-Floyd Mayweather Looking More Like Mike Tyson and Less Like Oscar De La Hoya or Sugar Ray Leonard Every Day-
Faced with four felony and four misdemeanor charges, Floyd Mayweather is looking at the very real possibility of spending what remains of the peak of his career in prison. The heftiest charges are related to grand larceny and domestic violence, and while it is unlikely that Mayweather will be convicted of all eight charges and see the book thrown at him, if that were to happen Mayweather wouldn’t leave prison until the ripe old age of 67. Unless Mayweather’s girlfriend (and the mother of his children), Josie Harris, changes her story [Editor’s Note: the same woman did just that, change her story when Mayweather was facing criminal charges, several years prior], it is highly likely that even a plea bargain agreement would send Mayweather to jail for at least a little while.
This writer has always thought of Mayweather as an insecure, psychologically fragile individual. Starting with his tantrums from 12 years ago, insisting that he deserved all the fame and money of Oscar de la Hoya, to his absolutely phoney “retirement,” there has always been too much of the spoiled child in Mayweather’s posturing for it to all be a promotional act. Witness his disastrous, homophobic and racist rant against Manny Pacquiao, aimed at a man who has clearly stolen his limelight as the P4P King and is winning the propaganda battle in lieu of Mayweather’s unwillingness to fight. Astute observers should have seen that Mayweather was a little unbalanced all along, despite his consistency at the top of the sport.
If Floyd Mayweather goes to jail, one wonders if his reputation will not ultimately suffer like Mike Tyson‘s. Tyson crashed early into a heavyweight scene that was almost as weak as the modern, Klitschko-dominated division. The timing of his jail stint meant that he did not participate in the development of what was really his true generation of heavyweights, a group that included Lennox Lewis, Evander Holyfield and Riddick Bowe. Over time, Tyson’s pre-prison accomplishments have been eclipsed as the classic struggles of that trio continue to shine. Only the most die-hard Tysonista thinks of the one-time “Baddest Man on the Planet” as an all-time great anymore.
In contrast, Mayweather has some real accomplishments that will stand the test of time. His 2001 knockout of Diego Corrales and his pair of duels with Jose Luis Castillo were fights any boxer could be proud of. Since 2003, however, Mayweather’s resume has shown a marked tendency to cherry-pick the opposition and avoid the most dangerous contests. The failure to meet Manny Pacquiao puts a huge exclamation point on the end of that tendency. Should Mayweather go to jail, it is very probably that it will be this last bit of ducking, marked as it was by allegations of steroid abuse, racism and homophobia, that people remember him for. In boxing, it is often the most recent performance upon which a fighter is judged, and for Mayweather that is a non-performance with Pacman. Should that happen, the only way “Money” Mayweather will be able to recover his reputation is to challenge Pacquiao, and at an extreme disadvantage following a prison stint.
