Who's Floyd Mayweather?

[The Boxer]

LOL at that cartoon of PBF. for that

[meowza]

, sorry, but have a sadclick for being seriously misinformed. My mom even knows who Floyd Mayweather is and she knows about as much about boxing as Mother Theresa. Just because people don't watch someone doesn't mean they don't know who that person is. If you ask a non boxing fan who Floyd Mayweather is, 85% of the time they'll be able to tell you at least that he's a boxer.

I started a poll in another forum. A world-wide non-boxing related community to pique my curiousity if the world really does know who Floyd Mayweather is though!
If 85% of them know who he is, I'll post a picture of myself eating my hat.

Well just for the record, I decided to start that poll after all.
Still two days left in the poll voting, but after 30 votes so far it doesn't look like 85% of the people are gonna know who he is after all


Btw it's a general community who do have several hardcore football soccer and hockey fans I've seen in the past. So it's not a completely sports retarded community.

[smashcrusher]

meowza, quit while you're behind. Because you started a poll over the internet with 30 people, that is suppose to be an accurate assessment of the worldwide population If this were the case, CNN, Fox News, Time Magazine, etc. would only poll 30 people for matters that they were investigating. Usually, an accurate assessment is, oh, I don't know, A HALF A MILLION!

p.s.--If you honestly think HBO is going to give millions of dollars and a multi fight contract to a person who is known by less than 10% of the general population, you are a retard.

[Samson3000]

I'm afraid I have to agree with skyler. I noticed the thread starter has the female sex sign under her name so that would probably explain this warped post. Not to be sexist, but when people speak of non boxing fans, they're usually speaking of men who happen to watch other sports and don't watch boxing, and I can tell you I know plenty of them, and they all know not only Floyd Mayweather, but also Roy Jones, Antonio Tarver, Arturo Gatti, Fernando Vargas, Bernard Hopkins, and James Toney. A woman not knowing Floyd Mayweather really doesn't mean much, as most women don't know Albert Puljos, Amare Stoudamire, Ladanian Tomlinson, or other athletes who rank in the upper echelon of their respective sport.

I wasn't talking about men who watch other sports but not boxing, though. I was talking about the mainstream media in general.
If I was talking about men who watch other sports but not boxing, I would've said men who watch other sports but not boxing.
But I said mainstream a few times in my post.
You don't have to be a man who watches other sports but not boxing to know who Oscar De La Hoya is. Or even a Prince Naseem.
I usually hang around an arty community offline and on and people who don't really follow sports much at all. But they knew who Naz was. They know De La Hoya. So my question was why can't Floyd reach that kind of stature.
Not whether men who watch other sports but not boxing know who Floyd is.

I'm from America sweetheart, and you being Canadian would explain alot, considering Lennox won you all an Olympic gold medal and went into the ring as a pro with Great Britain's flag. No offense, but Canadians are hardly a priority when sports publicists here, or anywhere for that matter, are targeting a mass audience.

haha no offense taken
It's no secret we have no money here
I started a poll in another forum. A world-wide non-boxing related community to pique my curiousity if the world really does know who Floyd Mayweather is though!
If 85% of them know who he is, I'll post a picture of myself eating my hat.

Meowza, as DaxxKahn already stated, which you either didn't read or weren't able to comprehend, is that 1, boxing is not as popular now as it was 20 years ago, and 2, the fighters you mentioned had endorsements. Prince Naseem did Adidas commercials, and DLH is on Forbes list of richest athletes on earth. Over the last 10 years, boxing's visibility has rapidly dwindled. Floyd Mayweather is on top of the sport when the sport is at it's lowest point in terms of interest. It really isn't that complicated.

[Sovereign]

great topic! cc

To be honest I don't think poll is much use coz everyone who's going to take it is one the internet, thereby having access to google and wikipedia, but it kinda does show that Floyd Mayweather has a certain degree of name recognition amongst the general public. He's been a marquee name boxer with a glittering undefeated career for the last 5-6 years at least, he has to have generated some interest outside the hardcore fans.

