Credit goes to @Newzz posting this in The Ring
but I feel this is well suited for a discussion in TLR
Its a long article but a really good read about more than boxing, its one on race
Floyd “Money” Mayweather: Back on the Plantation Again
by Martin Wade | Jul 19, 2014
Credit: Amanda Kwok/SHOWTIME
“It’s just business.” – Oscar De La Hoya
Black men of a certain age get hot under the collar when I say it but then again, they were programmed to root for the acquisition of consumer goods – like the women who raised them. Nevertheless, I will say it again: Oscar De La Hoya is Floyd Mayweather’s benefactor and has been since 2007. Furthermore, Floyd likes it that way.
In case you’re busy rooting for Floyd as he spends more money on a transient “sidepiece” than 1,000 water bills in Detroit, let me inform you of what he quietly did. He took his narrow ass back to Golden Boy Promotions to do his next fight as I told you he would. In hip-hop analogy, he stuck with his distributor. September 13th is a Golden Boy date, something they reserved for its number one field hand fighter, Floyd Mayweather – and he could take it or leave it. While many of you question how many days De La Hoya spends behind a desk, allow me to answer that for ya. The answer is more days than Floyd Mayweather spends. This is why hiring all of Golden Boy’s ex-employees is pointless if you do not intend on running a show from top to bottom. After showing his ass and making a scene when former Golden Boy CEO Richard Schaefer’s takeover move went south, Oscar showed Floyd that the real Money Team is La Raza, not TMT.
Now, if you want real power for black folks, you have to understand this means that Floyd was paid more money than any athlete was in sports and he still chose to pick the cotton.
You see, real ballers do long hours because logistics and infrastructure require time and expertise from smart people, not street muscle. You would have to cut the time you spend with your entourage in favor of people you pay to do “real stuff” that doesn’t involve pedicures. At some point, you will be dealing with many moving parts, parts even Al Haymon wanted no real responsibility for – because he stayed on the plantation too. The nuts and bolts of promotion goes much further than the blackmailing of networks for fees and this, De La Hoya learned while Floyd was buying solid gold roller skates. It is a big boy game and you have to love boxing, not just the money generated from the sport at the highest level but the craft of building a business. You have to love the fans, specifically the Mexican fan base, who are rather used to dealing with folks who have promoters licenses long before they start signing up everybody. Mayweather was too busy to find his own Richard Schaefer, too content to be a witness and agitator instead of competitor. Floyd loves Forbes magazine calling him powerful but white men know the real power is in controlling the means of production and distribution - through this stems the power to control or oppress. Based on a recent Deadspin article (http://deadspin.com/the-trouble-with-floyd-mayweather-1605217498), Floyd is more interested in oppressing women than giving De La Hoya anything to worry about outside of the ring.
This current surrender to Golden Boy guarantees we will not remember TMT in five years or that elite force of masseuses, bag handlers and pedicurist who followed Floyd around in his heyday. He had seven years to build a comparable apparatus but like most egotists, he and Leonard Ellerbe just lingered around telling people how they “feel”, an effeminate and vindictive trait.
In other words, Forbes acknowledging his earnings is one thing but calling that power is the kind of back-handed flattery white billionaires throw at black millionaires daily. Because it is no sweat off their backs to make an “employee with perks” think he is a titan of industry. Men in power do not want your flattery and if you have to get “power” embroidered on a hat – then guess what? – you ain’t got it.
Until Floyd (and you know who) are passionate about the work, they are merely high-valued blacks in a much larger plantation system. Floyd and his “CES” are luxury items that Oscar will discard as soon as Sugar Shane Mosley Jr. (ideally) and Terence Crawford (for Bob Arum of Top Rank Promotions) emerge as the next “black guys.” De La Hoya is in a position to be able to pass Golden Boy down to future generations while Floyd’s lack of brick-and-mortar organization will have him fighting into his 40s. Last Saturday’s display of Mexican economic muscle was like a mid-‘90s De La Hoya fight with Saul Alvarez playing the part of the “Golden Boy.” The fight was clearly a draw, something Mayweather cannot afford even with an unrivaled pedigree and you can turn the sound off on that one, bro.
The reason he cannot afford it is because he hasn’t built an institution that would support him on a bad night like the monstrous Golden Boy machine. Instead of building, Mayweather has been lying about power but when push came to shove, he illustrated once again that there are two plantations in boxing and De La Hoya owns one of them. The African-American president whom Floyd lied about having on speed-dial is throwing 3.7 billion dollars toward immigration, therefore cementing the next three generations of Golden Boy customers.
Therefore, if the game of boxing never again has an African-American fighter of Floyd’s historical significance (sadly), nobody will blink. Floyd is continuing the sickening trend of blacks getting everything for themselves as individuals and leaving nothing to future generations. Instead of cutting back on Maybachs to build something for the eight-year-old “shorties” in Mayweather’s Gym, he has left them no choice but to call on “Uncle Oscar” 10 years from now.
