Pound for pound boxing champ Floyd “Money” Mayweather can’t seem to stay out of the headlines these days. That could be a good thing for his bank account, but the constant distractions and out of the ring altercations could make Mayweather more vulnerable to defeat, or worse.
The latest drama with boxing’s biggest diva occurred when the welterweight and junior middleweight champion got into a scrap with rapper T.I. aka “The Rubber Band Man” at a Las Vegas Fatburger over the holiday weekend. It sounds like something out of a fake reality housewives show and considering that T.I.’s wife Tameka “Tiny” Cottle was the cause of the commotion, I suppose it’s a housewife reality show in real life (thinking about that makes my head hurt).
The abridged version of the story goes like this: Mayweather and his daughter took photos with Cottle. T.I. got mad and talked to Mayweather. Cottle then went to a strip club party with Mayweather and his crew. Mayweather was filmed saying that he told T.I. that “[women] ain’t loyal.” T.I. and the champ exchanged heated words in a Las Vegas Fatburger before the rapper took a swing at the boxer and incited a chair-throwing, restaurant-clearing brawl.
Somewhere Manny Pacquiao is fuming that T.I. leapfrogged him and got a Mayweather first.
To be fair, T.I. and his well-documented insecurity are most-certainly to blame for this idiotic incident. Still, it’s hard to ignore that Mayweather seems to be a magnet for drama and distraction these days. In the past few years Mayweather has been arrested for an altercation with his baby momma, fell out with former BFF 50 Cent, been taken to court by Pacquiao over steroid allegations, broken off his engagement with Chantel Jackson over an alleged abortion, beefed with Nelly via social media after the STL rapper publicly courted his ex and now the scuffled with T.I. over a plate of chicken and waffles – literally.
Mayweather can deny it all he wants, but I’m sure the pre-fight distractions involving Jackson played a role in the closer-than-usual result versus Maidana a few weeks ago. As fighters get older, Mayweather is 37, reflexes, speed and stamina gradually diminish. For the final few fights of his career, Mayweather will need to utilize his experience and supreme boxing knowledge more than ever. Just ask Roy Jones Jr. how fast slightly decreased reflexes and can bring a career to a crashing halt. Ask Mike Tyson how out of the ring distractions can result in one of the biggest upsets in boxing history (Buster Douglas).
We won’t see Mayweather return to the ring until September. By then the T.I. drama will have blown over (presuming Tip doesn’t go digging up the gun arsenal that got him locked up in 2007) but we can all rest assured that America’s top-grossing athlete will find some new, ignorant, outside-the-ring distraction. For his sake, I’m hoping Mayweather is smart enough to elevate himself above the nonsense outside the ring as he has elevated himself above the competition inside the ring for so many years. If he doesn’t a determined fighter like Maidana, Keith Thurman, Shawn Porter or Danny Garcia will take Mayweather’s “0” and his titles in one felled swoop.
Exciting below the radar action in the squared circle
Fight fans are salivating at this weekend’s matchup between Englishmen Carl Froch (aka the best 168-pound fighter not named Andre Ward) and Carl Groves. The first bout was an epic Fight of the Year candidate that showed both fighters hit the canvas and a disputed decision victory by Froch. This fight comes on the heels of last week’s fan-friendly scrap between light heavyweight champion Adonis Stevenson and Andrzej Fonfara who both tasted the canvas on Showtime and Juan Manuel Marquez’s fantastic showing the previous week against Mike Alvorado. While none of the aforementioned fighters are on the same planet as Mayweather in terms of name recognition and popularity, for hardcore fight fans, they represent exciting fights and entertaining discussions about fights that actually happened inside the squared circle. It’s a great time to be a boxing fan.
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