Beverly Hills Cop is a great movie, it’s an old movie now, but it is one everyone no matter how young or old should watch. Eddie Murphy’s character Axel Foley tricks the Beverly Hills Cops that are trailing him by sending room service to their car and then putting a banana in their tailpipe, so when he leaves they can’t follow him.
The captain is annoyed that Foley has gotten better of his cops, so he sends in the “Second” team or as they like to say the “First” team, which leads to this hilarious exchange.
No one wants to fall for the banana in the tailpipe, but people often do and end up like Billy and Taggart. How else can you explain a defensive minded welterweight who only has 1 knockout in the last five years (a controversial one at that) being by far the biggest boxing PPV fighter in the world?
To put it in perspective a Floyd Mayweather PPV fight that does under 900k PPVs is considered a failure, the next highest PPV star Manny Pacquiao will be lucky to do 500k PPVs in his next fight. A superstar fight between Miguel Cotto and Sergio Martinez struggled to do 350k PPVs. The next big PPV star Canelo Alvarez is considered a success if he does 300k PPVs. How did this happened? How did Mayweather pulled this off and how is it still working?
It’s a combination of a lot of things, but the most important thing is people love drama more than they love sports. Drama generates attention that in turn generates revenue. Mayweather maybe more than any other fighter lives by the mantra any press is good press. It doesn’t matter if they hate your guts or worship you as long as they are talking about you.
When you mix that in with a supremely gifted athlete who is considered the best in his sport it creates this whirlwind of hero worship and hatred that makes everything bigger than the fight itself. The fights are often an afterthought.
Think of the buildup to Mayweather vs. Maidana 2, the three biggest stories surrounding the fight are 50 Cent saying Mayweather can’t read, Mayweather’s views on Domestic Violence and Miss Jackson saying he threatened to shoot her in the toes like Quick from Harlem Knights (another Eddie Murphy reference). Even going beyond that you could say Mayweather’s baby mamas bickering and J’Leon Love a Mayweather protege getting KOed got more attention before anyone started talking about the actual fight.
There have been very few if any African-American boxers who aren’t heavyweights that have been the money men of boxing. From Pernell Whitaker to Shane Mosley, they were almost always the B side when it came to huge PPV events normally against boxers of foreign descent. Even someone like Roy Jones Jr, who was the pound for pound for almost a decade never generated the type of PPV revenue that Floyd Mayweather is generating now.
In its simplest form Mayweather has found a niche and exploited. You watched Mike Tyson because he was crazy and monster in the ring. You watched Oscar De La Hoya because he was the “Golden Boy” and all the ladies swoon. You watch Mayweather on the slim chance he might lose and trust me if that ever happens it will be a seismic event. You watch Mayweather for Rick Ross performances, 50 Cent Instagrams and his ladies bickering. It is a Kardashian style reality show based around boxing. It is so ridiculously at times it could be considered fiction.
There was a time when Mayweather was “Pretty Boy” Floyd Mayweather and fighting in places called the Miccosukee Indian Gaming Resort and Cobo Hall. It was only when he embraced being a villain and took the Money Moniker that the money started rolling in.
It’s the jedi mind trick that is making Mayweather millions and millions will fall for it again on Saturday, because hate or love him, you are all on the Money Team.