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Wednesday, September 16, 2009 Posted by Television at 9:09 PM

Mayweather vs Marquez Free Live Stream

Mayweather vs Marquez Role Reversal

Posted: 16 Sep 2009 07:19 AM PDT

For years Mayweather has played the villain to promote his fights. But leading up to his 9/19 bout with Marquez, the antagonist has shown a softer side. Is boxing's most notorious bad guy turning over a new leaf?

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Like a cartoon villain, Floyd Mayweather's public persona is neatly encapsulated in his self-anointed nickname, "Money." It symbolizes everything that Mayweather has sought to embody on the public stage, the thug life of bling and bluster, the "get rich or die tryin'" hip-hop ethos transposed to the boxing ring, complete with entourage, conspicuous consumption and endless streams of trash-talking bravado.

But lately, there's been a change in Mayweather, —or at least in the way he is being presented to the world. In the lead-up to his fight with Juan Manuel Marquez, a different Floyd has been in circulation—a kinder, gentler edition who is reconciled with his father, who doesn't take below-the-belt swipes at his opponent, and who is increasingly portrayed as a devoted family man.

For the boxing fan accustomed to Floyd's tempestuous rants of self-adoration, these attempts at softening the fighter's notoriously rough edges are bound to ring hollow. After all, this is a man who made himself into a superstar by flourishing in the role of the cocky, shameless villain. Possibly no fighter since the Louisville Lip, a young Cassius Clay, has become so famous by provoking the ire of fans and making them love to hate him. And when an athlete willfully typecasts himself as the bad guy, changing that image is rarely as easy as staging a few carefully chosen photo-ops, like the scenes of Mayweather feeding the homeless and talking to teenagers on a recent episode of HBO's Mayweather/Marquez 24/7.

Then again, if you listen to Leonard Ellerbe, Mayweather's manager and right-hand man, the fighter's image always has been at odds with his reality, and what's happening now is that the truth of Floyd is finally seeing the light of day.

"Going out and feeding the homeless," Ellerbe says, "that wasn't designed for24/7. This summer we fed the homeless all the time, in some instances twice a week. We never had any cameras around. It just so happens that 24/7 is part of preparing for a fight now with Floyd. But we've been feeding the homeless for years."

To hear Ellerbe tell it, "Money" Mayweather is a persona that Floyd adopts to entertain and to promote his fights, and though that persona is not entirely an act, it doesn't even scratch the surface of Floyd's true identity.

"You're always going to have good guys and bad guys in entertainment," Ellerbe says. "Those are the roles that they play. But when it comes to the person, that doesn't define who he is. The guy that I see, he gets up and he's making sure that his kids get off to school; he goes to parent-teacher conferences; he's involved with his kids' lives. He's a guy who takes care of his entire family, and who's given a number of people opportunities that they never would have had. But he doesn't take credit for those things."
"The role of the hero was already filled in Mayweather's early fights. So if you want to be a lead, what do you do? You play the villain." — HBO boxing analyst Max Kellerman

Ellerbe claims that he's taken it upon himself to change the perception of fans, to give them a chance "to know the true Floyd Mayweather, the person, as opposed to 'Money' Mayweather." And so we see Floyd now delivering meals to the homeless out of the back of a truck or giving inspirational speeches to teenagers. We read more about his impressive philanthropy—for instance, giving nearly $200,000 out of his own pocket to fund last year's Golden Gloves national tournament. In interviews and press conferences, Mayweather remains cocky and, at times, defiant, but overall, his tone is more muted, more reflective. Threads of "Money" are woven into a different, more complex whole.

For anyone who's been following Floyd's career arc since the very beginning, this is not a very surprising development. After all, as HBO Boxing analyst Max Kellerman points out, Floyd hasn't always played the bad guy.

"You have to remember, he started out trying to be the next media darling," Kellerman says. "He tried to be the good guy. But in the Arturo Gatti fight, that role was already taken. And in the De La Hoya fight, that role was taken. The hero role was filled in those fights. So if you want to be a lead, what do you do? You play the villain."

But the villain act grows wearisome over time, and seeking adoration by provoking disdain can be a thankless and childish hustle. It makes sense that Floyd would eventually start to throw off the cartoonish character that is "Money May" and ask for a different kind of attention from boxing fans.

But why now? If, as Ellerbe contends, this is the real Floyd and he's been there all along, why choose to emphasize it in the build-up to this particular fight? Is it just a matter of growing older and maturing? Perhaps, after being away from the game for almost two years, the 32-year-old father of four finally has said to himself, "You know what? No more Mr. Not Nice Guy. I want to be the hero of the movie now."

"I think there's something to that," says ESPN's senior boxing writer, Dan Rafael. "Floyd is a very insecure person and deep down he just wants to be loved by everybody. So maybe he's having a little bit of an internal battle. Because on the one hand, he can probably generate more attention and more money by playing the villain, but maybe being the good guy is going to make him feel better, and maybe that's more important to him now."

It remains to be seen, however, whether the public will take to him in the hero role the same way that they had to the nefarious "Money May." Floyd was box-office gold two years ago when he played the hip-hop Darth Vader to Oscar De La Hoya's establishment Luke Skywalker. One wonders if in flipping the script Mayweather will still be able to capture fans' imaginations (and dollars) the same way.

Leonard Ellerbe maintains that this question is the least of Floyd's concerns. "Going out and promoting events the way he does… he looks at that as just doing his job," Ellerbe says. "When it comes down to who's the good guy or the bad guy— the roles are the roles, however they fall into place. And one of Floyd's greatest assets is his mental strength. He's able to endure whatever negative criticism is out there and never allow it to affect him in any way. Because at the end of the day, it comes down to a fight, and then it doesn't matter who people think is 'good' or 'bad.' The better fighter will win."

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