“Mein Kampf “Mayweather
by NORRIN RADDICAL
Attention. Warning and beware to the following individuals: Eddy Reynoso, Raushee Warren, Paulie Malanaggi, Joel Diaz, Jermell and Jermall Charlo, Virgil Hunter, Andre Ward, Adrien Broner, Nazim Richardson; and any other elite boxer or trainer that has compared themselves to or has praised or expressed due credit to the pugilistic prowess of undefeated number one reigning pound-for-pound king of boxing, Floyd “Money” Mayweather, because, according to Bob Arum, president of Top Rank Promotions, they have effectively compared themselves to the infamous 20th century WW2 antagonist, warmonger, mass murdering, genocidal, German dictator, nazi executive, Mein Kampf author, social propaganda enthusiast, Adolf Hitler.
Bob Arum (L;) and multi-divisional champion, pound-for-pound #1 boxer in the world, Floyd “Money” Mayweather (R;) , during somewhat less volatile and more hospitable times.
For all those audaciously intelligent and rational enough to contemplate the sheer absurdity of comparing a super-star, African-American boxer, (who happens to currently be the worlds highest paid athlete), with historys most notoriously psychopathic, pathological, misanthrope, whose name is synonymous with every degenerate and defecient characteristic description attributed and appplicable to mankind, then one has only to peer into the not so distant past, for a sustained dose of risibly shocking suppositions, whereas, this isnt the first, and comically, probably not the last time, that asymetrical, incongruent parallels have been drawn on an imbalanced plane of distorted disinformation by Arum, towards his quondam signee, current all-time great, and future hall of famer, Mayweather. The satirical irony of a promoter referring to a boxer as Hitler, considering the documented historical relationship between the two roles, should not be ignored or overlooked, with the traditional dynamic being, the promoter, as the one exhibiting the more totalitarian, despot traits, routinely hoarding the lions share of the profits, while the fighter, who has just literally risked their life in competitive ring combat, earns only a proportionately small percentage of the overall generated income from the event.
The public rift between erstwhile promoter, Arum, and star prized -fighter Mayweather, seems to have begun to surface around 2005 and 2006, between Mayweathers now classic championship clashes with the late Arturo Gatti (6.25.05) and Zab “Super” Judah (4.08.06), with Mayweather citing, Arum and Top Rank, as owing him millions in unpaid revenue and income for the two bouts combined, and eventually choosing to excersise his contractual buy-out option of $750K, to release himself from the services of Top Rank. It was within this time-frame that there appeared to be a mounting effort on the part of Arum to discredit Mayweather, by publicly challenging his heart and courage as a champion. Arum accused Mayweather of avoiding then, “most feared” welterweight in boxing, former WBO champion Antonio Margarito, whom Mayweather was offered $8 million to face by Arum, however instead, chose to meet with WBC champ Carlos Baldomir for a $12 million payday (11.04.06), Mayweathers highest fight purse to date at that time. Both fighters, Margarito and Baldomir, boasted strong buzzes and plenty of momentum at the time, being Ring Magazines #1 and #2 ranked welterweights in 2006 respectively. Each man, being naturally bigger and perceived as physically stronger than Mayweather, with similar aggressive, come-forward, pressure styles of fighting, offered up intriguing match ups for the pound-for-pound “Pretty Boy” on paper, however, with Baldomir recently coming off of an upset victory over past Mayweather foe Judah, and a dominating TKO stoppage of Gatti, as well as being the WBC lineal champion (the WBC strapholder generally being recognized as the “legitimate” champion of the division), also factoring in a $4 million pay difference, Mayweather made the decision that made the most sense, not to mention the most “cents”, and went on to defeat Baldomir (04.11.06) by way of a lopsided unanimous decision in their bout.
A couple of years later, moments before his 2009 title fight against then WBA champion “Sugar” Shane Mosley (1.24.09), Mosley trainer and head cornerman Nazim Richardson, discovered illegal “plaster” in Margaritos handwraps. Margarito went on to lose the bout with Mosley, by way of 9th round KO, and was subsequently suspended, receiving a one-year ban from boxing, and also garnering naturally reasonable suspicion of identical wrongdoing in his TKO victory against Miguel Cotto several months earlier in 2008 (7.26.08). It can be said, without much cynicism, that Mayweather literally dodged a potential “brick” by choosing the more worthy opponent for the higher pay. Being this as it were, the controversy over, “foreign objects”, whos duckin’ who, and banned substances, would only continue to escalate between Arum and Mayweather.