When the acquisition of a New York promoters license was reported, many were hopeful that Mayweather was ready to buckle down and start promoting but it was only to validate fighter contracts and to mask the fact that he is a glorified manager. Now, if Schaefer was such a builder, don’t you think he would have instructed Floyd to, ummm…I don’t know…stop defaulting on office space and hire a staff? I mean, if the “Chief Executive of Sit-ups” was really running a “stand alone” entity, wouldn’t you see him doing off-the-radar shows all over the country to develop the stable…like Golden Boy?. If Arum, one of the greatest promoters of all time “built” De La Hoya and you had proximity to him, why are you still in your infancy as an independent promoter? Didn’t Floyd overhear anything useful? Other than enriching himself, Mayweather’s standards for his promotional outfit are low and that leads to the low-class way of doing things – like ripping the lead promoter in the run up to your fights.
Did all seven years of the backstabbing and subversive tactics end up in Mayweather not having to turn around at pressers and see that Golden Boy logo? No, is that Oscar’s fault? Ellerbe may get mad when asked about hiring Oscar’s leftovers but if he were in business, he would have hired ex-Golden Boy COO Bruce Binkow years ago. If they were in the promotional business, maybe the two would not be so prickly with the media for pointing out the holes in their game. Maybe Floyd can play “Suge Knight” and pay “Tupac” Schaefer’s “Get out of Golden Boy jail” bail of 50 million and roll because it would be a much more rebellious than the disgruntled employee act he is playing now. You see, at this moment, he is playing right into the narrative covered by William C. Rhoden in “Forty Million Dollar Slaves” because he is still on the plantation.
De La Hoya’s pimp hand is strong, ya’ll, and Floyd is afraid to challenge it because the demographics tell no lies – the browning of America has commenced. Remember, the sharecropper worked the farm and then hauled the crop to the market only to be met by friends of the plantation owner. The very act of going back to the plantation after threatening upheaval is a statement that there is no place else to go! Oscar didn’t have to say anything about Floyd because he knew what the end result was, which is Floyd’s black ass was coming to work – and that is far removed from what he’s telling the young bruhs who idolize him. It is a shame but understand that being able to make money is not the same as running a viable business with a 20-year projection. He is no different from a rich artist who bytches about the label and never gets around to running his own…because he is an artist – and it is OK if he would admit it.
The only crime here is the bravado, the sticking of one’s toe into the shark tank and telling everybody that makes you a shark. Leonard Ellerbe is no shark and neither is anyone else unwilling to subject themselves to the scrutiny of the Nevada State Athletic Commission.
Don King was real and he took advantage of the rise of black disposable income and the closing of the achievement gap in the 1970s. He also did not shy away from playing on the racist ID that lay dormant in us all but today, the grandchildren of his customers (who love Floyd) are broke. There is no black and brown coalition, so all African-American attempts to make “power moves” are embodied in the sneaky, non-committal, slick, dissing genius of Mayweather. While he is a genius of self-marketing, you cannot conflate this with the cold, technical construction of a pay-per-view event – and he would not spend his time traveling the country all year to do it for others. If he and his crew of jackals entered an endeavor alone, they would be faced with the unforgiving corporate standards Oscar deals with every day – so there would be no time for brawls with T.I. Showing up in shape and talking sh*t every step of the way (for your own profit) is minuscule compared to what it would require to take one of those poor children signed to his shadow company to the top of the PPV hill. How Mayweather depends on opponents to tire in the second half of fights is how De La Hoya views him as a “promoter” – ill-tempered and ill-equipped for the long haul.
It’s a sad reality if you are an African-American with business aspirations and wish you could get a loan for what this “man” spends on rims for one of his collection of depreciating assets. You might even look up to him and daydream at your job that one day you will have the financial security to control your own destiny. You might even beam when he lies to you about being the sole promoter of “his” PPVs as if nobody else is profiting. This is a false message and truthfully there is no way around the mundane realities of business for those not in entertainment and sports. There are millions of faceless, black folks throwing “shade” at their employers right now while never having the acumen (or business loans) to truly get free from them. They are resigned to long careers at dead-end jobs or becoming a part of the ridiculously high, black unemployment rate – and sadly, all that is left (for them) is to gripe and pick the cotton.
When you look at it that way, it’s easy to understand why some working stiff can just languish at a job and “player hate” out of dire helplessness but what is Floyd Mayweather’s excuse?
