bencerasaleOver the course of the past couple of weeks all I’ve heard is Mayweather this, Mayweather that, he’s been everywhere on social media as people talked up his big fight against Manny Pacquiao. He’s someone with a lot of support from a whole host of celebrities and famous sports people – and I just can’t stand it.
The man is, well he’s not really a man at all, he’s an utter disgrace. Countless times he’s been accused and charged with acts of domestic abuse. Yet he’s still allowed to operate at the highest level of his sport and earn the big money fights, it’s just wrong. Now, I’m a firm believer that if someone does something wrong, they have to pay for it, they serve jail time, pay fines, whatever it takes, they need to be punished for it. I also believe that not everyone that’s committed bad acts (such as domestic abuse) deserves to be condemned for the rest of their life. People can change and deserve at least one more chance to prove that they’ve learnt their lesson,genuinely feel horrible about what they’ve done and can become a different, better, person. But this is different, it’s not just one account of domestic violence, it’s happened multiple times.
Time and time again he’s been given a ‘second chance’ to prove that he’s a changed man, but he continued to commit these horrible acts of abuse. He’s been charged with domestic violence six times, SIX TIMES, how many more times does this guy have to batter someone before someone eventually goes ‘you know what? Enough is enough’ and he gets a severe punishment that reflects the severity of his crime. He’s been fined and ordered to do community service, he served a jail sentence of 90 days in 2012 for abusing his former girlfriend Josie Harris, and then after his release was sued by a different ex for domestic abuse and allegedly pointing a gun at her! Yet despite this, he’s still one of the leading earners in world sport. These pathetic jail sentences, minor fines and community service have clearly done nothing to him.
My point is, if this were any other ‘regular’ human being on the planet, they would be punished way more severely for committing these crimes. Yet this guy is still getting big fights, earning millions of dollars and enjoying his multiple Bugatti Veyrons. Ridiculous.
The problem with incidents like this, with high profile sportsmen, is that they very rarely suffer true consequences, and why is that? In boxing it’s simple, the organizers want the biggest and best players to fight, regardless of their past criminal convictions, because they sell the most tickets. Floyd Mayweather Jr is a cash cow for the sport of boxing, he gets people interested in the sport, think how many more people watched the boxing over the weekend compared to other fights this year. He gets people watching, talking about the sport, it raises the profile and from an organizers point of view it’s a huge win for them. They don’t care about the morality of it all, the fact that they’re promoting and glorifying a man with countless cases of domestic violence against him – he gets them the money and attention the sport needs. It’s morally wrong, people like him should not be put on a pedestal, there are probably numerous kids out there now saying ‘when I grow up I wanna be a champ like Floyd Mayweather’ he’s idolized by many, and it’s worrying.
In my opinion, I’m not saying he should be banned from boxing forever, I think he should’ve been made to start over. He shouldn’t have been allowed to just waltz back time after time like nothing’s happened, he shouldn’t be allowed to be one of the faces of the sport. He should be confined to the lower reaches, made to fight the lesser fights not the multi-million extravaganza’s. If he loves the sport so much then that should be no problem for him, he’s still allowed to do what he loves, he just doesn’t get the liberty of earning ridiculous sums of money.
I am aware that this isn’t the only case ever of a high profile boxer/sports person being charged with domestic abuse – or having criminal convictions. I just think that sports need to stop being shockingly lenient about events like this, they should operate like the rest of the world. If i’m the manager of a company and I get done for beating my wife and other women over and over again then you can bet your life I won’t be able to just walk straight back into another job. Having a criminal record affects you when looking for work, it should be the same for people who earn money from sports, that’s their job after all.
My main issue – and the cause for this rant – is that (as mentioned earlier) he’s applauded, supported and idolized by so many people. So many people with influence too, celebs and stars who tweet their support for him it’s just wrong. A lot (not all, but a lot) of young people on social media these days are so attached to their favorite stars that if they see them supporting Mayweather they end up doing the same thing. They don’t think twice about it, but if their ‘fave’ supports him then they will too. So we end up with youngsters supporting and cheering for a convicted woman beater. Like I said, it’s not a one off thing, he’s a multiple offender, when you do something like that over and over again then there’s something psychologically wrong with you, it’s evil. He’s clearly shown no remorse for his actions, even though it’s been awhile since his last incident you still feel like, at any time, he could do it again. When you’re a world championship boxer and you continuously beat defenseless women, you don’t deserve to be heralded as champion. You are a shadow of a man, you are nothing but a complete and utter disgraceful human being.