In 2007 Mayweather landed what was the biggest fight available in boxing at the time, a confrontation with “Golden Boy” Oscar De La Hoya. Back in 2001, De La Hoya, also formerly promoted by Arum, left Top Rank, filing and winning a lawsuit against Arum, and starting his own company, what has now become the biggest and most succesful promotional enterprise in boxing, Golden Boy Promotions. In his lawsuit DeLa Hoya claimed Arum intentionally attempted to trammel his career, accusations not dissimilar to those made by Mayweather during the time that he and De la Hoya were both promoted by top rank, and Mayweather ardently petitioned to Arum for a fight between he and De la Hoya. Arum spurned the young champions appeals, by dismissing Mayweathers request for a $20 million fight purse, as being unrealistic and outside of feasibility. Despite Arums faithless skepticism, when the two did eventually meet in 2007 (05.05.07), not only did Mayweather earn over $25 million for his split decision victory over De la Hoya, consequently catapulting himself into mainstream mega-stardom and solidifying his postition as boxings undisputed #1 cash cow, but the event also broke all previous pay-per-view and live gate revenue records previously set by the Tyson-Holyfield II heavyweight rematch back in 1997.
Most keen and HONEST observers, would view this as being the central crux of the Arum-Mayweather contretemps. The fact that two of his ex-clients, each of whom, Arum has been accused of deliberately attempting to hamper their star-potentials, as well as, on numerous occassions, has opined, less than complimentary remarks pertaining to each fighters intelligence and aptitude outside the ring, each, had begun to, and have now, exceeded him in both profitability and promotional prestige.
During Mayweathers breif hiatus from the sport, after his memorable 2007, 10-round KO conquest of then undefeated Ricky Hatton (08.12.07), up until his ring return against Juan Manuel Marquez in 2009 (09.19.2009), another Top Rank poromoted fighter rose to public prominence, eight-division champion, Phillipino boxing icon, Manny “Pac-Man” Pacquiao. In similar fashion to Margarito, but more pugnaciously done, Arum managed to almost inextricably attatch Pacquiaos name to Mayweathers, as the newest and latest “duckee”, to whom Mayweather was purportedly hiding from. These allegations, no doubt, played a pivotal part in Mayweathers choice of Marquez as his opponent upon his return to the squared circle, as Marquez at the time, already had two previous controversial, toe-to-toe, tooth and nail, bloody, no-holds-barred-wars, with Pacquiao. The first being scored a draw (05.08.04), the latter (4 years later,03.15.08), a razor thin split decision win for Pacquiao by only a one point margin. Mayweather on the other hand, seemed to barely even break a sweat during his bout with Marquez, easily outboxing the Mexican legend, after a nearly two-year layoff, with a 12 round unanimous decision shutout. This should’ve lead to, what every boxing fan erroneously assumed would be, an inevitable showdown with Pacquiao. Negotiations for the mega-fight commenced in late 2009, and the event was scheduled for March 2010, with Mayweather honoring his half of the agreement, by signing his portion of the contract for the fight. Top Rank and team Pacquaio, on the other hand, had an overwhelmingly demonstrable issue with one particular stipulation. Olympic style random blood and urine drug testing became the ultimate insurmountable point of contention. The fact that it was the sole ancillary stipulation requested by Mayweather, while Top Rank and Pacquiao were allowed to choose glove and ring size, as well as include a weight contingency clause in the contract, requiring Mayweather to pay an additional $10 million per pound, if he were to come in over the welterweight 147 pound weight limit, ($10 million a pound!!!), all to which Mayweather readily agreed, not withstanding, even with a commendable good faith, time-concession, offered in the spirit of compromise, which would’ve allowed Pacquiao to be randomly tested no later than two weeks prior to the fight, any and all drug testing methodology stricter than those required by the Nevada State Athletic Commitee (NSAC), as provided by the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA), was at that time, totally unacceptable to team Pacquaio and Arum, who remained intransigent in their position. Declaring everything from superstition, to Pacquiaos potential physical depletion if small amounts of blood were to be drawn within 30 days of the fight, as valid reasons for Top Rank and Pacquiao in their declination and refusal to participate in random drug testing, and thereby terminating the first round of negotiations for the super-fight of the century.
Over the course of the next four years, the spectre of this would-be-classic-clash in the ring, has quite visceraly, hovered over the boxing landscape, casting a nebulous overshadow, which continues to manifest itself in various permutations of teaser negotiations. Such as, a confirmed phone call conversation from Mayweather to Pacquiao, in which a flat purse of $40 million was offered to and refused by Pacquiao, as well as, a not so confirmed or substantiated group of lucrative investors from Singapore, willing to finance and co-promote the event, and, Arums own specious intent, to build a brand new state of the art outdoor stadium to house the event. Any ground for the construction and erection of said arena, has yet to be broken.
