By Patrick Kehoe

Iconic portraits of Roger Federer, Tom Brady, Michael Jordan and Arnold Palmer stare out from major sports and men’s magazines this last month, with autumnal athletic engagements tugging at our sense of anticipation and nostalgia jointly.  Boxing will produce its B-list celebrity micro-giant in the body and persona of ‘welterweight’ Floyd Mayweather Jr., returning to the paid pugilist’s ranks, ending his 21 month retirement sabbatical to mix the mitts with Mexican legend Juan Manual Marquez on HBO pay per viewing. The Michigan reared and Vegas housed Mayweather may not be just about bombast and bills and bullets and bravado, given the undeniable genius of his best boxing. He does, however, play the role of the obnoxious ex-wunderkind, the self-righteous black hat in a dreamscape of glittering superficiality and mountains of money, to now predictable acceptance. Of course, in the age of reality TV and infomercials, the pointed camera ordains that the magnificent and mediocre share equally the spectrum of virtual enlightenment.

Call it method acting on Floyd Mayweather Junior’s part or business savvy, aged 32, he has become his own altered ego(tist), and short of retirement oblivion, he’s destined to live out the anti-role of his chaotic making: The Lord of Misrule. If you type cast yourself long enough, you become your own invention, the mask makes the man, then is the man.

Though no one can, in all good conscience – not even employed by Top Rank – deny the proven fact of Floyd Mayweather’s boxing ability, time and title tested, religiously maintained and executed, so far, to perfection as measured by an undefeated professional record. In the ring, not even the most sage of boxing guru’s has much to teach “Little Floyd.” Just ‘YouTube’ Mayweather to take a cursory peruse though his career highlights and the quality of his defensive awareness, the precision of his combination punching and the balanced athleticism of the “Michigan Maestro” and that calmed reflexive engagement under fire are unmistakably Mayweather traits. And if you put aside partisanship for Marquez or accumulated dismay for 24/7/365 Mayweather, who honestly believes anything like the best of Floyd Mayweather cannot outbox and outfox featherweight king gone north Marquez, at the MGM Garden Grand, Saturday night? If we are being honest, not many truly believe in Marquez as a probable conqueror.        

We know the public man as the former “Pretty Boy” turned to “Money.” We hear the dismissal of opponents, the self-inflation, read the media rap sheets of his uncle trainer Roger and not-now estranged father, Floyd Sr., acknowledge the defensive scepticism denied and then repeated, and most of us simply marvel at this man’s existence as contained chaos. His ability to be athletically brilliant with legal and financial allegations dogging him ad nausea, simply astound!

Floyd Mayweather truly lives in the eye of a storming personal and professional maelstrom, the velocity and metrics of which would all but certainly derail any other major sports star. His money rains down upon those that serve and attend his every need. We all know, he loves the big time. Does anyone in boxing try harder to appear larger than life? To be an entertainer some-body today means as much, if not more, to him than being a titled boxer. So, he and his manager Leonard Ellerbe have him dance with the pseudo-stars and pretend to wrestle with “The Big Show” indulging in unmitigated sideshow hype. Anything to get paid without really being hit! And who can blame him? If momentary celebrity is not for the milking, what is it all about?

He tells us repeatedly about being a warrior – an assessment that must have Marquez either amused or excited – yet he boxes artfully on the back foot or circling, looking to counter more than engage with hellfire. His ability to create then close then again create distance might be his signature quality, as a great prizefighter, right alongside his unerring professionalism, with regards to his always elite physical fitness. Staying in the pocket, fighting ruthlessly on the counter from interior positioning, Mayweather constructed a masterpiece, in 2001, against hard driving Jesus Chavez. Fighting and fleeing against Jose Luis Castillo, sharpshooting against the late Arturo Gatti, in 2005, or just creating perimeter crossfire against Oscar De La Hoya and Ricky Hatton in 2007, Mayweather devises championship boxing patterns clinically, without much recourse to battling it out anywhere near the margins labelled peril and defeat.