You can reach Martin at mar3236@gmail.com and follow him on Twitter at https://twitter.com/brothaboxing.
http://ucnlive.com/floyd-money-mayweather-back-plantation/
but I feel this is well suited for a discussion in TLRIts a long article but a really good read about more than boxing, its one on race
Floyd “Money” Mayweather: Back on the Plantation Again
by Martin Wade | Jul 19, 2014
Credit: Amanda Kwok/SHOWTIME
“It’s just business.” – Oscar De La Hoya
Black men of a certain age get hot under the collar when I say it but then again, they were programmed to root for the acquisition of consumer goods – like the women who raised them. Nevertheless, I will say it again: Oscar De La Hoya is Floyd Mayweather’s benefactor and has been since 2007. Furthermore, Floyd likes it that way.
In case you’re busy rooting for Floyd as he spends more money on a transient “sidepiece” than 1,000 water bills in Detroit, let me inform you of what he quietly did. He took his narrow ass back to Golden Boy Promotions to do his next fight as I told you he would. In hip-hop analogy, he stuck with his distributor. September 13th is a Golden Boy date, something they reserved for its number one field hand fighter, Floyd Mayweather – and he could take it or leave it. While many of you question how many days De La Hoya spends behind a desk, allow me to answer that for ya. The answer is more days than Floyd Mayweather spends. This is why hiring all of Golden Boy’s ex-employees is pointless if you do not intend on running a show from top to bottom. After showing his ass and making a scene when former Golden Boy CEO Richard Schaefer’s takeover move went south, Oscar showed Floyd that the real Money Team is La Raza, not TMT.
Now, if you want real power for black folks, you have to understand this means that Floyd was paid more money than any athlete was in sports and he still chose to pick the cotton.
You see, real ballers do long hours because logistics and infrastructure require time and expertise from smart people, not street muscle. You would have to cut the time you spend with your entourage in favor of people you pay to do “real stuff” that doesn’t involve pedicures. At some point, you will be dealing with many moving parts, parts even Al Haymon wanted no real responsibility for – because he stayed on the plantation too. The nuts and bolts of promotion goes much further than the blackmailing of networks for fees and this, De La Hoya learned while Floyd was buying solid gold roller skates. It is a big boy game and you have to love boxing, not just the money generated from the sport at the highest level but the craft of building a business. You have to love the fans, specifically the Mexican fan base, who are rather used to dealing with folks who have promoters licenses long before they start signing up everybody. Mayweather was too busy to find his own Richard Schaefer, too content to be a witness and agitator instead of competitor. Floyd loves Forbes magazine calling him powerful but white men know the real power is in controlling the means of production and distribution - through this stems the power to control or oppress. Based on a recent Deadspin article (http://deadspin.com/the-trouble-with-floyd-mayweather-1605217498), Floyd is more interested in oppressing women than giving De La Hoya anything to worry about outside of the ring.
This current surrender to Golden Boy guarantees we will not remember TMT in five years or that elite force of masseuses, bag handlers and pedicurist who followed Floyd around in his heyday. He had seven years to build a comparable apparatus but like most egotists, he and Leonard Ellerbe just lingered around telling people how they “feel”, an effeminate and vindictive trait.
In other words, Forbes acknowledging his earnings is one thing but calling that power is the kind of back-handed flattery white billionaires throw at black millionaires daily. Because it is no sweat off their backs to make an “employee with perks” think he is a titan of industry. Men in power do not want your flattery and if you have to get “power” embroidered on a hat – then guess what? – you ain’t got it.
Until Floyd (and you know who) are passionate about the work, they are merely high-valued blacks in a much larger plantation system. Floyd and his “CES” are luxury items that Oscar will discard as soon as Sugar Shane Mosley Jr. (ideally) and Terence Crawford (for Bob Arum of Top Rank Promotions) emerge as the next “black guys.” De La Hoya is in a position to be able to pass Golden Boy down to future generations while Floyd’s lack of brick-and-mortar organization will have him fighting into his 40s. Last Saturday’s display of Mexican economic muscle was like a mid-‘90s De La Hoya fight with Saul Alvarez playing the part of the “Golden Boy.” The fight was clearly a draw, something Mayweather cannot afford even with an unrivaled pedigree and you can turn the sound off on that one, bro.
The reason he cannot afford it is because he hasn’t built an institution that would support him on a bad night like the monstrous Golden Boy machine. Instead of building, Mayweather has been lying about power but when push came to shove, he illustrated once again that there are two plantations in boxing and De La Hoya owns one of them. The African-American president whom Floyd lied about having on speed-dial is throwing 3.7 billion dollars toward immigration, therefore cementing the next three generations of Golden Boy customers.
Therefore, if the game of boxing never again has an African-American fighter of Floyd’s historical significance (sadly), nobody will blink. Floyd is continuing the sickening trend of blacks getting everything for themselves as individuals and leaving nothing to future generations. Instead of cutting back on Maybachs to build something for the eight-year-old “shorties” in Mayweather’s Gym, he has left them no choice but to call on “Uncle Oscar” 10 years from now.
