February 25th, 2008
This can go only one of two ways.
 The associated press just reported that boxing WBC welterweight champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. is to be paid $20 million by the World Wrestling Entertainment co. for his participation in their upcoming Wrestle mania XXIV event March 30th.
Now for those of you who know boxing “pretty boy” Floyd is considered to be the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world, and now he’s willing to stray again from boxing to pursue other interests. His manager Leonard Ellerbee described the decision to wrestle as a form of expansion of Mayweather’s career and fan base. This isn’t the first time Mayweather became involved in a “side-project”, if you remember well he also participated in the hit show “Dancing with the stars” a few seasons back. He didn’t win the competition, but the publicity expanded the fans to shall we say an older fan audience?
Now my only concern is this Mayweather, already has a “respected” boxing career and he also already has a bulging bank account, especially after the fight against Oscar de lahoya. So what is the purpose of participating in a sport where your opponent wears “lucha libre” masks and your #1 fan are a 55 year-old hillbilly grandpa with his suplex-raging grandson?
Floyd “money” Mayweather claims he is doing it because he likes the way the WWE handles business (who wouldn’t with payouts like that) but now what do you make of his boxing career after this little escapade is over? Does any other real boxing fan or for that matter professional boxing fighter take him serious again? I mean he just came back from a sport that focuses on carefully-choreographed action and swinging trashcans frantically at one another.
I guess one could argue that this is an ingenious way to extend your legacy across different sports while further fattening your bank account, but for the boxing critics and hardcore boxing fans does this not scream out blasphemy? You leave a sport that has made you what you are today and then waste your fighting talent on open-hand slapping your roid-induced dance partner?
Like I said this goes one of two ways, either Mayweather has found a way to tap into different entertainment markets and blow up his image or he has just lost the respect of his original boxing aficionados. You decide.
This entry was posted on Monday, February 25th, 2008 at 8:41 pm and is filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Spring Break