortiz hits the canvas, he looks off into the crowd, as if asking Paulo Filho what he should do. His eyes come across a gentleman at ringside in a striped ref-looking like shirt. I don't think that man was a referee for the fight, and merely an excited person, but that man immediately jumps up and starts yelling a 10-count while using his fingers as a counting prop. Cortez, in perhaps the smartest moment of his life, realizes that he's supposed to be the one doing that, and then starts counting, picking up at four where the striped shirt gentleman left off at.

Having said that, I find almost no fault in Mayweather taking the opportunity to suckerpunch Ortiz into Bolivia. I once wrote a Fanpost stating that it ain't cheating unless you get caught. That and if you aren't cheating, you aren't trying. There's no such thing as great sportsmanship when you're playing for money, and even less so when it is a combat sport and the other guy's job is to do damage to you. Was Mayweather's act unsportsmanlike? Probably. Does that mean he isn't supposed to do it? No, not really.

Let's take a second and label everyone in the ring for a moment. Cortez is as sharp as a bowl of jello and should probably be fired, Ortiz is a sap and a fool for trusting anyone in the ring other than himself to do the right thing and Mayweather is a scumbag - a winning, opportunistic scumbag, but a bag nonetheless (and not just for his action in round 4 that night, but that's another story).

But wait! There's more! After the fight, Money went and had one of these on live TV:

In case you couldn't tell, this video has audio that is almost certainly not work safe, is definitely not PC safe and is funny as hell.

Floyd had his opportunity to look like a complete idiot in front of the world and took it. Took it and RAN with it. There is, however, an old saying that goes "there's no such thing as bad publicity." Brock Lesnar helped prove that in our sport. Muhammad Ali and Jack Johnson did it generations ago in boxing. Lebron James. Michael Vick. Bill Belichick. Chad Ochocinco. Loudmouths, criminals, poor sports, egomaniacs... their common thread is that they draw eyes.

Now personally, Mayweather has still failed with me, as I have zero intention of ever paying money to watch him fight. Not in a rematch against Ortiz, not even to fight Pacquiao. To be fair to him, should he ever fight Pac, I'm sure some friends of mine will head over to a bar and I'll join them, so indirectly, May will get some dollars out of my pocket - just not directly into his. In the interest of disclosure, I don't even pay for most UFC events. I have a working internet connection and lack enough scruples to be willing to find shady websites showing unclear videos instead of always spending money on this, a sport I care a ton about.

Getting back off of me and to the subject. Mayweather has almost certainly managed to milk more fame and money out of this event than anyone ever expected he would. Some people with more disposable income will be curious enough to see what happens in the rematch to buy it should they do it again - and there's no reason they shouldn't. It will make both men very wealthy all over again and it will keep him from having to seriously risk his undefeated record and face Pac. Good for him, whoop-dee-do and all that.

Boxing has been in such a rut for decades that anything that brings eyes to it, even if it's their second biggest star acting like a cartoon character, is good for it. They need the eyes if they want to stay relevant in this nation (and much of the world outside of a few enclaves, such as Mexico, Russia, etc). It will still survive and have plenty of participants - it is as simplistic a combat sport as you can get and thus great for people in poorer areas of the world to practice in. This is the reason soccer is so widely followed - you don't even need shoes to play it, just a round object and some flat(ish) ground. For boxing to ever thrive again, however, it must become interesting again. You can use a ton of adjectives to describe Saturday's event, but interesting is certainly accurate, regardless of your stance on it.

Fraser Coffeen wrote on BE:

Whether you want to see him win, or you want to see him humbled in defeat, you want to know what will happen next, and you'll pay to find out.

 

I won't pay, but I'll care a little more than I used to, even if it's for the latter result. Mission partly accomplished for PBF, which is really all boxing can ask for these days from any of it's stars.