Instead of focusing on his fight with Marcos Maidana, Floyd Mayweather is getting asked about violence against women. About his past, his ghosts, skeletons in the closet. About his prison time. All he wants to do is stay undefeated and make more money.
Provide for his children, the most important thing in the world for him. That’s what he says at least. Mayweather has been accused several times, seven to be exact, of hitting a woman. Sometimes in front of her children. Sometimes these are his children as well. He just shrugs those allegations as if he doesn’t know what people are talking about.
Mayweather isn’t about to get into arguments over the media with reporters who are better spoken than him. It doesn’t mean he’s not smart. He can read, unlike what 50 Cent says. But he doesn’t deliver a very good message when trying to defend himself. He just looks like more of a despicable human being.
Mayweather knows how to fight. How to keep himself in shape. How to maximize his image in the boxing ring. He doesn’t advertise anyone. He doesn’t try to buy off his guilt by donating handsomely to causes against abuse and domestic violence. Maybe he does in secret, but Mayweather isn’t about doing things behind the scenes. It’s always about flash and splash. And keeping as much money as possible in his hands.
The sad thing about all of this? Mayweather served his time, and there’s no one to boycott him or punish him for the things he says or does. Maybe not every allegation made with his name on it is true. Maybe there are people trying to ride on his fame and wealth in order to get something out of it. But Mayweather insists he did nothing, while he was in prison for assault. Maybe a sweetned sentence because he took a plea bargain, but that doesn’t make him any less guilty.
He’s still the number one draw in boxing, a sport that’s confused and messed up, hanging on to one of its few names and faces that are known to a wider audience. A goose that lays golden eggs wherever it fights, and despite every nasty detail in its past, it doesn’t stop him one bit from being the highest paid athlete on the planet.