I am a South African from Soweto, the ****** in Johannesburg. East Londoners are not the only South Africans disappointed after weeks of excitement over the arrival of Mayweather. We are huge Mayweather fans here and the kids idolize him, they get up and walk for miles at 3am (due to time zone difference) to the nearest boxing gym to watch his fights (which they display on a big screen, since many don't have TV at home). I myself have been religiously following his activity in SA. Was at the airport where thousands of people came to see him arrive. In his time here on this tour labelled "Reawakening the Giant: The Goodwill Tour" he has done about 5 minutes of goodwill and reawakening boxing in SA. After arriving 3 hours late at the boxing gym in Soweto where young boxers were warming up expecting a coaching clinic, he spoke for 5 minutes and left to go shopping at the Gucci store back in the city (I'm pretty sure there's much better Gucci stores in America that he could have gone to when he got back, but anyway...). Then he went to the nightclub and the next day went on Safari.
Did I mention that the people of East London hand made a gown for him to wear to the ring for one of his fights as a gift? I doubt he cares much.
We weren't even asking for money or a handout, just his influence alone is enough to help lift what used to be a great sport here, producing the likes of Corrie Sanders (one of the few men to beat Wladimir Klitschko), Phillip Ndou who fought Mayweather previously and other champions in other weight classes.
Anyway, I still think he's a great fighter and there's still plenty of loyal fans here but for a lot of us our eyes have been opened. I guess since we don't put money in his pocket we don't really matter...at least the people of Soweto got to see what a Bentley and a Rolls Royce looks like in real life from his motorcade.
If you're telling the truth, then more people need to see this post.
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