Floyd's well heard-of, but he's not got the sort of massive appeal that De La Hoya, Tyson, Roy Jones, Holyfield or the other big names of the 90's had. Some people take that the fact that the no.1 consensus P4P guy is not as big as those names were as an indicator of boxing's demise, paniced articles appear everwhere saying that boxing is in its death throes and UFC is replacing it and serious deep questions are asked about what is wrong with boxing.

But you only have to look around to see that there are fighters out there with big followings. A lot of the support and fanbase a fighter gets is due to his TV coverage, hype, opponent selection, charisma and 101 other things not related to how good he is. There are fighters nothing like as good as him who get huge crowds. I remember Joe Mesi selling out 30,000 and 40,000 seats fighting absolute nobodies, but he had a lot of charm and was well marketed. Hell they even did Butterbean - Larry Holmes on P4P not very long ago, and Roberto Duran - William Joppy before that, those fights sold and it wasn't down to the skills that were on display. George Foreman got great viewing figures in his 40's, not because he was skillful like Floyd Mayweather but because you were seeing something inspirational every time he knocked people out.

Over here in England Ricky Hatton used to beat up journeymen in manchester when he was in his early 20's in front of huge crowds for fights like Stephen Smith and Joe Hutchinson! But Ricky has a huge following, and is a lovely down to earth bloke. The working class boy done good story sells so well in Manchester, they absolutely love him. Same goes for Calzaghe in South Wales, and dont forget 8 MILLION people tuned in to see Audley Harrison and Danny Williams 1, which is quite possibly the most dull fight I've ever seen. Amir Khan got loads of exposure and is becoming a big hit in this country especially with kids. Over here Boxing seems to be doing quite well, and thats in spite of a moribund domestic heavyweight scene due to politics, Frank Warren's shady involvement and Audley Harrison being an epic waste of time. Infact the British scene could've been really good at one point a few years back but it never panned out right. But in spite of this the lower weight classes have prospered.

I think thats the same all over. The post-Lennox mess that is the Heavyweight division has left boxing without a big name star, but attention has shifted to the lower weight divisions which are doing quite good. Its quite a recent thing that a non-heavyweight fight like Mayweather - De La Hoya would be the biggest fight of the year, but it looks like its going to be. So people shouldn't panic so much about the state of boxing.

[SigmaMu]

MeowZa don't let these dorks and fat sexist put you down.

You are right.

Floyd is not as popular as any of the people you mentioned.

I guess he is not as popular because he is a FRAUD!.

I talked to Tony Margarito the other day and I asked him about Floyd Mayweather Jr. and he said, who?

Floyd will be known more now thanks to Oscar.

If anyone here thinks that women do not matter in this sport, they are phuking 100 % wrong. I bet Oscar has more female fans than he does male fans. Anyone who thinks we should not target women and include them in demographics is an idiot.
Boxing is dying and there are sports like MMA that are taking her place.

I can ask the majority of people in my family who Floyd is and they wont know. Maybe just my brother in law.

I know if I ask them who Oscar De La Hoya is, I think for sure that 99% of them know Oscar except the young children under 8.

[clean]

Danny_G, I think you're missing the point. No one's arguing whether Floyd is more popular than Oscar. We all know Oscar is in a league of his own. The fact Oscar has a fan base that's nearly half women goes on to prove against your point. Women by and large do not watch a De la Hoya fight to appreciate his skills, they do so because he's a pretty boy and they think he's cute. Much like women who know nothing of baseball but love Derek Jeter, or women who don't know anything about football but love Tom Brady. These are all great athletes, but there are other athletes who are just as good who do not reach the popularity they do. So you have to ask yourself why that is. It's because a large percentage of their fans are fans who could care less about how good they are, but moreso how 'cute' they are.

