Much of the attention Floyd Mayweather's recent Ustream appearances have generated of late has centered firstly on the offensive and racially insensitive comments he made, and secondly on the seeming insincerity of his apology afterward.
Lost amongst Mayweather's ramblings in either one though there were actually a number of interesting details which seem to have largely slipped through the cracks, and might have unintentionally tipped his hand on a number of issues.
The first of these is his promotional situation. In the apology video Mayweather said:
"I want to say thank you to ESPN, of course HBO, there is no network like HBO, what else can I say, Al Haymon Leonard Ellerbe have done a hell of a job"
"Mayweather promotions is the past, the present and the future of sports entertainment"
So presumably he intends to keep both Ellerbe and Haymon around for the time being and isn't in the process of replacing them. A recent article by FightHype's Gary Reynolds suggested that this meant he was done with the idea of signing with Don King as well, although this might not necessarily be the case.
The fact that he is keeping Ellerbe and Haymon on board and that he intends to keep Mayweather promotions going doesn't definitively mean that his promotional partners in Golden Boy are going to be staying as well.
Although King has a reputation for signing his fighters to lengthy and usually exclusive contracts, in Mayweather's case he might be willing to make an exception given the amount of money potentially on the table. Similarly Mayweather himself could well replace the co-promotional agreement he usually has with Golden Boy with King instead.
Probably not significantly, but worth a mention anyway, of all the people Mayweather thanks in the video, Golden Boy are the one missing party who have undoubtedly helped him get to where he is today.
Mayweather's fight in Dubai now canceled?
During the first of his videos, Mayweather said that he was taking about a year off from the sport and that he would beat Pacquiao on his return. Not the exact words he used, but the real ones have been reprinted enough over the last few days, and everyone is already aware of what kind of language they included.
Anyway, what was interesting about this statement is the fact that it seemingly quashes any idea of Mayweather fighting before the end of the year, and also that he might be taking on any other opponents before the Pacquiao fight is revisited once again.
Several weeks ago Mayweather said in an interview with Robin Leach that his next fight would be taking place in Dubai. Given that he wouldn't be able to dictate where a fight against Pacquiao was going, and that this is the fight he said he will be taking when he returns from his vacation, it seems his Dubai plans have either gone up in smoke or weren't ever as concrete as they seemed.
Things not looking good for uncle Roger?
At the beginning of his apology video, Mayweather apologized to his uncle Jeff Mayweather for their estrangement, and asked him to rejoin his gym in Las Vegas and become part of his team. The fact that uncle Roger faces a jail term after he goes on trial for assault next month makes the timing of this interesting. Does Floyd intend to make Jeff rather than his father Floyd Sr into his new trainer if Roger is out of the picture?
Andy Cellers, Pittsburgh: "The racism thing will blow over eventually, but like that I think the Dubai thing was just Floyd trying to get attention"
Raif Dowling, Philly: "I thought Jeff and Floyd fell out a while ago? Ellerbe has trained Floyd before so he is probably the bets bet once Roger is in prison again"
Source: http://www.examiner.com
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