Mayweather’s absence of trash talk shows maturity, caution

LAS VEGAS, USA – Maybe Floyd Mayweather Jr is getting docile in his old age.

Or perhaps his fight with Manny Pacquiao just doesn’t need the extra promotion to generate buzz. Or he could be trying to skirt the pressure of being on the biggest stage the sport has ever seen.

Either way, the trash talking that has been a staple of his pre-fight rituals has been absent in the months since the announcement of the fight, which is just days away on Saturday, May 2.

It’s difficult to imagine Mayweather – who once compelled Ricky Hatton to wear ear muffs to their press conference and who had dedicated his fight with Diego Corrales (facing domestic violence charges at the time) to battered women – going soft.

But it seems, with two fights remaining on his Showtime television contract and perhaps in his career, that maturity has set in. And once he toned down the yelling, the threats and the insults, the wisdom in his words have become clearer. 

“When I sit back and think about my career, I’m glad I was outspoken at one particular time. But then I had the talent, my talent was. If we’re comparing the two, my talking trash was probably on a 90 but my talent was 100,” the 38-year-old Mayweather told the press on Tuesday afternoon, before reassessing that statement. “It was probably even.”

Mayweather knew that closed mouths didn’t get fed, and his jibes have carried him to household name status. He transformed himself from a fighter thought to be unmarketable due to his safety-first style to the sport’s greatest box office draw, selling over 2 million pay-per-views for his fights with Oscar de la Hoya and Saul Alvarez.

Words alone don’t translate into dollars; substance must accompany them. His unbeaten record, which stands at 47-0 (26 knockouts), and the numerous world titles he has won in five divisions, has backed up his talk, giving him a case for the claims he has made.

He has referred to himself as the best ever (he sells merchandise with the letters TBE across them), drawing ire for committing boxing sacrilege and declaring himself superior to Sugar Ray Robinson and Muhammad Ali (who also marketed himself as “The Greatest”).

He has earned a following that is drawn to his winning reputation in the same way Michael Jordan became synonymous with victory. But perfection is a trait that few can identify with, and his boastfulness has been like a sword stuck deep inside his detractors and twisted to either side.

Like Ali in his prime, many people watch Mayweather’s fights in hopes of seeing him get beat. And Pacquiao, whose flaws have endeared him as a relatable underdog, has been the man that many felt – or hoped – would put Mayweather in his place.

And that has been the reason why this fight is as anticipated as it is. In any case, Mayweather is set to make an estimated $180-$200 million for one fight, a figure that is still difficult to conceive.

“On Saturday before the fight and after the fight I’ll still be TBE,” said Mayweather. “One fight, even if I did or I didn’t fight Manny Pacquiao, that don’t define my career. That doesn’t make me.

“The great thing about my career is that I was a smart businessman, let’s talk about that. We can talk about a 19-year career with no punishment on the body and hundreds of millions in the bank. Now that’s something to talk about.”

Mayweather, though confident, isn’t allowing for any lapses in caution against the 8-division champion.

When told that his uncle Roger, who trained him for much of his career before giving way to Floyd Sr, felt Pacquiao wasn’t among his most difficult assignments, Floyd Jr disagreed.

“My uncle Roger, he don’t have to fight, I do. That’s no different for [Pacquiao’s trainer] Freddie Roach speaking about me. He don’t have to fight. It’s going to come down to the two fighters. When the two fighters fight, that’s gonna be the deciding factor.”

While the zero at the end of his resume’ translates to zeroes at the end of his paychecks, Mayweather insists that milestones, like surpassing that of former heavyweight champion Rocky Marciano’s 49-0 ledger, mean more to the sport’s media and public than it does to him.

“At the end of the day my daughter can’t eat no zero…She can’t spend a boxing record,” Mayweather said.

There is a schadenfreude that remains unquenched when it comes to Mayweather. There are constant arguments in the blogosphere about whether he should’ve lost to Jose Luis Castillo in their first meeting in 2012, and about whether a knockdown should’ve been called against him for the right hook Zab Judah landed on his chin in 2005.

Pacquiao (57-5-2, 38 KOs), has remained a national hero in the Philippines and media favorite through valleys and peaks. Mayweather says that, had he been the one to be knocked out by Juan Manuel Marquez or who skipped the traditional grand arrival for his own fan event instead of Pacquiao, he would’ve been judged more harshly.

“I think that the bar is always set high for Floyd Mayweather; it’s always set a little different from everyone else. If we turned the table and we look at the situation to whereas, if I got knocked out by Marquez, the fight would’ve never happened. If I didn’t show up to the grand arrival and I sat doing something else, it’d have been on the front page.”

When you’ve been close to perfect in the ring, there is little allowance for benefit of doubt, and no room for error. – Rappler.com

Ryan Songalia is the sports editor of Rappler, a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America (BWAA) and a contributor to The Ring magazine. He can be reached at ryan.songalia@rappler.com. Follow him on Twitter:@RyanSongalia.