FLOYD'S FUTURE IS BRIGHT

June 30, 2005 - by Ron Borges

Floyd Mayweather, Jr. had earned the right to crow. He had only minutes earlier done everything he'd promised he would do to outgunned and outclassed Arturo Gatti, pounding him into submission in six one-sided rounds. Now he could say what he wanted.

And he did.

"I want a second chance,'' the undefeated super lightweight champion said after lifting his unblemished record to 34-0 with 23 knockouts. "Don't judge me from my past. I'm not perfect. I've made mistakes. I admit it. I just hope people give me a second chance.''

Had Gatti actually ever hit Mayweather observers might have concluded the new champion had suffered some sort of concussion. This was not the brash, arrogant, combative face Mayweather had presented for weeks leading up to this showdown. This was not the 'everything's about me' guy or the 'everyone's against me' guy, either. This was just a kid with brilliant talent and a brilliant smile perhaps seeing that maybe there's another way to go.

Near him sat a beaming Bob Arum, whose promotional agreement has run out with Mayweather but whom the fighter no longer was blasting the same way he has most of his fistic opponents. He talked of Top Rank, Arum's promotional company, being the best in the business and he talked of how he wanted to work with Arum and HBO to make big fights and, naturally, big money.

Mayweather had nothing but respectful words for the brave manner in which Gatti had tried to catch him for six rounds, taking a terrible beating in the effort, either. He demeaned no one, most importantly himself. Frankly, he was what he needed to be both in and outside the ring if he is to ever reach the dizzying heights his talent dictates he deserves.

"In the ring I'm still flashy but I love all you guys for coming,'' he said to a crowd of fans, media and boxing executives after the bout was stopped at the end of the sixth round with a beaten Gatti on his stool putting up no argument when trainer Buddy McGirt hugged him and rightly called a halt to the carnage. "I'd sit here all night and sign for the fans. I know the fans got me here. I love HBO. I love Main Events (Gatti's promoters). They gave me the opportunity.

"I perform my best under pressure. I didn't feel I was under pressure in the fight but I was with the biggest company - HBO. I feel it's my time. Now I'll leave it in the hands of HBO and Top Rank.

"I never meant no disrespect to anyone. Every big fight there's going to be a good guy and a bad guy. At the end of the day, it doesn't matter whether they pay to see me win or they pay to see me lost. They still paying. But certain things we say we don't mean. Every fighter I face I say prayers for that no one gets hurt. This is boxing not tennis or golf. It's a brutal sport.''

Mayweather's face lit up as he spoke. He is a young man blessed both with transcendent talent in the ring and a winning smile outside it when he chooses to use it. He still believes, as more than a few others do, that every fight needs a villain and he has been all too willing to play that role up to this point but when you have the kind of talent he has shown in every big fight he's been involved in that kind of approach is unnecessary. It is too early to know for sure, but perhaps Pretty Boy Floyd began to figure that out at some point on June 25 as the crowd kept chanting for the brave Gatti instead of the whirlwind who was beating him down.

Sugar Ray Robinson, Sugar Ray Leonard, Oscar De La Hoya, Roy Jones, Jr., none of them needed to play the WWE role to convince the country of their brilliance. Difficult as it is to write that anyone has their kind of talent and potential drawing power it seems true in Mayweather's case because he has consistently been so dominating against the likes of Diego Corrales, who he dropped five times, Genero Hernandez, who he destroyed when he was barely aware yet of what prize fighting was all about, and now Gatti.

His is a rare talent that demands to be seen. He is like Coltrane or Elvis or Miles Davis. Attention must be paid because fighters like him do not often come along. Not with his blend of speed, quickness, agility, punching power, self-control, boldness and the ability to rise to the occasion whatever it might be. That is a special mix demanding of special attention.

No fighter is unbeatable of course but the biggest enemy to guys like Mayweather are themselves. That is the opponent he most has to monitor closest and keep in check. He seemed somehow to sense that after doing every harsh thing to Gatti he'd promised in front of a hostile crowd of 12,675 that paid over $5 million at the gate in Atlantic City's Boardwalk Hall to watch him get beat.

He didn't get beat but when it was over he didn't feel compelled to say "I told you so'' to anyone either, which was a victory over himself. He didn't praise Gatti in a false way but cited his toughness and thanked him for giving him a chance to climb onto the big stage. He called out De La Hoya, as he's done in the past, but he did it without the edge to it that on other occasions has made Mayweather sound more like De La Hoya's whining younger brother than an equal asking for a chance at his own glory.

In other words, Floyd Mayweather, Jr. won the fight but he also won the post-fight and that might have been nearly as important in the long run because while there may be money to be made in wearing the black hat there's not much love there and that, it seems, is really what Mayweather wants.

He wants to be looked upon the way Leonard was and De La Hoya still is despite several defeats. He wants to be The Man but to be The Man the way they were demands more than boxing skill. It demands a certain connection with the public that seldom comes from verbally abusing every opponent and everyone you do business with, not to mention more than a few people you encounter outside the ropes.

It may even require a thinning of Mayweather's growing entourage because, as Mike Tyson has learned the hard way, when you have talent unlike most other people's it attracts a lot of hangers on but not all of them are concerned with your best interest.

Those kind of decisions will be up to Mayweather to make but his skill in the ring is undeniable and so is the brightness of his future. It is difficult to fathom any more how anyone can make a case against him being the pound-for-pound best fighter in the world. It is equally difficult to believe the next time he fights a major fight the sporting world won't want to watch for his is the rare gifts that have to be seen. The trick will be building up an opponent who the public has reason to believe can offer him a challenge. Arum believes he has such a fighter but Mayweather has to cooperate, both by continuing to win and by continuing to talk the way he did after his grand victory over Gatti.

"By the time we make (Miguel) Cotto-Mayweather it'll be Leonard-Duran all over again,'' Arum said wistfully. "We'll build it for a year until it's as big as Leonard-Duran with the Latinos.''

That would be saying something because the first fight between Sugar Ray Leonard and Roberto Duran on June 20, 1980 was one of the biggest non-heavyweight promotions in boxing history. Both were stars of a magnitude difficult to fathom in today's sports landscape because few fighters outside of De La Hoya have made the jump from boxing's niche to fascination in the mind of the larger general public. Those two did and Arum believes he can do the same for Mayweather and Cotto, the WBO champion who is also undefeated. To match the fierce passion of Cotto's followers with the gifted, brash and photogenic Mayweather could create the kind of spark that turns a boxing match into a national event.

"Nothing but pay-per-view fights from here on,'' Mayweather said after beating Gatti. "I feel this is my time. I showed the people I could box. I showed my power and my moving ability. Tonight was my night. Now I want to fight the best out there. I showed I deserve to be the center of attention.''

Indeed he did. And then he acted like someone who may be ready to handle it.<