By Shaun La: The Best Ever banner may be a form of self-respect and motivation for Floyd Mayweather Jr. and there are certain hard-core boxing fans who differ with his banner, and there are some who agree with it.
Nobody can deny Floyd’s ring intelligence, speed, defensive protocol and dedication to his training for professional boxing matches. However, what Floyd may be, hands down is the The Best Matchmaker Ever. What goes into Floyd being The Best Matchmaker Ever does not fit into whom we think that he should or should not box, but it does fit into his ability to have a huge say so on whom he wishes to box.
He is not an official full-time matchmaker or promoter like a Bob Arum or Oscar De La Hoya, but Floyd does hold a terrific influence on his own career. I am asking that the readers of my article wear the unbiased hat that us as boxing fans can find it arduous to wear, because we can eagerly defend our favorite boxer as if we are throwing verbal punches inside of heated conversations.
Boxing has always been a sport that is unique within itself. There are no leagues or conferences that can stipulate as well as manage players or teams into a structure where schedules are lined up into a season with wins and losses determining what team will enter the playoffs and come out the champion. Boxing is a sport for the individual that has boxing coaches, and a corner team that has their boxer’s back. Outside of the boxing ring, the business is leveled thru promoters and managers, sanctioning organizations (WBA, IBF, WBO & the WBC) that organizes a ranking system under the champion—which comes with a financial price, because fees are paid to these sanctioning bodies which consent to bouts being official within their organization. Another arm in boxing would be athletic commissions that are mandated by the state that boxing bouts take place in. The state athletic commission will handle the drug testing, physicals, the selection of official ringside judges and all other requirements that goes along with being licensed to run a business or event in any given state within the United States of America.
Now can you imagine what boxers have to go thru in order to get a professional fight? The inner politics, the infighting (A-side vs. the B-side) and the confusion of how to split a financial purse can take the focus off the best boxing the best. Cable television networks have found a space in the gap of boxing to fan out their windy strength of approving or disapproving whom a boxer (who is signed to their network) can and cannot fight. It is not uncommon for a boxer to be signed to a promoter, a manager, and a network, all at the same time.
I rolled all of the business agendas out and into some clarity to explain how Floyd is The Best Matchmaker Ever. There has not ever been a boxer who has had as much latitude when it comes to determining whom he wants to fight, when he wants to fight and where he wants to fight than Floyd. Right now, I am writing about how he has the power—not judging whom he selects to box. This kind of power extends into how he can use his leverage to choose Andre Berto despite what some hard-core boxing fans may prejudge as uneventful and far from exciting, but the disorganization of boxing has fell down into the hole that helped built it—the individual.
Boxing has a history that goes into fixed fights, corrupted judges, ringside officials, greedy promoters, and professional boxers who spent treasure chests of cash, while scammers stayed close enough to the boxer’s entourage to count out some dough for their own keeping. Please remember that boxing has came a long way to distance itself from the corruptness and it is not a perfect sport, but the progress that it has made in the last 20 years cannot be brushed to the side.
Absolutely, I doubt if Floyd is afraid to box any fellow boxer in his weight-class. I just think that he approaches boxing from a business standpoint that has opened up the doors for his brand to fit into the undefeated boxer who can make millions boxing anyone that he pleases. Boxing is bigger than Floyd. So far this year, there has been other boxing bouts without Floyd that has happened after his mega-bout with Manny Pacquiao, which has made some hard-core boxing fans forgiving to their unexciting mega-bout; furthermore, there are future boxing bouts for 2015 that could lift this year into an impressive one for the sport of boxing.
One could say that Floyd’s power on selecting whom he can box is a shape that looks like a conflict of interest kind of situation, as if he is the league’s president, owner of every team & the scheduler all in one entity. Of course, his brand of TBE would wave in such a concept or conflict of interest with open arms, because boxing is a sport for the individual and if you can come out being your own boss, the conflict of interest can appear subjective and like good business sense. Do I think that he is the best or greatest boxer ever? No, I do not. However, when his boxing career has met a conclusion, he will certainly be within the top 15 boxers of all-time. Perhaps he can will land a spot as one of the top 5 greatest welterweights of all time as well. What frustrates some hard-core boxing fans is that Floyd has so much talent and the control to box whomever he wishes, but his careful consideration on how he matches himself up has met some to wonder why he selected this or that opposition or view disappointment when they watch him box an opponent that really had no chance of winning, but the fan fell for the hype that his challenger forked over in pre-fight press conferences. It is undeniable how he took control over his own career (with the advisory help of Al Haymon) after his bout with Oscar De Hoya and marketed himself into a position that has him in a leadership role to decide that his final bout of this year can be against anybody that he wishes it to be, and being one half of the most financially successful bout in boxing’s history is an explanation to the boxing world (and the television networks) that people will watch his matchmaking and spend a lot of money doing so.
What happens after Floyd’s bout this year will determine two things for the future of boxing, which are: Up-and-comer boxers will try to emulate his brand and business power to organize their contracts to give them a lot of room to do as they please when it comes to matchmaking, or boxing will fall back into the hands of promoters being the general matchmakers and the only thing that will hold back two boxers getting into the ring to settle who is the best would be one of the boxers not wanting to fight the other.
What happens after Floyd’s bout this year will determine two things for the future of boxing, which are: Up-and-comer boxers will try to emulate his brand and business power to organize their contracts to give them a lot of room to do as they pleases when it comes to matchmaking, or boxing will fall back into the hands of promoters being the general matchmakers and the only thing that will hold back two boxers getting into the ring to settle who is the best would be one of the boxers not wanting to fight the other. Not the sanctioning bodies, the managers, promoters or the athletic commissions can get in the way if two boxers really want to box each other. This kind of leaving it up to the promoters to listen to their client (the boxer) match up the best with the best is what the sport of boxing is missing and perhaps realizing that boxers who are up-and-comers will have a choice to encourage their hired promoters to get them into the ring with the best or the boxer will be their own promoter and become the best at choosing (which might be filled with motives not to challenge themselves) whom it is that they wish to box can either have us finding the old-school way of boxing coming back or the new guard of boxing taking over.
Manny Pacquiao and Amir Khan could fight each other in 2016. 
