By Lyle Fitzsimmons - Stop me if you’ve heard this before?but not everyone likes Floyd Mayweather Jr.
The myriad e-mails I’ve already received this week ?reacting to yet another caustic performance in HBO's latest ?4/7?hype-o-mentary ?are unanimous in their righteous indignation.
Get this?people think Floyd is an arrogant jerk.
No, really.
In the 2011 reprise of a 4-year-old “Network of Champions?recipe ?previously remixed in 2007, ?9 and ?0 ?people don't appear to enjoy the way Mayweather brashly taunts his foes. They don't enjoy the way he acts superior. And they don't enjoy the way he flaunts wealth and status.
So, disgusted by the very persona PPV execs covet, people are again eyeing a Saturday in Las Vegas as a chance for a talented, respectful gentleman type to rise up and clean “Money's?diamond-encrusted clock?and they’re willing to part with $59.95 for the chance to watch it happen.
They view handsome, articulate Victor Ortiz ?who many discarded after in-ring surrender at 140 ?as the latest perfect foil to Mayweather's street-thug anti-hero, and breathlessly hope the newly-minted 147-pound Cinderella can complete the job 40 others have tried and failed.
But lost in the fairy-tale image contrast is a “Vicious?truth.
Good guy or bad... Floyd Mayweather Jr. is the best fighter on the planet.
And there's really nothing ?shy of entering the ring with a few dozen armed Golden Boy teammates ?that Victor Ortiz can do about it.
Detractors one and all will point to Ortiz’s recent reincarnation, southpaw power and pre-fight demeanor to confidently say, “You know what? Floyd's never seen a guy like this before.?
They'll say it.
And bless their hopeful hearts, they might even mean it.
But they'll be dead wrong.
Again.
While the Ortiz specter is admittedly fresh-faced, it’s competitively far less daunting than previous 24/7 threats ?Mssrs. De La Hoya, Hatton, Marquez and Mosley, for recollection’s sake ?skillfully defused by Mayweather with nary a sweat, let alone a genuine chance of losing.
Ortiz, meanwhile, barely outran oblivion during a lone audition for the big time, narrowly wresting the WBC belt from Andre Berto on a night identified as much for Berto’s ill-timed slip-up as for any significant progress from Ortiz ?who, lest we forget, entered as a sizable underdog. [Click Here To Read More]
The myriad e-mails I’ve already received this week ?reacting to yet another caustic performance in HBO's latest ?4/7?hype-o-mentary ?are unanimous in their righteous indignation.
Get this?people think Floyd is an arrogant jerk.
No, really.
In the 2011 reprise of a 4-year-old “Network of Champions?recipe ?previously remixed in 2007, ?9 and ?0 ?people don't appear to enjoy the way Mayweather brashly taunts his foes. They don't enjoy the way he acts superior. And they don't enjoy the way he flaunts wealth and status.
So, disgusted by the very persona PPV execs covet, people are again eyeing a Saturday in Las Vegas as a chance for a talented, respectful gentleman type to rise up and clean “Money's?diamond-encrusted clock?and they’re willing to part with $59.95 for the chance to watch it happen.
They view handsome, articulate Victor Ortiz ?who many discarded after in-ring surrender at 140 ?as the latest perfect foil to Mayweather's street-thug anti-hero, and breathlessly hope the newly-minted 147-pound Cinderella can complete the job 40 others have tried and failed.
But lost in the fairy-tale image contrast is a “Vicious?truth.
Good guy or bad... Floyd Mayweather Jr. is the best fighter on the planet.
And there's really nothing ?shy of entering the ring with a few dozen armed Golden Boy teammates ?that Victor Ortiz can do about it.
Detractors one and all will point to Ortiz’s recent reincarnation, southpaw power and pre-fight demeanor to confidently say, “You know what? Floyd's never seen a guy like this before.?
They'll say it.
And bless their hopeful hearts, they might even mean it.
But they'll be dead wrong.
Again.
While the Ortiz specter is admittedly fresh-faced, it’s competitively far less daunting than previous 24/7 threats ?Mssrs. De La Hoya, Hatton, Marquez and Mosley, for recollection’s sake ?skillfully defused by Mayweather with nary a sweat, let alone a genuine chance of losing.
Ortiz, meanwhile, barely outran oblivion during a lone audition for the big time, narrowly wresting the WBC belt from Andre Berto on a night identified as much for Berto’s ill-timed slip-up as for any significant progress from Ortiz ?who, lest we forget, entered as a sizable underdog. [Click Here To Read More]
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