Secretly Pulling for Pacquiao, Boxing Community Thinks Mayweather Jr. Will Win
Manny Pacquiao will enter the fight as the underdog. | Photo:
Dave Mandel/Sherdog.com
The old adage, “There’s no cheering in the press box” or, in boxing’s case, “press row,” does not always apply to the fight game. Oftentimes foreign press has been known to root for its fighters, blatantly standing and clapping for its countrymen during the course of a fight.
Openly, as the epic welterweight clash between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao approaches, with the grandeur illusion its somehow close to what Joe Frazier and Muhammad Ali was on March 8, 1971, boxing media, managers, trainers and TV execs and announcers covering the fight have to be objective. They need to play the political game. Behind closed doors, away from the steno pads and jutting digital voice recorders, comes a different view.
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“Floyd just has a habit of rubbing a lot of people the wrong way, and his well-documented criminal past doesn’t help his cause, either,” said one boxing writer. “You can ask anyone in this [media room], and at one time or another, Mayweather or someone from Mayweather’s team, was rude or obnoxious to them. They’re ignorant. It seems they get off on being [expletive] to people. There’s no denying Floyd’s skill and ability. If I didn’t have to cover it, I might not watch it. I wouldn’t want to put one red cent in Floyd Mayweather’s fat pockets.”
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Mayweather has been uncharacteristically subdued with the fight approaching. In the past, however, his lurid tongue has not been so detached, especially when it came to Pacquiao -- the opponent he will face this Saturday at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.
On Thursday, Sept. 2, 2010, Mayweather went on a riff throwing derogatory grenades towards Pacquiao that went viral on YouTube, saying, among other things, “We’re going to cook that little yellow chump. We ain’t worried about that. So they ain’t gotta worry about me fighting the midget. Once I kick the midget ass, I don’t want you all to jump on my [expletive]. So you all better get on the bandwagon now. ... Once I stomp the midget, I’ll make that [expletive] make me a sushi roll and cook me some rice.”
Those types of occurrences are difficult to forget or ignore -- something Mayweather surely hopes the boxing public does while it lines up to dole out their cash for his fight against “Pac-Man.”
“We know people have short attention spans today,” said one TV exec, “and thank God that they do, because there is a pile more of little annoying fires we would have had to put out when it comes to Floyd’s past. I personally think it’s why Floyd is hanging low for this fight. He doesn’t want to stir that negative pot again. People want to see Floyd get his ass kicked, and he plays it well, like ‘a work’ in pro wrestling; but to throw out [$100] for this, that shtick of his may not work this time. The other problem is that I believe Floyd wants to genuinely be liked.
“After making all of this money and who he’s become, he’s not that smiling kid we all saw at the Atlanta Olympics,” he added. “Money and fame have changed him -- and not for the better. If you don’t think there will be more than a few pumping fists under the tables on press row if Floyd gets clocked Saturday night, you’re kidding yourself.”
Joseph Santoliquito is the president of the Boxing Writer's Association of America and a frequent contributor to Sherdog.com's mixed martial arts and boxing coverage. His archive can be found here.
