Hate him or loathe him, you've got to admire Floyd Mayweather's promoting skills.
When a stadium full of impassioned fight fans screamed "Fuck the Mayweathers" at him, Floyd Mayweather belly-chuckled as he mentally counted the money that was rolling in.
When he's met with a tsunami of boos every time he makes his way to a stage, Mayweather calmly surfs the break and informs his adversary that 'the fans can't fight for you'.
When people hammer home the point that this is a complete mismatch and he should really outclass the man making his professional boxing debut, he tries to argue that the only advantage he has on paper is experience.
When Paulie Malignaggi rage quit Conor McGregor's training camp and sparked a heated beef with the UFC superstar, Mayweather wrapped his arm around him and cracked wise about sending 'his friend' into enemy territory as a spy.
https://twitter.com/WatchStadium/status/900876577516408832
Mayweather may be the 'A' Side, but he's only reached that status by being the archetype of a villain. Although his defensively-driven style of boxing is considered to be 'boring' to casual fans, he still manages to get them to part with their hard-earned cash to see him.
The reason for that is because the majority of people probably tune into Mayweather's fights with the hope of seeing him finally lose. There's a perception out there that he's a prick and he doesn't mind perpetuating it. In fact, he seems to embrace it.
And why not? That persona has earned him a sickening amount of money.
So while everyone's complaining about Malignaggi not getting booted off the Showtime broadcast team, Mayweather's making hay. During a recent episode of Embedded, Mayweather dismissed the notion that Malignaggi was his spy.
"Paulie's a great guy. And I never really spoke on the Paulie-McGregor situation. My take on it is this: I never went to Paulie like, 'Paulie, tell me what happened.'"
However, he did it in a way that is sure to piss off quite a few McGregor supporters. Nobody outside of McGregor's camp knows what the Dubliner's gameplan is, except for the former world champion who went 20 rounds with him. And now, maybe Mayweather has an idea.
"But, if Paulie want to sit down with me and talk about it, then it is what it is. And have Paulie talked about it to me? We'll just see."
Genius promotion.