[X]

meowza, quit while you're behind. Because you started a poll over the internet with 30 people, that is suppose to be an accurate assessment of the worldwide population

Well, all those insulting and patronising shampoo and makeup adverts poll about 10 people and then present the findings as science. They never mention that it was 10 people in a trailer park in texas who normally wash their hair in raccoon shit. What's the point of asking stupid people anything (Jesus, and we let them VOTE)

How about the ones that say "8 out of ten cats prefer Whiskas"? ........... I bet they do, because they were lying in labs with their brains being drilled into being fed Bernard Matthews turkeys beforehand. Of course they prefered Whiskas.

Statistics and poor science can be twisted to mean anything.

I haven't really got a salient point to make, I just like feeling part of the discussion.

For what it's worth, I don't think that many people outside the boxing fraternity in the UK know who Floyd Mayweather is. Now they are beginning to hype a fight with Hatton, his exposure will go up, but our media here is pretty rubbish at covering boxing.

[X]

Danny_G, I think you're missing the point. No one's arguing whether Floyd is more popular than Oscar. We all know Oscar is in a league of his own. The fact Oscar has a fan base that's nearly half women goes on to prove against your point. Women by and large do not watch a De la Hoya fight to appreciate his skills, they do so because he's a pretty boy and they think he's cute. Much like women who know nothing of baseball but love Derek Jeter, or women who don't know anything about football but love Tom Brady. These are all great athletes, but there are other athletes who are just as good who do not reach the popularity they do. So you have to ask yourself why that is. It's because a large percentage of their fans are fans who could care less about how good they are, but moreso how 'cute' they are.

See - I have never heard of Derek Jeter or Tom Brady?

Unless you are already a fan of the sport, it's all to do with what the media report.

[clean]

Danny_G, I think you're missing the point. No one's arguing whether Floyd is more popular than Oscar. We all know Oscar is in a league of his own. The fact Oscar has a fan base that's nearly half women goes on to prove against your point. Women by and large do not watch a De la Hoya fight to appreciate his skills, they do so because he's a pretty boy and they think he's cute. Much like women who know nothing of baseball but love Derek Jeter, or women who don't know anything about football but love Tom Brady. These are all great athletes, but there are other athletes who are just as good who do not reach the popularity they do. So you have to ask yourself why that is. It's because a large percentage of their fans are fans who could care less about how good they are, but moreso how 'cute' they are.

See - I have never heard of Derek Jeter or Tom Brady?

Unless you are already a fan of the sport, it's all to do with what the media report.

It's because Tom Brady is the quarterback in the NFL, and Derek Jeter is the captain of the Yankees, two sports that are almost exclusively American.

[X]

Danny_G, I think you're missing the point. No one's arguing whether Floyd is more popular than Oscar. We all know Oscar is in a league of his own. The fact Oscar has a fan base that's nearly half women goes on to prove against your point. Women by and large do not watch a De la Hoya fight to appreciate his skills, they do so because he's a pretty boy and they think he's cute. Much like women who know nothing of baseball but love Derek Jeter, or women who don't know anything about football but love Tom Brady. These are all great athletes, but there are other athletes who are just as good who do not reach the popularity they do. So you have to ask yourself why that is. It's because a large percentage of their fans are fans who could care less about how good they are, but moreso how 'cute' they are.

See - I have never heard of Derek Jeter or Tom Brady?

Unless you are already a fan of the sport, it's all to do with what the media report.

It's because Tom Brady is the quarterback in the NFL, and Derek Jeter is the captain of the Yankees, two sports that are almost exclusively American.

Yes, I see your point. We have the same recognisability issues with our world champion Morris Dancer and bear-baiter Maurice O'Shaugnessy (though I do believe bear-baiting is making something of a comeback in Armenia)

Then, the world champ will be an Armenian and we will have to invent a sport nobody else does, so we can be the best at it. We've been doing that in the UK for hundreds of years.

