Watching Ruben Guerrero rant about Floyd Mayweather
being a “woman beater” is entertaining and at first glance leads one to think;
ok now this fight is sold but then what?. All of Mayweather’s fights (since
2007) have been sold one way or another, and if you’re into the soap opera
aspect of a PPV “event” Floyd is Boxing’s premiere leading man. Opponents tend
to get invited to guest star in “As the Money turns” and catch the pre-fight
fever; the contagion that propels them into the narrative of the event, some
call it fifteen minutes of fame but I call it 12 rounds of reality. Call me a
cynic but each time an opponent decides to become a costar despite the obvious circumstances
the script is always the same, “I’m not
like the rest, I’m gonna beat Floyd up, blah blah blah”. It really isn’t hard
to write you know, you don’t have to watch more than one episode of mob wives
to know that somebody is going to say “do you know who I am!?” boobs will pop
out and shoes will be thrown-it’s formulaic. Golden Boy Promotions (sorry TMT,
until you promote a stand-alone card without Floyd you’re a front) is even
savvy enough to make sure there’s an “insert Mexican (or Latin) opponent” for
Cinco Di Mayo and Mexican Independence Day every year to guarantee the really
“Money” in boxing will be at the party. It works, but I haven’t tuned in to any
of the CBS/Showtime All Access shows because I wanted to present you with a
pragmatic, boiled down thesis on what is really important in this tonight.
TAXES
Floyd “is” slowing down, what happened in those moments when
Miguel Cotto put him on his heels last May was a real function of age- and so
what, the point is what is Guerrero gonna do about it?. This theme is as old as
Boxing, and like our Tax code difficult to get around, when there is a huge
deficit in talent the less talented fighter has to be able to absorb the taxes
levied by the powers that be to come out on top-period end of story. Carmen
Basillio paid in full when he defeated Sugar Ray Robinson in 1957, and Miguel
Cotto tried to pay in increments and got what he deserved in 2012, a pat on the
head. Floyd Mayweathers gifts and acumen is not only greater than Guerrero’s,
his ability to deploy them is the closest thing we have to institutional
control in boxing- if you challenge the system you will be taxed into further
deficits until you become a victim. What Guerrero is attempting tonight is
nothing short of Revolution, and Revolutionaries don’t sleep nor do they take a
step back when tagged by a straight right hand. When you are toppling a regime
that can’t understand anything but control you have to create Marshall Law in
the ring, beating Mayweather by points is like asking a Dictator to nicely to
step down-aint happening. Rocky Marciano never enjoyed one advantage going into
any Championship fight, but he
prospered because the man across the ring knew he was willing to die- he
actually overpaid the talent Tax to the point of intimidation. Ali called
Frazier a Guerilla to degrade him; I call him one because he dragged Ali into
the jungle, disarmed him of his fancy weaponry and tried to club him to death.
Bravado is often ignorance, but a smart fighter knows what he is facing and
understands that he must pay for the right to be competitive with a superior
force, and this understanding gave us the Joe Frazier’s of the world.
In recent years only Zab Judah had the talent to avoid paying
taxes for 4 rounds, he too was a “potential” elitist, but he lacked the mental
toughness to take what he wanted- because the elite rarely ask for anything.
Julio Cesar Chavez Sr. had no business doing what he did to Meldrick Taylor but
you could see his timely payments accruing over the fight until Taylor ran out
of the tyrannical zeal to impose his talent on the legend. When a man can make
you pay for even lifting your glove to strike him you have to be more than willing
to pay happily while getting in position to make him wish he were someplace
else. Few have the stomach for it; Victor Ortiz was more gifted than Guerrero
but fell apart mentally once he realized Floyd couldn’t be bullied. Guerrero can’t
use Andre Berto as a template for the greatest defensive fighter in a generation;
Berto never had the discipline to control the pace of a bout with his guile and
defense alone. When opponents of Mayweather reach a threshold where they have
nothing left to give and punch stats diminish with every round he vacates
onerous Taxation and begins all out brutal exploitation. In the late rounds all
Mayweather opponents resemble what they are: low wage earners there to be
exploited by the sophistication and menace of the ruling class. For any of them
to be more than that is not in Floyds hands either, he’s merely talented of enough
to convince you that this is the case. If you can’t overcome this you become
another thing he owns, something else he bought outright with little more than
a bloody nose or a couple of months in jail.
Only Jose Louis Castillo and Emanuel Burton made it clear
that their humanity was to be respected and he is not in control of how things
would unfold.
Roy Jones is no blue collar grinder, but he recently commented
that Guerrero had to make it ugly and I agree. But I believe making it ugly and
keeping it ugly is the difference between being another guy happy to draw a
check and a guy who gave us one of Boxing’s “remember when” evenings. Keeping
it ugly is about the truth, and the truth is something all underdogs live with
when they look in the mirror. Floyd Mayweather is all of the negative things Guerrero’s
father said he was, but it is the unprecedented aspects of him that his son
must reconcile with to march forward tonight. Floyd may be an infantile person
trying to own people outside of the ring but his ability to do so with one
person inside it is something that can’t be taken lightly.
This is a man who has been in perpetual training camp for the
better part of 20 years, and there isn’t one existing photo of him in a vinyl
suit which makes him deceptively strong. His legendary pad workout may be
shrugged off and mocked but it is an exercise in punch placement which is why
he gets the knuckle part of the glove on his foe at an efficient rate. Despite
losing his legs the right hand is practically glued to his right check and he
NEVER brings it back low and never lets it go unless there’s a clean opening
with no answer. Floyd will also left arm bar for leverage and change stances in
a blink as to generate maximum leverage when he wants to throw straight right hands
to the body. And, he can bring it when hurt, just ask Shane Mosley; he can go
from lying on the ropes to walking you down depending on what you show him-
chaos is up to the man who wants to beat him. Not only can he bring it when
he’s been rocked he’s still somehow able to change the trajectory of shots mid
punch while coming forward- you know, from a straight right into a whipping
half hook/half uppercut concoction all while remaining incredibly composed.
Guerrero should be willing to be the antitheses to Floyd, because remaining
calm will find him in the center of the ring in a frustrating conversation where
Floyd is finishing his sentences.
When all of this is coming at you or even backing away
something has to be beating in your chest that makes you more than just “a good
little fighter”-which is what Floyd will dismissively call him afterwards. Will
Guerrero’s personal ordeal with his wife’s’ health give him the 20/20 eyesight
to find Floyd through swollen eyes? Or will it be the fear of Billionaire
tyrant, mayor Bloomberg putting him on the shelf for a couple of years on
trumped up gun charges? Damnit It better be something. Something has to make up
for the gap in talent he will rudely be faced with 45 seconds into round one,
something has to give him the reserves to pay copious taxes better men have tried
to avoid with no success. Tax Cheats never prosper no matter how unfair it
seems, and Boxing is no different. Floyd Mayweather is a human, but so are
representatives of the Federal Reserve and we still haven’t figured out they’re
actually counterfeiters. You’re gonna have to prove he isn’t a better man than
you because all the evidence says he is. Robert Guerrero is an outsider in Boxing’s
gated Community, the only question is will he naively ask for an entry pass
into where he’s been “told” he belongs
or will he have the God Given sense to pick up the nearest rock he can
find and bust his way in illegally.