What Arum may have or probably should’ve commented regarding Mayweathers negotiation style, is that, he is stubborn, obstinate, unyeilding and more than a just a bit of a control freak, attributes common to many, if not most successful businessmen and even, gasp, forbid, some other boxing promoters. But when the objective of the agenda is to discredit ones opposition, then naturally only the most heinously, demonizing and polarizing comparisons will suffice. Actually when scrutinized in the proper context, theres another larger than life 20th century figure and personality, thats exponentially more analogous to Mayweather than ‘ole Adolf. Someone who, perhaps not so coincidentally, shared the same vocation, and occupied the same esteemed position atop the sport of boxing as Mayweather currently does. That being none other than, The Greates Of All Times, Muhammad Ali. Even though the die hard detractors and misguided sentimental nostalgists will offer an ersatz scoff at the “mere mention” of Mayweather and Ali in the same sentence, however, boxing accomplishments, abilities and skills aside, all of which are very highly comparable as well, when considering each fighters battles inside the socially biased rings of media and popular opinion, the two legendary fighters are indeed very akin. Not to mention, Ali only had print, and a somewhat limited, broadcast network media to deal with, while Mayweather has the aformentioned print media, albeit somewhat diminished from Alis time, a broadcast-cable television network media complex, that dwarfs even Alis extensive experience with news cameras and reporters back in his day, and of course, the proverbial new kid on the hybrid information block-highway, the ubiquitous online social-media of cyber-space. Just as the media bore an undeniable and pivotal role in the public misconception of Ali as a cowardly draft dodger, so to has the minions of misinformation, wrested the baton from Arums hand, and ran off the track and out the stadium with it, proclaiming the supposition of Mayweather as a courage lackin’, gutless yella’-bellied, runin’ coward, who has ducked every bona fide, real mccoy threat in his era, and has cherrypicked his way to a flawless 45-0 professional record, by strategically choosing to fight soup kitchen, tomato can opponents, with whom the victory was already a foregone conclusion even before the ink dried on the contracts. Despite the disparaging myths and inaccuracies spewed by the media towards Mayweather, rarely if ever do you hear the same outlets give mention to his counterpart, Pacquiaos, plethora of tactically timorous transgressions. Such as, when Pacquiao head trainer, Freddie Roach, explicitly stated on camera, that they refused to fight Shane Mosley at 147 pounds in 2009, even after doing so with De La Hoya, (who hadnt fought at the welterweight limit in nearly ten years), with Roach stating, emphatically, that Mosely was simply too good to fight at that time without a catchweight. The critics will also be quick to surmise, that Mayweather also avoided a prime Mosley at an earlier point in both fighters careers, however with more diligent attention to detail, one would just as quickly be able to verify the fact, that Mayweather did indeed call Mosely out repeatedly, at the same time that he was clamoring for the De La Hoya fight while still with Arum and Top Rank. Also, the fact that Mayweather deftly vanquished Pacquiaos most perrenial adversary, Juan Marquez, who, in their last bout in December of 2012, (08.12.12), the fourth and most definitive installment of the Pacquiao-Marquez epic saga, dealt a vicious 6th round KO, delivering the “Pac-Man” his second loss in three fights, third loss by way of KO, and the fifth loss of his professional career overall.
Additional aspects of Mayweathers plight that closely resembles and mirrors the experiences of Ali, is the extraordinary ability to remain steadfast and unwaveringly commited to ones principals in the face of severely rabid and inane fanatical media and public expectations. When living in a society based on and dictated by popular opinion, each demographic has preconceived behavorial expectations which generally corresponds to some level of nonproprietary stereotypical conduct .In todays society, professional athletes are somewhat percieved, particularly by those in the position to sign their substantial paychecks, in the same vein as “trophy-wives” to a large extent, to be seen or to perform, and not necessarily be heard, at least not beyond the tritely contrived plattitudes predetermined as acceptable by the conventions of a so-called hiearchy, in a popular-opinion based and dictated social structure. Compare the journalistic condemnation of legendary heavyweight champion Jack Johnson, as opposed to the public endearment of Joe Louis. Professing an unpopular (or unapproved by the “establishment”), political view, as well as and especially, defying a system of authority, regardless of how reprobate that authority may be, is a virtually unforgivable taboo for professional athletes of certain demographics. Just as Ali was expected to keep his Louisville lips closed and trot quietly off to Vietnam, so to is Mayweather expected to obsequiously succumb to Arum, the media, and public induced pressure, and simply fight whomever is demanded of him, without the benefit of any pragmatic intelligence or judiciously savvy decision making, such as the practice of engaging in Olympic style random drug testing in preparation for competitive athletic combat.
