Hype recently did an interview with Floyd and a few regular posters took some cheap shots at the interview as being too soft. I was one and I'm sorry. The only reason I made the comment (see other thread) was because I was trying to be funny. Hype phrased a bunch of hypothetical questions that the board could have asked him about the interview but didn't, and so I thought it would be funny to phrase a question in the same spirit that Hype's hypothetical questions were phrased but with a sarcastic twist.

The truth is that I think it's very cool that Hype has access to the biggest star in the sport. That said, Floyd's interviews almost always suck because he's either too in love with himself (and interviewers allow him to get away with it) or he's too defensive. Given the very low bar on all Floyd interviews, I'd say that Hype's interview was about as good as we could expect. Obviously if Hype asked any hard hitting questions about Floyd's legal situation (or Roger') the interview would be over. Just for fun I've come up with a few questions that I would actually like to know Floyd's thoughts on:

1. Roger seems convinced that the Pac-Marg fight is fixed. Knowing Arum as well as you do and knowing boxing as well as you do, do you think there's even a slight possibility that Roger is right? Do you really think that in this day and age that Bob Arum would be willing to risk his career by fixing a fight between Pac and Marg? How about Pac's fight with Clottey. Did that look fixed to you? Can you understand why so many fans are convinced that it was? And if you do think it's possible that the Pac-Clottey fight was fixed, what does that say about the state of boxing today?

2. Do you think it's possible that a professional fighter like Marg could somehow be unaware that he had plaster in his wraps. If not, should Marg even be allowed to fight again in the US? If so, and if he ko's Pac, would you consider fighting him?

3. Do you think the sanctioning bodies are controlled by the promoters? If so, what do you think should be done about it?

4. Does boxing need a commissioner? If so, who would be your first choice?

5. MMA has been an incredible success and some say that it will be the end of boxing. What are your thoughts on the subject?

6. A lot of fans have no idea how much money the fighters actually make in a big PPV event. You obviously do and obviously you can't say specifically how much as I'm sure that every boxer has a different deal with HBO depending on his market value. But roughly speaking, is it fair to say that the boxers and the promoters get AT LEAST HALF of the PPV buy money. In other words, if there is 1MM PPV buys at $50 a pop, the cable companies and HBO are going to take their pieces, but do the fighters and promoters still get to keep at least $25MM of that?

7. Three years ago if you had been asked about a possible Pac-Marg matchup, what would you have thought? What do you think today?

8. What's more impressive/fishy to you about Pac's rise from 106 to 150, his ability to carry his speed and punching power up to the higher weight classes or his ability to take a punch at the higher weight classes?

9. A lot of people find it fishy that even though Pac got ko'd twice at 112, he was able to take Cotto's best shots at 145. Do you think the fact that he got ko'd twice at 112 is relevant in any way in a discussion concerning his possible steroid use?

9. What do you think about the idea of the 168 pound tournament on Showtime? How would Lucien Bute fair against Ward, Abraham, or Froch?

10. Most on the Fighthype board think that Antonio Tarver is doing an excellent job as commentator at Showtime. What's your opinion on him as a commentator? How about as a HW? Do you think he has the power or skills to be a serious threat to either Klit?

11. Outside of yourself, who's your favorite fighter today?

12. According to the Real Estate website Zillow.com, 1 in 29 homes in Las Vegas is in foreclosure and 74% of all mortgages are underwater. Has the market hit bottom? If so, are you investing in rental properties?

I really doubt Mayweather would do anything other than what other boxers do; answer that question poorly. I've had this discussion numerous times and looked into this regularly and I can tell you this: the UFC, the most successful organization and one which is always used in discussions, has a set of fans and boxing has its fans. The UFC hasn't killed anything, the only thing they've killed is the WWE. Their PPVs average 400,000 buys and their highest selling PPV has allegedly been 1.5 million, if anything the UFC just puts on more PPVs.

I can elaborate if you want, I just figured I'd keep it short.

I like your answer. It's kind of a philosophical question as to whether or not having more competition is better for both. I always hear that from movie executives in interviews. They say that it's better when there's a lot of blockbusters out because it reminds people to go to the movies.

I don't think it'll really breed competition because they're two different sports that operate entirely differently. If MMA really pulled from the boxing fan base then it'd be a competition, I think if anything they just share the casual fans and have their own fans.

Wonder if it has anything to do with the fact that Pac was a 17yr old kid when he turned pro?

Shit, in that case...I went from being a Featherweight to a Light Heavyweight in the same amount of time. Take THAT Pac!

