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On Friday it was announced that Floyd Mayweather, Jr. may be stripped of the WBO 147-pound belt that he was awarded with his defeat of Manny Pacquiao on May 2. This comes after Mayweather refused to pay the sanctioning fee of $200,000, as well as declined to vacate his WBA and WBC junior middleweight titles, due to the rule against fighters holding belts from different weight classes simultaneously.
Shortly after the fight with Manny Pacquiao, Mayweather was already aware of this possibility. The Mayweather camp was already prepared to put a spin on the situation, in order to paint Mayweather as the good guy. He told ESPN that, “I’m not greedy,” and “other fighters need a chance”. Now, both of these statements contradict exactly what Mayweather’s personality embodies. Throughout the whole build-up to the “Fight of the Century”, we saw the polar opposite of these two declarations, and it was painfully obvious.
Mayweather is without a doubt a greedy person. Part of the hold up for the Pacquiao fight was Mayweather’s greed. The money would always be split in favor of the Money Team, and at times, Mayweather wanted even more. In the Stephen A. Smith in-home interview, we saw the cars, clothes, and various accessories that cost millions of dollars. You have to be greedy to make that much money. Now, greed is not necessarily a bad thing, but it is a blatant lie to come that he is not greedy.
It is also a lie for Mayweather to say that others need a chance. He ducked Pacquiao and didn’t give him a chance until he was too old and no longer a real threat. Mayweather has consistently waited fighters out until the chance of losing to them has diminished significantly. It is even happening again, right before our eyes. while Gennady Golovkin is clearly the biggest threat to the undefeated record, Mayweather will toy with names like Kell Brook or Amir Khan. A fight with Golovkin will likely never happen at this stage of Mayweather’s career.
Phony or not, Mayweather is being stripped of his belt, and this situation is bad for boxing. Not because it’s biggest star is being stripped of a title, but because this story has gone under the radar. The alphabet belts have decayed into worthlessness throughout the 2000’s, and are only going down the drain more. The sport is reliant on name value only, and that is risky. Big name match-ups that don’t need the backing of a championship belt happen rarely, and the amount of stars in the sport is shrinking. Strong, valuable title belts create importance in match-ups that don’t always have the huge name stars. With fewer stars, boxing is leaning on a dwindling amount of star power.
