Floyd Raps with DJ Whoo Kid
DJ Whoo Kid is the Brooklyn-born/Queens-raised hip-hop DJ who hosts Hollywood Saturdays on Sirius/XM Radio. One of his frequent guests is WBC welterweight champion Floyd Mayweather.
Mayweather sat down with DJ Whoo Kid over the weekend to discuss his recent fight with Victor Ortiz, the dustup with Larry Merchant, and the likelihood of his fighting Manny Pacquiao.
Speaking about Ortiz, Mayweather said, “This dude is trying is trying to stay relevant. He’s no longer relevant. I made the dude famous on 24/7 and gave a few million. I got him on 24/7. He keeps nagging and bitching. I’m like, ‘fall back dude.’ We touched gloves before the fight, we don’t need to touch gloves during the fight and all this kissing and hugging and unnecessary stuff. We don’t need all that. The people want to see us fight.”
Mayweather’s right. All that hugging and kissing is best saved for the backseats of cars. The people wanted to see them fight, maybe even see them fight for more than four rounds.
The ending of that bout was satisfying to some, dissatisfying to others. The first group thought HBO’s Larry Merchant was way out of line, a senile white man trying to earn his stripes at Mayweather’s expense. The second group felt that Floyd should have shown Merchant some respect, which is not what he’s about.
“I guess it comes with the territory,” said Mayweather. “He’s supposed to be a boxing expert but he’s never fought in the ring. The only thing I was trying to do was tell the people who came out to Las Vegas and spent money, and people who bought pay-per-view, I wanted to tell them thank you, and he kept asking me the same question over and over again.
“Larry Merchant, Emanuel Steward, Jim Lampley—they are all just hoping that they can find a fighter who can beat me. Like I’ve said before, they might have to build a robot. I prefer Lennox Lewis or guys that boxed before, been inside the squared circle, to talk to me.”
I don’t know why Mayweather thinks HBO’s troika is hoping they can find a fighter who can beat him. Mayweather brings big money to HBO, that’s the bottom line, and Merchant, Steward and Lampley know that better than most.
As far as Lennox Lewis is concerned, he might have had the requisite knowledge, having fought in the ring, to satisfy Mayweather, but he was terrible when he was on HBO. His personality, or lack thereof, didn’t make for must-watch TV, and TV is nothing if not about personality, as Floyd can attest.
The subject of a possible fight with Manny Pacquiao, which Merchant was getting to before he was shouted down, remains one of the great unanswered boxing questions of our time.
“I’m not really concerned about a guy who has something to hide,” Mayweather said. “I do what I do and he do what he do. I beat fighters when they are undefeated. I beat fighters when they are at the top. He fights my leftovers. They say if you the best, take the test.”
I think I’ve heard that somewhere before. I’m just not sure where.
“Manny Pacquiao fought Marquez twice already and he knocked Marquez down a few times, but Marquez won more rounds. When it’s all said and done, they had a draw the first time and Pacquiao won by one point the second time. I took two years off, came back and fought Marquez and it was easy work. They say I was too big for Marquez, but I’m not too big for Pacquiao and they both the same size.”
Those who like Floyd will like him no matter what. For those who don’t like him, the opposite hold true. But in the end, it’s not about liking or disliking Mayweather that matters. It’s boxing that makes Mayweather relevant. If it weren’t for boxing, who would care? But as to whether he is good for the sport or not is for each of us to decide.
