Either Floyd Mayweather Jr. has lost his mind or else I've been so, so wrong.
If it's the latter, and indeed it is shown that Mayweather is a historical figure (hysterical?), then I take back every mean, nasty and downright unpleasant thing I've ever written or said about the undefeated boxer.
I mean, I plead ignorance as in being too stupid to recognize that he ranks right up there with social change giants Malcolm X ("Random drug testing by any means necessary") and Dr. Martin Luther King ("Free at last, free at last for random blood testing").
I thought it was awful when Don King had an Atlanta fight poster emblazoned with Dr. King's name and the implication that the civil rights leader, long dead, had some connection to a fight card.
But that King never compared himself to Brother Martin or Minister Malcolm.
But here's the bottom of a story by hometown reporter David Mayo--he's to the Mayweather beat what Cristianne Amanpour is to the Middle East--which spells out the delusions of Money May:
“If it was all about money for me, I would’ve said ‘I don’t care what Manny Pacquiao does, just give me the money, I’ll take it,’ ” he said. “But it’s me taking a stand for something that means something. And it’s for the fighters who are up and coming.
“It’s sort of the same stance Martin Luther King and Malcolm X made, so we could have freedoms, so everybody could tell the world that we’re equal. The only thing I’m saying is that we are equal. So if you’re not on nothing and I’m not on nothing, then let’s go take the test. That’s all I’m saying."
Who knew?
I used to put Mayweather on the scale of social change right next to Lady Gaga and Peewee Herman, really, no more.
(By the way "Hold The Mayo" if you scribbled for a self respecting tabloid like the New York Post that last graph would've been your lead and your front page headline. Mayo's work can be seen here on the Grand Rapids Press/Mlive.)
I am on bended knee after this shocking revelation, this ultimate disclosure by Mayweather.
If he's a latter day Dr. King, does this make Floyd Sr. another Ralph Abernathy?
Is Roger "Lamp Unto My Feet" Mayweather another Rosa Parks, the stout-hearted woman who refused to give up her seat for a white man on a Montogmery, Alabama, bus?
Extrapolating this beyond its already ridiculous parameters, I guess Oscar de la Hoya becomes A. Phillip Randolph.
I do detect one key difference between the X Man, Dr. King and Mayweather, though.
It may seem a picayune comment given Mayweather's hysterical importance but...
Dr. King had a dream.
Mayweather has only a scheme.
This is, really, a wake up call for all the fools--"White Gorilla" Marley in the driver's seat--who thought it was asburd when Mayweather compared himself to the iconic likes of Ali, Louis and Robinson.
That wasn't absurd. They threw jabs, they had nifty footwork and they trained hard like Mayweather does. Some sort of comparison could be drawn.
But when it comes to societal impact, I guess Mayweather means more than Louis as a symbol of African American pride in the time of segragation, more than Ali for refsuing to step forward to fight the Viet Cong.
I was in denial on all this.
Thank you, Minister May, for showing me the error of my ways.
Malcolm went to Mecca. Dr. King wrote the Letter From The Birmingham Jail.
And now Mayweather is carrying their torch onward.
If anyone knows how to reah the NAARBT, please let me know. I want to send in a token donation know that I've been alerted to the impact of the Mayweather cause.
NAARBT?
Come on, brother and sisters, you don't know about the National Association for the Advancement of Random Blood Testing?
It's not about white, black, brown or yellow.
The NAARBT's motto?
Better red than dead, baby.
Learn, baby, learn.
Preach, Mayweather, preach and teach, Mayweather, teach.
(mlcmarley@aol.com)
Source: examiner.com
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