Floyd Mayweather has obviously not heard the previous pleas of many boxing fans worldwide after his latest callout went viral.
Responding to rumors and an eventual goading statement from a YouTuber who thinks he can box, Mayweather seems to be seriously considering what amounts to a ‘Celebrity Boxing’ showdown.
WBN refuses to name any YouTuber trying to capitalize on subscribers to grab a Pay-Per-View slice of the pie. The said presenter and his brother are both hopeless boxers. They deal in car park scraps dressed up as boxing events – and their fans lap it up.
Sadly, it’s just a money grab. Floyd is potentially thinking of lowering himself to the lowest low he could sink to for monetary gain in the ring. It will only be the real supporters who suffer.
Allowing these online ‘entertainers’ into our sacred sport is one thing, but putting them on the same pedestal – or above in most cases – as real hard-grafting fighters is a sham.
I will never condone it, and neither should Floyd Mayweather.
On Wednesday evening, though, my worst fears were confirmed as the former pound for pound mentioned the person he was linked to facing earlier this year.
Hoping it was a joke, a plea was made on behalf of WBN for the veteran American to see sense. To avoid taking a massive paycheck and giving a YouTuber one for nothing other than a weight differential.
Let’s be frank. The man cannot box. He throws punches and hopes for the best. Mayweather could beat him with one hand tied behind his back and if he closed one eye.
Even with a fifty-pound difference on the scales, Mayweather is the best boxer of our generation and would simply be feeding on a lack of knowledge from the YouTuber’s subscribers.
FLOYD MAYWEATHER is MONEY
That’s basically what this whole thing boils down to. Fleecing those who don’t know any better for their PPV money.
Amazingly, there are probably two or three million people who are that clueless who would pay a hundred dollars to tune in. In all fairness to Mayweather’s savviness, he knows this and looks like he wants in.
And why not? – You might say.
Well, because boxing shouldn’t be a sport that encourages this kind of thing. You wouldn’t get it in any other sport. Boxing is open for exploitation, and it needs to stop for us to gain some self-respect.
If it goes ahead, and it appears it could well do so, it will be a dark day for our sport and possibly signal the end of any shred of dignity boxing had left.
For some reason, boxing and those who can influence it don’t seem to care about how we are perceived.
Those who love the sport do, and we will resist attempts to lower the standards any further than some in recent history have already dragged it to.
Dear Floyd Mayweather, please don’t do it.
The views expressed in this article are the opinions of Phil Jay.
WBN Editor Phil has over ten years of boxing news experience. Follow WBN on Twitter @WorldBoxingNews.