[zhubin]

There are obviously a lot of factors that play into an athlete being popular. Charisma, looks, and of course talent play huge roles. But there are also intangible things like defining moments...moments where you truly capture an audience with a performance. Ali, for all of his talent and charisma, had a flair for the dramatics. When you think of Ali there are so many special moments that come to mind. Aside from the politicized atmosphere of when he became known and his outspokenness....there are so many legendary moments inside the ring in his career: defeating Liston, Zaire and Foreman, his trilogy against Frazier, etc. He was tremendous talent but he also was able to rise to occasions and create lasting memories. He is a truly iconic figure. There are also fighters who are just "likable" to a large audience...like Oscar. He has a huge crossover appeal. But even in Oscar's case...he has been involved in BIG fights...obviously not on the scale of Ali...but he has created DRAMA with some of his fights...Quartey, Trinidad, Vargas, etc. So i disagree with people who think his appeal is mostly because women just find him sexy. The great athletes, the ones that are not only popular but will be remembered for a long time....ultimately have performed on the big stage. They have provided us with moments that are thrilling and memorable. Floyd, for all of his talent, has not done that. He has not fought anyone or been involved in fights that one can say "My gosh, that was memorable." Add to that...he just isn't a particularly likable guy. Ali was brash, but he would charm you...put a smile on your face. Floyd just comes across as arrogant. Whether the rest of his career will provide us with enough defining moments to change that...remains to be seen.

[SweetPea]

There's two main reasons in my opinion.
The first reason is the easy one, that Mayweather hasn't made himself marketable because of his brushes with the law, abrasive personality, etc.

THe second reason is more of a US media issue and not a Mayweather issue. For decades, the mainstream US media and sporting culture has operated under the idea that boxing=heavyweights, and therefore stars must be heavyweight champs. The perception is that the lower weight classes just don't mean as much, which is completely idiotic when you consider that almost all the of the most talented fighters over the last 15 years or so have resided somewhere between 122-154.
Look over the last several decades, how many non-heavyweights have been big stars in the US??
Sugar Ray Leonard and Oscar De La Hoya are the exception, not the norm.

Pernell Whitaker was #1 PFP for 7-8 years, and he was never a household name. Bernard Hopkins didn't get endorsements. Even Roy Jones didn't really get much mainstream exposure for that matter. If someone walked up to 100 people on the street and asked them who Jermain Taylor is, I doubt more than 15-20 would know. If that.

Also, it's a little unfair to compare the notoriety of American fighters with those from the UK. The US is more than 5 times the size of the UK population-wise, it's easier to get lost in the shuffle in the US market than it is in the UK.

[zhubin]

Sweatpea, i agree with you that the mainstream media has always put the large amount of their focus on the heavyweight division. But in Floyd's case, he has a hard time being embraced by even casual fight fans. I think a lot of factors come into play in making a "superstar." But Floyd's personality and lack of compelling moments/opponents has not helped his cause.

[CaNcer]

Good post !

Well I can say that top British boxers are known throughout our nation

Bruno, Hatton, Naz, Henry Cooper, Chris Eubank.

The reason for that is because they also do a lot for the community normally, and also they appear on lots of popular televsion shows and spend time attending events, opening things, and being general philanthropists for the country (helping others who are disadvantaged in some way for example)

I know Tyson did a lot of that also

They are all very personable and decent people who you can have opening schools etc or as guests on family TV shows.

So why is Mayweather not known - well what has he done for anyone apart from himself?? and would you like him on mainstream TV as a role model for how grown ups should speak in public and how you would like everyone in the world to speak with each other like he does

I rest my case

true...His "I'm so friggin great" personality has slowed the public to warming up to him...also he's not in any commercials or known to attend charity events or functions......His PR guy needs fired.....

he gives food out to people in Grand Rapids Michigan at thanksgiving, thats the only charity work ive hurd he's done