Perhaps the most significant, and equally, perhaps the most subtle parallel between Ali and Mayweather, is the perquisite of both foresight and hindsight. The foresight to know that sticking to your guns and firmly standing resolute on your principals, in the end, will always reward greater long term prosperity, than blindly kowtowing to convention with the ovine masses in a desperate desire for public approval and acceptance. In turn, and just as rewarding, if not moreso, is the perspective of hindsight from a historical context. By standing on his principals, Ali proved to be on the right side of history pertaining to the Vietnam war and the U.S. military draft. As well as Mayweather, who in only four short years, has already been vindicated and validated by historical hindsight. Not only was the precedent already set for more stringent enforcement of drug testing policies by other professional athletic organizations such as Major League Baseball, but also a copious amount of pro boxers have also begun to embrace and apply a more precise drug testing regiment for their bouts, even Pacquaio, who vehemently resisted Mayweathers initial efforts back in 2010, has now, at least marginally, accepted the viability and reality of more effective drug testing as evidenced by his last fight against Brandon Rios this past November (11.24.13), in which not only was it Pacquiao who demanded the higher degree of testing for the bout , but also, that Rios ended up testing positive for the banned substance dimenthylamylamine (DMAA). Even the chief executive members of NSAC have resolved to implement a more cogent and stalwart drug testing policy over the next few years. In the case of better, more effective drug testing for boxing and combat sports, just as in the instance of Ali and Vietnam, hindsight has again proven itself to be 20/20, or in Mayweathers case, undefeated.
All in all, this is not to say that Arum and promoters (as Mayweather himself is also now the head of his own extremely successful Mayweather Promotions ), do not serve a necessary function within the sport of boxing. The promoter bankrolls and markets the fight, and is obligated, first and foremost primarily, to their own profit margin for the sake of their own financial stability and continuity. This could be the main factor in the notoriously unscrupulous reputations earned by most professional boxing promoters such as Arum and Don King. Whereas with a fighters manager, the relationship tends to be on a more personal level, as the manager negotiates on behalf of the fighter, as opposed to the promoter, whose relationship with the fighter is traditionally based predominantly and fundamentally on the dynamics of economics and profitability. And even Arum, within the last several days, since making his Mayweather-Hitler comparisons, has somewhat, however minutely, recanted from his inflammatory remark, going into semi-light damage control mode, and opting over the last week, to subtly shift the highly ostensible blame away from Mayweather, and place it in the direction of other key figures who have played integral and essential positions throughout the duration of the Mayweather-Pacquiao, Goden Boy-Top Rank chronicles. Of course no party is safe or absolved from the burden of this feigned culpability, in the case of the biggest and most highly anticipated fight that never happened. Everybody from Mayweather financial adviser Al Haymon, (who incidentally, has to some extent, reinterpolated and redefined the capacity of the promoter, as Haymon has successfully maximized and elevated the earnings of the fighters he advises, to a more satisfactory stratum, than the previous standards of the traditional more antiquated and less financially balanced economic models between fighters and promoters), to Oscar De La Hoya, to Golden Boy CEO Richard Schaeffer, to Arums latest public scapegoat, Showtime Network executive Stephen Espinoza.
All the while despite Arums incessantly perpetual finger-pointing, sources close to Pacquaio, such as fellow Filipino countryman, attorney and advisor Frank Gacal, along with independent accounting firm VisionQwest, (hired by Pacquiao in 2010 and summarily terminated by Pacquiao in 2011), have not only explicitly placed Arum and Pacquiaos financial adviser Mike Koncz at the root of Pacquiaos continuously unrelenting tax woes, but Gacal has specifically branded Arum as the single constant and irreconcilable impediment preventing the fight between Mayweather and Pacquiao from happening. With all the pervasive finger pointing, one has to wonder if any attention is ever paid to the three pointing back in the direction of the accuser, generally indicative of an equal, if not greater, share of responsibility to be shouldered when plans dont go accordingly. Perhaps Mayweather has been the spoiler in one too many of Arums plans, but Hitler? C’mon Bob. Heil Mayweather, just aint got the same catchy ring of alliteration to it as the original. Sieg Heil !!!
