FLOYD Mayweather fi nally is feeling the love, which must be unusual for someone who has searched for acceptance and adoration his entire career.
Once called “an ordinary attraction” by his former promoter Bob Arum, Mayweather is on the verge of setting pay-per-view records that even the immensely popular Oscar De La Hoya has never reached.
If early indicators prove correct, Mayweather’s WBC welterweight championship fight against unbeaten Ricky Hatton at the MGM Grand Saturday night in Las Vegas will attract at least 1.5 million buys. Coupled with the record 2.5 million pay-per-view sales generated for Mayweather’s bout with De La Hoya last May, it would make Mayweather the first non-heavyweight to sell more than 1 million buys in back-to-back fights and the first boxer to do four million in one calendar year. Put a dollar amount on it and Mayweather’s two fights could generate as much as $200 million in pay-per-view revenue this year. He could make as much as $45 million for one night’s work on Saturday. No wonder he is nicknamed Money Mayweather.
“I said one day I’d be a pay-per-view attraction and here we are,” Mayweather said recently.
Actually, Mayweather has predicted much more than that during a pro career which began after winning a bronze medal in the 1996 Olympics. He has spent the last several years boasting that he is one of the greatest, if not the greatest, fighter to ever put on gloves. His routine of demeaning opponents and chastising those unwilling to acknowledge his fistic supremacy has turned off some fans. Reported incidents of domestic troubles and bar brawls earlier in his career didn’t help his appeal either.
But this has been a breakthrough year for Mayweather. The Mayweather/De La Hoya 24/7 reality series on HBO introduced him to a world-wide audience, and his victory in that record-setting bout helped land him appearances on “The Tonight Show” and “Dancing with the Stars.” Now another four-part 24/7 series is leading up to the Hatton fight- which sold out in a half hour-and Mayweather is launching his own promotional company, Mayweather Promotions, in conjunction with Saturday’s fight.
The totality of Mayweather, the bravado, the bling, his six world titles in five different weight classes while remaining unbeaten, his estranged relationship with his father Floyd Mayweather Sr., his love-hate relationship with the boxing media, have worked together to make him big box office. Finally.
“First he picked the biggest and best opponents to fight and that’s a credit to his team,” said Ross Greenburg, HBO’s president of sports. “And what we’ve done with 24/7 has impacted his star power. Love him or hate him, he’s Floyd and he has to be reckoned with as a personality.”
Mayweather, 30, has his critics who suggest his image is bad for the sport and perpetuates the stereotype of a brash self-absorbed athlete. Mayweather, who grew up seven deep in one bedroom, said the message he sends is one of hope.
“Everything you see on television I got it legally,” he said. “I got it from hard work and dedication. All I did was dedicate myself to the craft of boxing and just be me.”
That seems to be working just fine.