Floyd is master of the game

By Babatis Banda: As I sat with some friends watching and analyzing some recent and not so recent fights of the past few years, we ended up splitting into two camps, the anti-Floyd and the pro-Floyd camps. We discussed and argued about so many things from Floyd’s bad habits, his controversial but frank-talk, to his supposedly fear of Manny Pacquiao.


It became apparent to me that some people really loathed Floyd Mayweather from deep down their hearts. It also became clear to me that Floyd was really a master of the game. He does what he does for a purpose, and it always serves him right at the end of the day. I tried to make a point that Floyd would not have been this popular if he was not as brash and as controversial as he is. Floyd was not going to be as popular as Pacquiao because he was just another American. I have no doubt in my mind that Pacquiao is as popular as he is not just because he is a ‘humble’ and a flag carrier for his country, but quite simply, he is non-American.


For example, Pacquiao would have had a very slim chance of becoming a congressman had he not been a popular boxer. Pacquiao used his boxing popularity to vie for public office and this is just the truth. Similarly, Floyd uses his out of the ring acts to boost his popularity and we all know it pays. If Floyd really just talked and never showed it in the ring, he was never really going to be the most highly paid boxer today and he was never going to be this popular with his long layoffs and all that. The fact that he grosses more dollars than any other fighter today is proof that he is the best at what he does.

While Floyd Mayweather may not be the most coherent individual, he is undoubtedly by far, the most business minded boxer of this era. While fanatics argue that he is afraid to face Pacquiao, I would also argue that Manny is afraid to face the mastery of Floyd Mayweather junior and that the odds are terribly against him.

As was expected, we ended up with the usual arguments, and we went in circles and argued about the same things over and over. What we were sure of was that, come May 5, Floyd walks in the ring to face Miguel Cotto and not just to face Cotto, but beat him at his comfortable weight of 154. In the ring, Floyd does not talk, he lets the action do the talking and we know how seriously he takes all his opponents, even when he trashes then in pre-fight talks. There is no doubt that Floyd is the master of the game, inside and outside of the ring and sometimes, his talk is just, but the raw truth.