The soul’s escaping /Through this hole that is gaping/ This world is mine for the taking/ Make me King/ As we move toward a/ New World Order/ A normal life is boring, but superstardom is close to postmortem”
Eminem, Lose Yourself
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It was quite an eventful week for Floyd Mayweather. He started it with a continued obsession of middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin– insisting he’s ‘straight up and down with no special effects’, and even sparred with a big middleweight to spark rumors of an impending comeback. For the record, if he agrees to face GGG at the 154 lb catchweight Team Golovkin wants in 2017, he will definitely wind up with a suicidal (for him) 49-1 record. I believe arch-nemesis Manny Pacquiao would mug him in a rematch as well, but that’s besides the point.
When Floyd Mayweather left Top Rank in 2006, he ceased to be “Pretty Boy” Floyd, and literally became “Money”. It was a stroke of genius, his alliance with Al Haymon; one that took him from the clutches of Bob Arum – and more importantly, away from much tougher fights for less money.
He was even allowed to retire briefly after this transition, for reasons many simply overlook.
Mayweather is outside of the ring, just as special as he was inside of it: Stealthy and opportunistic, with sometimes surprising displays of power to go along with “The Best Ever” defense.
A meaningless black child of the ghetto according to the census, Floyd nevertheless fought his way to the consensus pound-for-pound best fighter in the world. Like no other sport in this country, the fighter represents the pulse of the streets. He is the sporting equivalent of angst in the raw voice of hip-hop, a figure symbolic in combat fighting in correlation with the black community.
For Floyd Mayweather, this perception was built around the idea that he fought for “us”, which lead predominantly black households (and the minority fans of his popular opponents) to buy unprecedented PPV’s to make him “Filthy Rich” and beyond.
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“I’m here to say all lives matter. A lot of times we get stuck, and we are followers. You hear one person say, ‘Black lives matter’ or ‘blue lives matter’… all lives matter,” Floyd Mayweather fronted, in a totally uncalled for response to a lead question from ‘Tha Boxing Voice’ on Oct. 11, about new fighters succeeding with PPV.
He wasn’t done.
“What I learned from boxing — what everyone can take in real life — is follow directions and follow order. Don’t give nobody a hard time. When someone break in your house, when someone break in your car, the first thing you do is call the police. With me being a fighter, and my hands being registered, if I hit a guy for breaking in my house or break in my car, it’s going to cost me more money.”
But then came an uppercut to the balls of polarizing San Francisco 49ers QB Colin Kaepernick, for a stance that has brought the world’s focus on black inequality in America.
“Kaepernick need to get the starting job. That’s what he needs to focus on. I can’t knock him. If that’s what he believes in and people want to stand by him, then so be it. He got the number one selling jersey so it’s obvious he doing something right.”
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“You know niggas die for equal pay right?/ You know when I work I ain’t cha slave right?/ You know I ain’t shuckin and jivin and high fivin…/ You know this ain’t back in the days right?/ But I can’t tell, how the way they killed Freddie Gray right?/ Shot down Mike Brown, how they did Tray right?/ Let them continue chokin niggas we gonna turn style/ I ain’t cha token nigga”
Jay-Z, Tidal (Streams of Consciousness)
