Floyd Mayweather Still Making Fans Pay With Miguel Cotto Fight

LAS VEGAS -- Floyd Mayweather Jr. didn't exactly plan for it to happen this way. The thought of sitting in a jail cell for two months can't be a pleasant one, especially while the entourage enjoys life without him at the Big Boy house.

But there's a fight to sell, and once again it doesn't include Manny Pacquiao. The opponent Saturday night will be Miguel Cotto, a game but outmatched fighter who this city's oddsmakers figure will end up either on the canvas or on the losing end of a lopsided decision.

Some will plunk down $69.95 to watch it on pay-per-view because it's their last chance for a while to see Mayweather in boxing gloves instead of handcuffs. Others will buy it because they're hoping the mental stress of his upcoming jail sentence will finally bring Mayweather down in the ring.

No matter. Once again, Mayweather has found a way make them pay.

"The great thing is that they boo, they cheer, they know who I am so I'm relevant," Mayweather said. "So at one particular time in their life they paid attention to me, so it's a good thing."

For Mayweather it's been a great thing. He's become one of the greatest salesmen of his time, making untold millions by crafting a bad boy persona and flaunting a lifestyle that either thrills boxing fans or enrages them so much they will pay good money in hopes of seeing him get beat.

Sometimes, though, life conflicts with reality television. What the HBO cameras that document the show "24/7" never showed was what happened between Mayweather and his ex-girlfriend early one morning in 2010 while two of their children watched.

It landed him in court on domestic violence charges. And on June 1 it will land him in a jail cell to begin serving what is expected to end up being a sentence of just under two months.

He got a reprieve earlier from the judge so he would be able to fight. But any celebration Saturday night will have to be muted because of what is in front of him.

"The only thing it can do is make me mentally strong and grow mentally strong as a person," Mayweather said. "It's all part of life, you have good days, you have bad days. But the main thing is to grow mentally."

The upcoming sentence is the first serious time Mayweather will spend in jail, despite a past littered with battery and violence arrests. It came after he pleaded no contest to charges in December, avoiding a trial that could have gotten him up to 34 years in state prison if he was convicted on all counts.

He got a license to fight Cotto only after promising Nevada boxing officials that he wouldn't make any attempts to avoid his jail term. The judge had earlier postponed it until June 1, so his adopted hometown wouldn't lose out on the millions of dollars in revenues brought in by a big fight on Cinco de Mayo weekend.

It would have been a much bigger fight if Mayweather were meeting Pacquiao, of course, but odds are that's not going to happen. Mayweather's insistence that Pacquiao takes far less money on the fight than he will make is the main reason for that, though Mayweather will try and tell you that the fight would happen if Pacquiao agreed to Olympic-style drug tests – which he has already done.

The new head of HBO Sports, Ken Hershman, said a few months ago that the fight has to be held later this year or early next year, because after then it becomes "less and less relevant."

That's a shame for a sport that needs huge fights to survive. And while the blame can be spread on both sides, Mayweather deserves to be taken to task for not making it happen. He's content to make $30-40 million to have relatively safe fight against guys like Cotto and Victor Ortiz, rather than risk his unbeaten record in a fight that could earn him twice that much.

Not that Cotto isn't a legitimate opponent. He is, though Pacquiao gave him a beating before stopping him in the 12th round three years ago. And Mayweather was willing to move up to 154 pounds – a weight he hasn't fought at since beating Oscar De La Hoya in 2007 – to make the fight.

Even with the pending jail sentence to spice things up, though, the selling of Mayweather is getting old. There's only so many times you can watch him argue with his father, pal around with rapper 50 Cent, and throw dollar bills through nightclubs. We get that he's rich and likes to flaunt it, but there's nothing particularly interesting anymore to watching him in the extravagant mansion he calls his Big Boy house or behind the wheel of the armored van he has converted into a party vehicle.

Mayweather himself seemed to say as much Sunday when he sent out a tweet apologizing for the episode of "24/7" on HBO the night before. He said it wasn't up to his standards, and suggested bringing in the producers who were doing the series when he fought Ricky Hatton to spice things up.

One of the greatest fighters ever as he insists? No, not unless he fights Pacquiao – and soon.

But as a master salesman, no one in the game comes close.

____

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Comments

[Rsaunders1733]

05:20 PM on 04/30/2012

Boxing hasn't been relevant in a decade. Donate 60 bucks to a convict....nope.

