It would be a match made "Only in America" if Don King and Floyd Mayweather, Jr. decide to work together.
Floyd and Don.
Don and Floyd.
It has a nice ring to it, at least that’s what I think.
Oh, yes. We could be seeing the perfect union if the “World’s Greatest Promoter” and quite possibly the world’s greatest fighter (I have him ranked #2) decide to come together as one and go forward from this time and place.
What a marriage it would be.
They were pictured together earlier this week at King’s haunt in Palm Beach, Florida with cash in hand and smiles all around.
Don King and Floyd Mayweather, Jr. free to roam what is left of the tattered boxing landscape. Should the two men decide to pair up it could be the just the stimulus program this beleaguered sport is sorely in need of. Think of it as an infusion of magnanimity, a plateful of personality and a dollop of excitement topped with cash, jewels and pizzazz.
While the suits at HBO, Showtime and Golden Boy Promotions have done their level best over the past several years to scrub away the grime that made the fight game what it once was - there is just something about the romantic idea of Don King (who now resides on the fringe) being center stage once again - along with “Money” Mayweather - that would knock the boxing universe, currently centered at HBO’s corporate office at 1100 Ave of the Americas in New York City, from it axis.
Mayweather, adorned in designer duds and shades, is the most well-known boxing personality in the United States.
Quite simply, King and Mayweather have the ability to turn the world of boxing upside down. What you thought was right would be wrong and what you thought was wrong would be right.
It could be better than good. Imagine King in his tuxedo or bedazzled jean jacket. Imagine Mayweather in Armani with a Rolex. Imagine the press conferences, the cross county media tour, the private jet and a cackling King selling “Money” to the masses.
What is clear is that with the collapse of the recent Mayweather-Manny Pacquiao negotiations is that Floyd is in desperate need of a real, honest to goodness boxing promoter that can conceptualize a big deal, cultivate it and then bring it to fruition.
Mayweather’s current affliction is that he does not have capable representation when it comes to boxing. Al Haymon is not a promoter, nor is Leonard Ellerbe. I make the case that Golden Boy Promotions, Mayweather’s current pseudo-promoter are more television packagers for HBO and entertainment partners with the MGM Grand than they are boxing promoters.
The nearly 80-year-old King still has the high-powered wattage to light up a nearly darkened sport - he just needs the right fighter - and Mayweather is the only fighter left that can bring out King’s talents - and vice versa.
Whether King can consummate a deal to make the mega-fight with Manny Pacquiao is anyone’s guess. However, the chances of King sealing a deal with Pacquiao’s promoter, Bob Arum, are much, much better than the fight being made with Mayweather’s aforementioned representatives.
There is the possibility that King could negotiate the impossible and bring the world a Mayweather vs. Pacquiao showdown.
King and Arum, in the boxing business for eons and who once were the only promoters in boxing that mattered, have both indicated they could work together should the circumstances warrant. It would be fitting then, with the sport currently teetering on a precipice of irrelevance and insignificance, if the two octogenarians could circumvent the HBOs the Golden Boys and others who profess to know everything about boxing - but really know nothing - could bring the only fight in the world that anyone cares about to reality.
While Golden Boy has done a serviceable job with Mayweather over the past several years, there is a feeling that that Mayweather could be even bigger and badder with a promoter of King’s ilk by his side. Mayweather seems to know as much as he has flirted with King in the past, but has never been able to summon the intestinal fortitude to put a pen to paper and sign with the high-haired one.
If history is any reminder, remember it was King that has put together the largest and most significant boxing extravaganzas that the sport has ever been privileged to witness. Adjusted for inflation, King’s numbers dwarf those of recent times. Imagine the dollars that he and “Money” could do together.
July 2010