It hasn't been that long since I was 17 in comparison to Pac but I've gained 2" in height and about 30 pounds[light heavy to hw]. Alex Ariza must have me on HGH, steroids, and No Xplode.

If anything I'd be looking at Pac back in the day, I think it'd make more sense for him to have used them back then. I'm just wondering why people would listen to Floyd Sr anyway, doesn't he think they've something you can take that makes bullets bounce off of you?

Well to be honest I don't think anyone really knows who's clean and dirty in boxing, that's why I welcomed the testing Mayweather proposed. Professionals only are given a post fight urinalysis, that's not very thorough. I'm kind of suspicious of Pac because of how he handled the situation though.

I do think that a big thing with the Pac/steroids argument can be explained by the matchmaking he's had post-130. He's been able to catch big names at good times and has looked really good. That and I believe he's fighting at his natural weight as a welterweight so he's coming in fully hydrated and not having to worry about his weight.

In that case you have to wonder about floyds move up from 130 then. He is pretty ripped for 147, hell even for 154. Wonder if floyd is deflecting blame by putting the spotlight on someone else?

Nobody will ever know for sure except Pac.

Mostly, this particular question is just interesting to me because it involves Floyd.

More than anything else, the point of this thread is that if I was asking Floyd questions I would ask him about the things we talk about here on the boards. I'd just like to get Floyd's input on the things we argue about every day.

I love how Manny has reached the same star status that floyed has. In a lot of our minds we can't see him losing....

He is vulnerable and I think we will see it come Nov. 13.

I don't know if he is on some type of enhancement. I do have my suspicions.

But I will say this,..... If Manny isn't on anything, then we are witnessing some serious shit in this era in boxing....

Or how about the fact that he was a hundred and six fucking pounds??????????????

Shit, How "chinny" was Miguel Cotto at 147.

lol i agree method

The answer/explanation for that is really easy actually. Pac is asian, Floyd is black. If Pac were black there would be no "rumors or suspicions" period. I mean asians are supposed to be nerdy, skinny, geeks with no athletic abilties right?

I can see him losing lol.

It's all in yo mind my man. Floyd walks around at about 160lbs and has to work to get down to even 154lbs. Ooops? So much for that theory. And when you are from the hood like me, superstar status means superstar Mayweather dolla dolla bills ya. Manny is way behind in that area and being from the hood, that's statdom. I don't give a shit what a bunch of muthafuckas I don't even know think. fuckem! it's about the $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$. Nobody blocking those punches for you. Nobodys taking the blows for you. Prize fighters fight for the prize and nothing else. So in this business of boxing in this era Stardom = $$$$$$$$$$ and nothing else and compared to PBF Manny has at least another 2 decades to go. Plus those guys who knocked Manny out and there were more than a few, what kind of boxing careers did they have? Are they still fighters? We know Torrecampo (Mediocre fighter at best) is deceased but what about the rest?

1. Why wouldn't Roger be right about Arum fixing fights. He's only been caught and prosecuted before. People don't change!
2.Common Sense my man. You follow the sport. Looks like a duck, quacks like a duck?
3. Dumb ass question. Why even entertain this as a question of significance. Bottomline is,really, what do you think? Remember Floydie doesn't pay for belts!
4. It has one ODLH!!!!!!!!!!!!
5. MMA has nothing to do with boxing outside of th fact that a whole lot of people who know nothing of the sweet science are happy they finally get to see blood and a KO.
6. This is the most ridiculous of all these alleged proposed questions. There's no grid pay per scale or anything else that has to do with a fair and equitable split for the fighter. Are you kiding me? What sport are you following?
7. Floyd wouldn't have cared. He's way too myopic to give a shit about anyone outside of his circle.
8. Just tellem to take a test and I'll whoop his his lil yellow ass.
9. Lucien Bute? Is he from Grand Rapids?
10.Tarver's cool. I support him in his commentating and acting career. Huh? What? He still fights?
11. Muhammed Ali!
12. Why do you ask? You lookin to short sale? I'll have cashflow call you. He's lookin for a mew crib. I think the bank will accept his offer.

Since it's the "most ridiculous" of my questions, please let me know. I follow the sport and happen to be a CFA and an MBA and spent 5 years of my life crunching numbers for a living and I have no idea.

I would suspect that the cable companies like comcast would take at least 25% if not 50%. That would obviously be the biggest cut and I would think it would essentially be scalable (maybe first 25k buys are 50% and next 75k buys are 35% ect). I would also guess that HBO would takee somewhere in the neighborhood of 10-20% (this would be an interesting number just to know how much the HBO marketing team is considered value added).