When he declares himself “a child of god” and a “believer in a higher power” and an unapologetic patron of the Vegas VIP strip-club lounge set, no one really cares in 2009. All of Mayweather’s contradictions have been fully vetted and digested by fans of boxing. Though, Floyd seems the last to understand we aren’t really listening to his confessions as insights any longer; our collective frustrated disbelieve suspended long ago.

Boxing fans are curious, though, to see if the man who last year admitted he was “bored with boxing” the “sport I love” can still fight, producing all of his arraying virtuosity, to effectively put a beatdown on the impeccable boxing orthodoxy of featherweight legend Juan Manuel Marquez. Yes, we do note the fighting weights for this contest, somewhere between 142ish and 147ish – wink, wink – with no illusions that Mayweather won’t enjoy being the bigger man in the ring, a novelty for Mayweather.

Even those who respect the great Marquez understand this as an HBO mega-event preliminary to what HBO ultimately desire: Manny Pacquiao vs. Floyd Mayweather Jr. Still, in boxing mega-fight politicking – to borrow from Lennox Lewis – first Mayweather must return to the ring. He must then re-establish the authority of his championship status. For that he needs a benchmark opponent, a legitimate – if hand-picked – challenge, of a kind, and not just a big name no-hoper. Though some believe Marquez understands the odds, the risks, and will enjoy being a dangerous long shot, with a punchers chance against the masterful Mayweather.

Doesn’t matter if Mayweather barks at the Shane Mosley of 2002 or Papa Floyd Senior spits allegations Pacquiao’s way, “all roads lead to Floyd Mayweather” according to Mayweather. Yes, unrelenting self-importance remains vital to the interior workings of a mega-time prize fighter; and yet, Manny Pacquiao does remain the most important economic entity inside the ropes. In the end, Mayweather will have to come to terms with Team Pacquiao and HBO, not vice versa; and yet, we digress.

And what matters is what Mayweather believes about himself as a prize fighter, a man of technical mastery and a king among those who merely try to contend with his all around ability. Being first among equals has been bred to the bone, a constant in the life and times of Mayweather. That elemental understanding, if it remains a bedrock truth, ties Mayweather to his future earnings, as it has to his historical significance as a championship boxer, securing for him title and deed to his ultimate place in the grand scheme of things fistic and golden and glamorous.

Posturing and preening and making much of his circumstances, while beating everyone he’s ever fought as a professional, has brought him all the way past mere success and being a boxing champion.

Sure, Mayweather has been a sometime stay at home daddy, preferring rollerblades and Rolls Royce to Mercedes. He’s taken time to hug and make up with Floyd, the elder, in another bout of reconciliation, ala 2007. Whatever his need for a cash-flow top up, his text messaging and gun licence issues, boredom finally becoming him or not, he’s decided to return to the ring. Call it a need for the green, for the r-e-s-p-e-c-t winning engenders, or, for something meaningful to do with his time.

Erring upon preferences does, after all, make up all roads to perdition.

Nevertheless, Floyd Mayweather returns as himself, the boxer. Juan Manuel Marquez will make trouble for him, if he can. Inflicting whatever damage his experience and wrath can, the steely Mexican knowing his own Hall of Fame Career effectively ends soon, if defeat is his. Mayweather tries never to concern himself with anything negative; Marquez remains a marked man, an obstacle for hurdling on route to his next spectacular ring performance.

Floyd Mayweather says he never gets ahead of himself, and that’s why he’s managed to avoid the ruthless attentions of fierce men. We almost believe him, yet again. Though we suspect that Floyd, in full athletic flow boxing, doesn’t need to know who the other guy really is because nothing coming at him matters all that much.

Or at least, he’s made us think that’s what it looks like, up until Marquez.  You wonder though, if he might be dreaming of Pacquiao and all those lovely, very green, Benjamins?  

One thing is for sure, Marquez intends to see if Mayweather really does pay off all of his debts, in full and in a timely manner. Or have the internal and external resources of the great Floyd Mayweather Jr. calmed?

Floyd just cannot understand why there are still so many non-believers. Kinda makes him think they don’t really deserve me... the world’s gone crazy.

Patrick Kehoe may be reached at pkehoe@telus.net