When the acquisition of a New York promoters license was reported, many were hopeful that Mayweather was ready to buckle down and start promoting but it was only to validate fighter contracts and to mask the fact that he is a glorified manager. Now, if Schaefer was such a builder, don’t you think he would have instructed Floyd to, ummm…I don’t know…stop defaulting on office space and hire a staff? I mean, if the “Chief Executive of Sit-ups” was really running a “stand alone” entity, wouldn’t you see him doing off-the-radar shows all over the country to develop the stable…like Golden Boy?. If Arum, one of the greatest promoters of all time “built” De La Hoya and you had proximity to him, why are you still in your infancy as an independent promoter? Didn’t Floyd overhear anything useful? Other than enriching himself, Mayweather’s standards for his promotional outfit are low and that leads to the low-class way of doing things – like ripping the lead promoter in the run up to your fights.
Did all seven years of the backstabbing and subversive tactics end up in Mayweather not having to turn around at pressers and see that Golden Boy logo? No, is that Oscar’s fault? Ellerbe may get mad when asked about hiring Oscar’s leftovers but if he were in business, he would have hired ex-Golden Boy COO Bruce Binkow years ago. If they were in the promotional business, maybe the two would not be so prickly with the media for pointing out the holes in their game. Maybe Floyd can play “Suge Knight” and pay “Tupac” Schaefer’s “Get out of Golden Boy jail” bail of 50 million and roll because it would be a much more rebellious than the disgruntled employee act he is playing now. You see, at this moment, he is playing right into the narrative covered by William C. Rhoden in “Forty Million Dollar Slaves” because he is still on the plantation.
De La Hoya’s pimp hand is strong, ya’ll, and Floyd is afraid to challenge it because the demographics tell no lies – the browning of America has commenced. Remember, the sharecropper worked the farm and then hauled the crop to the market only to be met by friends of the plantation owner. The very act of going back to the plantation after threatening upheaval is a statement that there is no place else to go! Oscar didn’t have to say anything about Floyd because he knew what the end result was, which is Floyd’s black ass was coming to work – and that is far removed from what he’s telling the young bruhs who idolize him. It is a shame but understand that being able to make money is not the same as running a viable business with a 20-year projection. He is no different from a rich artist who bytches about the label and never gets around to running his own…because he is an artist – and it is OK if he would admit it.
The only crime here is the bravado, the sticking of one’s toe into the shark tank and telling everybody that makes you a shark. Leonard Ellerbe is no shark and neither is anyone else unwilling to subject themselves to the scrutiny of the Nevada State Athletic Commission.
Don King was real and he took advantage of the rise of black disposable income and the closing of the achievement gap in the 1970s. He also did not shy away from playing on the racist ID that lay dormant in us all but today, the grandchildren of his customers (who love Floyd) are broke. There is no black and brown coalition, so all African-American attempts to make “power moves” are embodied in the sneaky, non-committal, slick, dissing genius of Mayweather. While he is a genius of self-marketing, you cannot conflate this with the cold, technical construction of a pay-per-view event – and he would not spend his time traveling the country all year to do it for others. If he and his crew of jackals entered an endeavor alone, they would be faced with the unforgiving corporate standards Oscar deals with every day – so there would be no time for brawls with T.I. Showing up in shape and talking sh*t every step of the way (for your own profit) is minuscule compared to what it would require to take one of those poor children signed to his shadow company to the top of the PPV hill. How Mayweather depends on opponents to tire in the second half of fights is how De La Hoya views him as a “promoter” – ill-tempered and ill-equipped for the long haul.
It’s a sad reality if you are an African-American with business aspirations and wish you could get a loan for what this “man” spends on rims for one of his collection of depreciating assets. You might even look up to him and daydream at your job that one day you will have the financial security to control your own destiny. You might even beam when he lies to you about being the sole promoter of “his” PPVs as if nobody else is profiting. This is a false message and truthfully there is no way around the mundane realities of business for those not in entertainment and sports. There are millions of faceless, black folks throwing “shade” at their employers right now while never having the acumen (or business loans) to truly get free from them. They are resigned to long careers at dead-end jobs or becoming a part of the ridiculously high, black unemployment rate – and sadly, all that is left (for them) is to gripe and pick the cotton.
When you look at it that way, it’s easy to understand why some working stiff can just languish at a job and “player hate” out of dire helplessness but what is Floyd Mayweather’s excuse?
You can reach Martin at mar3236@gmail.com and follow him on Twitter at https://twitter.com/brothaboxing.
http://ucnlive.com/floyd-money-mayweather-back-plantation/
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that's weird, shouldn't it be TMT...
