Quo Vadis Floyd Mayweather?

Regular contributor Andrew Mullinder, from the sanctuary of the Russian front, cast his eye across the tabloid reports of Floyd Mayweather’s fiscal misfortunes. From stolen jewels to counterfeit Lincoln’s the retired superstar could be finding the chill wind of recession blows a little colder without twice-yearly deposits from HBO. Mullinder wonders whether his retirement may yet prove short-lived, a concept sure to be well received by mess’s Hatton, Pacquiao and DeLaHoya.

Quo Vadis Floyd Mayweather?

By Andrew Mullinder

Floyd Mayweather likes to boast about his personal wealth, but this month three stories have emerged that suggest all is not well in the Mayweather treasury, and may indicate his ring retirement will not be permanent.

First, various media sources reported thieves broke into his home and stole jewellery, including a necklace worth over $7 million. The burglars broke in through a window while Mayweather was out and took only the jewellery.

Second, according to website Sandra Rose, Mayweather has started getting cheap with one of his favourite party tricks, ‘making it rain’. For the uninitiated, Mayweather likes to go to clubs and parties and make it rain hundred dollar bills. However, Sandra Rose alleges Mayweather has started making it rain with counterfeit greenbacks, and worse, recently handed out stacks of the funny money to revellers in Atlanta nightclub Pure. This is apparently not the first time Floyd has used counterfeit notes: Sandra Rose writes that Vegas party goers complained about Mayweather’s fake money earlier this year. Sports website Deuce of Davenport is even suggesting Mayweather and the counterfeit bills – apparently of high quality – may be subject to a Federal investigation.

And to cap off a month that makes the world’s financial markets look a picture of health, Mayweather is being sued by a Florida property developer for defaulting on a $1.7 million down payment for a new $8.5 million Miami home he agreed to buy in June, according to BoxingScene.com. Mayweather’s associates claim the money has been paid, but there is no evidence the payment was sent or received, BoxingScene alleges.

It cannot have been a pleasant run of events for a man who puts so much value on material wealth and seems as fond of conspicuous consumption as a Russian oligarch.

Of course, the conspiracy theorists on the boxing forums have been flexing their math-muscles, putting together the two and two of counterfeit money and property default and getting the five of ‘jewellery insurance job’. However, this conclusion strikes me as unlikely. Mayweather did not exactly make himself a hard target: he was known to carry his bling around with him, showing it off at every opportunity, and often emerging from his mansion looking like a welterweight Mr T, although perhaps with less class. It does not need a criminal mastermind to pilfer a target as soft as that.

The alleged counterfeit money suggests much more, though.

To my eyes, there are two reasons Mayweather could like ‘making it rain’. First, he has the mentality of a cruel aristocrat who enjoys flinging morsels to the starving masses to watch them fight over the scraps, or second, he is so insecure that he must display his wealth as ostentatiously as possible in order to prove that he lives up to his self-generated persona. Neither reflects particularly well on Mayweather’s character.

If that wasn’t bad enough, making it rain with fake bills is rather like a person who goes out of their way to show off their designer clothes only to be discovered buying cheap knock-offs at the local market. It is a moment of excruciating, toe-curling embarrassment, and Mayweather should feel absolutely mortified.

But more than that, I doubt whether a man like Mayweather, who has stridently set about building a reputation as being ‘philthy rich’ – and in his efforts to do so awarded himself the risible moniker ‘Money Mayweather’ – would stoop so low without cause. I suspect he might have backed himself into a corner by boasting about his wealth, and has had to continue to spend beyond his means in order to maintain the facade. The alleged default on the property payment in Miami would indicate as much.

Mayweather may have done tidily out of his boxing career, but he is no Golden Boy when it comes to net worth, and there are plenty who know him, including his father, Floyd Mayweather Sr., and former promoter Bob Arum, who have long predicted he would be forced to return to the ring in order to sustain his profligate spending habits.

That would be no bad thing for those of us who believe Mayweather still has unfinished business in the ring.

Winner of DeLaHoya-Pacquiao? I don’t think the odds are so long.