First, and foremost, I really looked forward to listening to this entire interview.
I wanted to finally watch Floyd in a sit down interview in the world of hip hop.
Is he tough to listen to? He can be. I like to hear what he says, when he “can” say it, not how he says it. Floyd is highly intelligent. God gifted him the ability to perfect the Philly roll, not the gift of great speech.
I am surprised the OP did not bullet point, what I thought to be a great critical thinking debate: that he felt he was the best athlete of the last decade (even two decades) was him. Hell, I thought it would be a thread just dedicated to that one question here on BGOL already. I was wrong.
It wasn’t, so, here I go. Floyd has a plethora of evidence for this argument. Over the past decade Floyd had 10 fights. All 10 fights were title fights or more accurately title defenses. All 10 fights were against world class talent. All 10 fights, just like all his non title fights, were clinics. I consider this going to the Super Bowl, Finals, World Series, and Stanley Cup 10 times and you brought home the chip. I am a bibliophile and could give a f*ck if he sound like he read on a 5th grade level. He knows something we don’t.
And before we talk about primes and declines, Floyd can’t win where other boxers thrive in their mediocrity. He is great as a matter of fact. He is so great, he fought world class talent with such dominance, we make excuses to why he won, or worse, that other fighters were robbed of definitive wins against him in the cases of Corrales and Medina. He doubled back and beat them decisively. He made everyone look like they didn’t know what they were doing, and against him, they didn’t.
In the midst working on defending his title, he managed to to make $500,000 for every punch he landed, over the last decade...a half a mil for every punch he landed. Virtually a BILLION dollars.
Yeah, he had a corner man. Yeah, he had a trainer. Inside that square circle, though, it is just him. Father Time was his opponent. Brittle hands was his opponent. Halfway through his career, he thought he might have to retire because of them.
Did he have a handful of legal issues, yeah. Did he build a school, nah. But let’s take an honest look at his sport. Boxing is synonymous with shady business. Mainstream brand endorsements are rare if ever. Fight promoters are (can be) pariahs. Name one boxer, outside of Floyd that made a BILLION dollars boxing? Name 2 that did it as a pair. Pick any 5 boxers that did it as a group. Can’t do it.
This man lost time with his Dad at one of the most critical times in his development as a male. Came from “nothing” and made a billion dollars in 10 years. Do you understand how intelligent this ninja is? You don’t make a billion dollars doing manual labor ONLY. He has that mentality. Kobe has it. LeBron has it. High IQ’s for their respective sports that translated into money outside their sport.
Which leads me to my last point. Floyd made more money with a product that was sellable to a limited audience. There is a wider audience for basketball than there is for boxing which means Floyd had to work every day, as his own manager, in marketing and promoting himself from Floyd Mayweather Junior to Pretty Boy Floyd to Money Mayweather to The Best Ever. F*cking boxing and business genius.
Just my opinion. Think on it.
TIP the breadwinner. TIP's career is built on his name. She can't embarrass him out here like that.
In the beginning, she was. Now, he worth 5 times what she is. His success is just as much hers as it is
I don't know why Floyd even do interviews.
