STATSLight Middleweight
38-4
Golden Boy
February 4, 1973
Payday - $30 Million
Ethos - Establishment Good Guy
STATSWelterweight
37-0
Pretty Boy
February 24, 1977
Payday - $10 Million
Ethos - Hip Hop Irreverence
Nearly as entertaining as the anticipated fight, HBO's unprecedented pre-fight coverage "De La Hoya Mayweather 24/7" is part documentary part Reality TV. Not only does it take the viewer inside the training camp of these fighters, it takes you into their homes.
Naturally HBO wants to sell as many of the $50+ PPV packages as possible therefor pandering to the American need for Good Guy vs Bad Guy is the obvious formula. What is interesting is the producer Ross Greenberg's idea of what a good guy is and what a bad guy is.
Good Guy - Bland, Gender Blurred, Conformist
Bad Guy - Rich, Black and Hip Hop
Coverage of Mayweather invariably focuses on his ostentatious persona, his flamboyant lifestyle, and gratuitous displays of wealth. (One scene showed Mayweather getting a haircut in his 2,500 sq. ft. bathroom. ) Mayweather's commentary seems limited to "motherfucker this, motherfucker that and I'm going to whup his ass). The background music is hard core rap mixed with James Brown's "The Big Payback".
In contrast De La Hoya is portrayed as the determined good guy who shadow boxes with his son, trains under the thoughtful eye of his trainer who heroically battles Parkinson's and frets over his wife's birthday celebration. The background music is gentle and easy listening.While Floyd kicks it with the ultimate Hip Hop icon 50 Cent, De La Hoya calls his friend Michael Jay Fox to invite him to the fight.
What's interesting is what Ross Greenberg ... went out of his way not to tell us about Mayweather.
Away from the public eye, Mayweather Jr. is a doting father to his son and two daughters, a caring son to his mother, a conscientious brother to his sisters and a loyal friend to those close to him.
"When I was about 8 or 9, I lived in New Jersey with my mother and we were seven deep in one bedroom and sometimes we didn't have electricity," Mayweather says. "When people see what I have now, they have no idea of where I came from and how I didn't have anything growing up."Mayweather was born in Grand Rapids, Mich., into a family of boxers. His father and uncles, Jeff and Roger, were professional boxers. Floyd Sr., who lost to Leonard in 1978, never fought for a world title.
Floyd Sr. also had a side job - selling drugs. That job made him a mean taskmaster at home. His punishment of little Floyd was often harsh and brutal, according to Mayweather Jr. He says that when he was a baby, his father used him as a shield to keep his brother-in-law from shooting him.
Yet, the public is not treated to the American success story that is Floyd Mayweather. We are not spoon fed anecdotes about his amazing work ethic or self-motivation. Mayweather is displayed as an asshole freak of nature whose speed was just handed him by the luck of genetics. The fact is there are nearly a million young Floyd Mayweathers languishing in For Profit prisons all over America. Men not fortunate enough to have survived the perils of urban America or the Katrina like destruction of the black family. Nah, that story is not told. Just entourages, cars, curse words and indulgence.
This fight is being intentionally billed as White Reasonable Establishment vs Rich Niggardly Hip Hop.
Editing is powerful.
But that's OK. Kick his ass Floyd. 20 years from now your son can replace Ross Greenberg and produce the type of programming you deserved.
10 comments:
Excellent commentary!
Oh, and Floyd is gone "whup his ass!" I'll come back on Sunday for follow up commentary.
Floyd Jr. has kind of called out the media on this and how hypocritical they are in their portrayal of De La Hoya. Floyd made it clear that he too is a family man and is proud of all of his children while on the show De La Hoya only is shown with one son when he has other out of wedlock children.
Floyd is on point in his critique and editing is a MF but I think he's bought in too much to the good guy/bad guy scenario that his management and a lot of boxing promoters think is needed to sell a fight.
And oh yeah, unanimous decision Floyd. But this is boxing so it'll be a draw, so let's do it again with a bigger PPV.
well done.
i've heard some not too flattering stuff about de la hoya. what with the adultery and accusations of assault against women, along with his folk in his homeland calling him a sell out for not fighting in or putting money back in mexico, he's not even all that popular in mexico. how ironic.
he's lauded in america and lambasted in the place he was born by the folk he supposedly represents.
the media definitely advertises this as a bad boy vs. good guy. i think there's a class issue at play moreso than race. i say that cuz i didn't see this same thing go down when de la hoya fought sugar shane. shane is from pomona, cali and about as far away from the urban culture as a brotha can be.
i think people are affronted by the fact mayweather is a kid from the fiscally poor urban ghetto, one who grew up in the hip-hop culture and adopted much of the 'i don't give a fuck' attitude from said culture. had he been middle-class or more assimilated, they wouldn't have had an issue with him. as it is, he's 'blatantly black' and folk are threatened by that shit.
edit...de la hoya wasn't born in mexico, but the folk there damn sure expected him to 'represent'. he assimilated instead.
This is interesting:
De La Hoya became embroiled in controversy when Freddie Roach, who is training him for the Mayweather fight, admitted in a deposition that De La Hoya brought $250,000 in cash in a suitcase and gave it to super featherweight boxing star Manny Pacquiao as an inducement to try to sign him to a promotional contract. The Las Vegas Review-Journal reported the story on March 1, 2007, and the Los Angeles Times followed with a report on March 2, 2007."
I can't wait to see the fight tom. De La Hoya is a smart man. He's approaching the end of his boxing career. He has everybody hyped (including me) and he's laughing straight to the bank win or loose. He's playing life checkers and he's about to solidify his next move (Golden Boy promotions).
Nikki. You make a good point. An important point.
What jumps out about Mayweather is his blackness.
Mayweather is black with a vengeance.
"black with a vengeance".....lovely.
Nurse Cook
Yeah, I managed to find a computer, De La Hoya was too like the doofus on the team that tried real hard. But no dice. Fuck him. Mayweather all day baby!!!!!!!!!!!
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