[Maxedaddy]

04:59 PM on 04/30/2012

He is the biggest fight dodger that ever lived as well.

[Bados]

06:39 PM on 04/30/2012

LOL

[dave ochs]

03:56 PM on 04/30/2012

i'll pay the standard 50 to watch not 60.
dave

[lionzion]

03:19 PM on 04/30/2012

Mayweather is still the best in his craft, plus the undercards to this fight is legendary.

[portfolio]

07:21 PM on 04/30/2012

Best woman beater?

[montanasian]

08:53 PM on 04/30/2012

and all he has to do is fight Pacquio but we have seem to have been down this road haven't we?

[johnhere]

03:15 PM on 04/30/2012

I've seen many great boxers come and go. My opinion of Mayweather Jr. is that he is a Punk, and a Coward~!

[aristippe]

02:51 PM on 04/30/2012

Who wants to pay sixty dollar to see the Best PFP school Cotto,

[portfolio]

07:22 PM on 04/30/2012

Manny isn't fighting Cotto.

[WestCoastLib]

02:46 PM on 04/30/2012

He's not as relevant yet you spend the limited time you have on this earth following his story and writing about him. Brilliant.

[DelaFletch]

01:40 PM on 04/30/2012

Brilliant Marketing. Imagine, your enemies funding your empire. It would be like the Huffington Post founder criticizing the president, bolstering Romney.... Oh wait.. Look at the front page.

[shawman65]

12:08 PM on 04/30/2012

You're not relevant, you're a gutless twit.

[Bados]

06:40 PM on 04/30/2012

LOL So many things say otherwise.

[portfolio]

11:49 AM on 04/30/2012

The wifebeater Mayweather needs to go away.

[Iain Banks]

11:14 AM on 04/30/2012

I hate the man's narcissism which I can only assume matched by Gingrich and or Ahmadinejad. That said, he business acumen is truly admirable. He finds way to make millions out of the people who hate him, I wish I had that power. At any rate, if the author was trying to be objective he failed .. miserably, though I doubt that was his intention. To make things clearer, the fight with Manny failed because Manny's camp insists on taking a 50-50 profit scheme, while its Mayweather who will be putting up the vast majority of funds for the fight in the first place.

[aristippe]

10:46 AM on 04/30/2012

great boxer

[portfolio]

11:50 AM on 04/30/2012

Where?

[Bados]

06:40 PM on 04/30/2012

in the ring

[BlueDog1]

10:07 AM on 04/30/2012

This little man is double a ball, won't see a dollar of my money. Manny is the man.

[Iain Banks]

11:09 AM on 04/30/2012

Manny has lost. Mayweather hasn't. End argument.

[portfolio]

11:51 AM on 04/30/2012

Manny lost to Mayweather???

You've got zero argument.

[WestCoastLib]

02:51 PM on 04/30/2012

Its widely know that Manny used/uses performance enhancements. He use to be one of my favorite, in a way he still is. But you cant pretend to be blind for that long. Simple human physiology doesn't lie....if you think he's all natural and has always been...I have a bridge I want to sell you.

[sugarmoes]

08:36 AM on 05/01/2012

floyd's juicing. look at him. pics and simple human physiology don't lie.

[happyblackman]

09:53 AM on 04/30/2012

As someone who knows the Mayweather family, and has hung out with both Floyd Sr. and Jr., the contrast between their public and private lives are very different. There is tension between the two, but no father wants to see his son hurt, in any profession. The media never focuses on the fact that Floyd Jr. has donated thousands of dollars to different projects in his hometown, and in Vegas. It's not a pr thing. His public reputation is shot. It's just something he does. If he were to brag about that, people would still come down on him. Yes, he's arrogant, brash and self-serving. Aren't all the good ones like that? I await the hate from my post.

[sugarmoes]

08:37 AM on 05/01/2012

remember that floyd jr. has been ordered by the court, on more than one occasion, to make donations and to perform community service. we'll never know which donations are which.

[happyblackman]

09:02 AM on 05/01/2012

His foundation has been up and running for years, and making donations and setting up scholarships for years. I'm certain the vast majority of his philanthropy is through that process.

[chucknchar t]

09:47 AM on 04/30/2012

Boycott Mayweather and Manny, til they fight or who cares what they do.

[montanasian]

08:56 PM on 04/30/2012

Exactly. Jon jones and the UFC