Obviously different fighters could negotiate different deals with the networks and maybe even with the cable providers. If a fighter is only doing 300K buys he has way less leverage than a guy who does 1MM buys. That said, the numbers wouldn't be too far off. And Floyd would be in a good position to know what the promoters would be taking as well. My question was really the pre-promoter split in general.

The most important number would be the cable providers like comcast or Time Warner and that that would give us a good starting point.

Please let me know as I am curious.

Notice I didn't answer your 1st #9 question. Seems you answered it yourself!

Nobody doubting your education my man but these alledged splits are subject to as much speculation as the books Top Rank shows after a bout. You gotta understand my man, this is boxing and promoters amd networks and management teams tend to make up the rules as they go along. Regardless of contracts even. How many ammendments, addendums or whatever the fuck do you have to have in the contract to make it legit enough to be an executable document. And by the way, fuck HBO! They've made a lot of money off of my neighborhood and haven't given a dam thing back. And as far as cable companies go you have to include satelite and ancillary markets also. How are those splits handled? As per PPV buy? Or as per capita based on # of buys in a given market. Are there splits and %'s that are standard to every PPV event is the question? How could this be when the rest of the sport is really nothing more than value perceived.

I'm sure that the managers/promoters and maybe even the cable companies like HBO and Showtime try to keep everything as murky as possible for the fighters, but I would think that someone making what Floyd is making would have someone in his camp understanding the fundamentals of the contracts with the cable providers like Comcast.

As far as comcast, satellite, time warner ect. is concerned, that must be fairly standardized. It probably isn't too different than what the porn people pay on a PPV basis (though the porn people would probably get a far smaller share of the actual revenue because the number of buys would be so much lower). Just knowing what Comcast charges on a 50K PPV buy vs a 1.1MM PPV buy would be interesting. Again, I would assume it would be a percentage of revenue so that the price tag of the event wouldn't matter.

The question is kind of fundamental in understanding how stars like Floyd choose opponents.

Yes. This is absolutley correct. His name is Heymon! Al Heymon! People don't really know it but this is one of the baddest assed entrepreneurs in Promo entertainment Since the 1960's. From being one of the top concert promoters in the world (from the Bill Graham mentorship) to top boxing promoter, it's no small wonder Floydie the brat has the juice he does. Heymon is known as being a top playa in any venture he takes on and his track record for successs is as unprecedented as his very low profile.

Low profile is always the coolest.

David Geffen is the same way. Same with Michael Corleone.

Ouch! Comparing Geffen to Michael Corleone? I don't want nothing to do with that. Remember, DG ain't no fictional character and rumour has had it since the late 70's that DG is a bad bad man!!!!

I heard somewhere that Geffen checked into a suite at the Bel Air Hotel at 21 and checked out when he was 30. I don't know if it's true or not (I know he was a millionaire by 20), but if it is true then I think it's safe to say that he's the very coolest of the cool. If it's not true I don't ever want to find out.

Yeah man! That sounds like his M.O. was part of a hostile take over at warner Bros records around 1973. Geffen was Pres. of records Division USA til he started Geffen records around 1978 or 79. Kinda hard to remember back then. But this guy was signing everybody left and right when the other major labels were cutting there rosters.

Actually stardom is more akin to how people view them. Mayweather is not a superstar & he never will be.

Sachin Tendulkar
Manny Pacquiao
Michael Jordan

They are all superstars on a level that Mayweather will never ever reach. When Floyd walks the street does he get mobbed?

Who's Sachin Tendulkar?

Totally!

It's like there's Aristotle, Einstein and XYZ.

Who the fuck is XYZ?

Who the fuck is Tendulkar?

Probably the worlds greatest living cricketer & worshipped as a god by a billion or so people.

Tendulkar

People are putting it out there that Floyd is some kind of superstar. Sorry but I don't see him as one whereas Tendulkar is one at the highest level. See guys like Floyd have to buy a Ferrari whereas Sachin was given one by Ferrari for his sporting prowess.

Fuck you fully sik wogboy!



It ain't my fault that a class act like Tendulkar is a actual superstar not a pretend one like Floyd.

Never heard of him.

Heard of Anthony Mudine though. You Aussie cats know anything about him?

Mundine is the man, whenever he's not cracking cervices he's cracking skulls.

Yeah he is a average footballer & a average boxer. Pretty average all around really.