Mayweather: Portrait of a boxer as a villain

Floyd Mayweather Jr. at the MGM Grand Arena on Friday, 1 May 2015 for the official weigh in for his fight with Manny Pacquiao. PHOTO BY REM ZAMORA

LAS VEGAS—Styles make fights, so they say. It is the contrast that sells tickets in boxing. Offense battles offense. Combinations combat counterpunches.

In the history of the sweet science, though, contrasts in the fighters’ narratives also create classics and give birth to blockbusters. Economics, race—promoters spare nothing to sell a fight. The rich kid against the ghetto star. Black versus white. All-American working class man versus grim Eastern European heavyweight.

“(Roberto) Duran vs (Sugar Ray) Leonard was a crazy confrontation,” said Top Rank chief and legendary boxing promoter Bob Arum.

There were several storylines that helped sell the fight but that plot swirling in the undercurrent was palpable. On one side, a feared Hispanic star. On the other, America’s favorite fighter.

When Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr. step in the ring Saturday, a fight that started selling itself close to six years ago—ever since chants of “We want Floyd!” erupted after a victory by the Filipino ring icon—both superstars will lend themselves to ready narrative.

Good vs evil

“It’s not something I want to ride on,” Freddie Roach told the Inquirer. “But it is out there because people see Manny, hear about Manny and see he is a truly good guy. And then they read all this stuff about Floyd and, you know …”

READ: Mega-fight not good vs evil – Mayweather

Anyone with the faintest boxing knowledge can fill in the blanks of Roach’s statement. Mayweather’s image has been ripped in all forms of media because of his history of abuse of women. The undefeated American, in fact, already served time for flaunting a punching power that’s often absent in the ring but somehow manifests itself during domestic disputes.

It has reached the point where several media outlets have questioned the Nevada Athletic Commission’s wisdom in letting Mayweather continue to fight despite his abusive past.

Fighting out of the other corner, meanwhile, is Manny Pacquiao.

Perfect antinarrative

He has his own demons tucked in the past. Yet somehow, a much-publicized religious conversion ironed out these flaws. And more than five years after the clamor for a super fight erupted, that change, combined with his equally publicized poverty-pulverizing persona, created a perfect antinarrative to Mayweather’s story.

Where Mayweather posts images of him in social media flaunting his wealth in tasteless fashion, Pacquiao is pictured distributing relief goods to typhoon survivors. While newspapers headline Mayweather’s latest home troubles, journalists chronicle the long line outside Pacquiao’s house waiting for the dole from the People’s Champ.

“Res ipsa loquitur,” said Arum, in an effort to deflect the narrative from a fight that really has little need for more hype, not when the few tickets made available to the public sold out in less than two minutes.

In the legal world which Arum, a lawyer, is very much familiar with, that roughly means “The facts speak for themselves.”

Like Roach, Arum said he isn’t too keen on jumping on that promotional line. But he doesn’t mind expounding on why it is such a compelling and ready storyline for Pacquiao-Mayweather.

“Manny Pacquiao is Manny Pacquiao,” said Arum. “Floyd Mayweather is Floyd Mayweather. There may be arguments. Is Mayweather a bad guy? To some extent, maybe. To some extent, no.

READ: Mayweather a good guy, says Pacquiao

Record of actions

“Floyd Mayweather’s record of actions are all laid out,” he added. “Manny Pacquiao’s record of actions are all laid out. It’s for people to make that choice.”

Still, Arum, a promoter who spins gold out of thin air by latching on to compelling storylines, some of which he created [he once called Manny Pacquiao “the greatest fighter” he’d ever seen, “and I’ve seen Muhammad Ali”—only to counter that statement himself recently] to sell fights, is distancing him from the readily available plot for Pacquiao-Mayweather.

“I’m not making this a battle of good and evil,” the highly successful promoter said.

Neither is Manny Pacquiao.

“No one can tell the heart of a person but God,” Pacquiao said when asked if Mayweather played the villain in this equation.

“I won’t say Floyd is a bad guy,” he added.

But the narrative hung thickly above the subdued prefight events, which has been devoid of the histrionics that normally preface huge bouts. It was the elephant inside a cavernous arena when the first spoon-fed question Mayweather confronted during his official welcome at MGM Grand here centered on a charity event he recently held.

“I believe in giving back,” said Money Mayweather, who splurged $25,000 for mouthguards, one of which he will use for this fight.

READ: Mayweather to use mouth guard with gold, diamond, dollar bills

The subplot hovered palpably over the final press conference, where Mayweather opened by thanking God, for “making all this possible” and capped it by thanking Filipino fans “for supporting Manny Pacquiao.”

Pair of angel’s wings

Everything sounded so staged, as if the wolf did not just don sheep’s clothing, but strapped on a pair of angel’s wings as well. If there were those in the audience who felt like this was just an image makeover for Mayweather, they would not be faulted.

Mayweather painted himself as the bad guy for so long, emerging as a respectful, subdued warrior raises more doubt about his motives. He defended his latest behavior as a result of growing “mature.”

“I’m close to 40 now and I’ve grown wiser,” he told television journalists.

READ: Mayweather: I’ve matured, grown up mentally

Some will be understandably unconvinced. In their imagined hall of boxing history, there is a portrait of Mayweather and he is flopped on his silken bed, with bundles of bills scattered all around him while he flashes the smug smile of someone who has gotten away with a lot of things—and could maybe get away with something else one more time.