The devil is in the details

To further prove that Floyd Mayweather, Jr., has always been about money and fame rather than love of his sport, the recently retired pound-for-pound boxing king felt the need to open his mouth more. The former champ, in a continued effort to find the spotlight as much as possible without standing in a ring, accused HBO announcers of racial bias in their commentary.

"They talk about Kelly Pavlik, a white fighter, like he's the second coming. Or they go crazy over Manny Pacquiao. But I'm a black fighter," Mayweather said. "Is it racial? Absolutely. They praise white fighters, they praise Hispanic fighters, whatever. But black fighters, they never praise.

"I've noticed it for a long time but I couldn't say anything because I had to do business with them. I'll still do business with them, but I'm done holding my tongue."

Forgive me if I can't think of a time that Mayweather was ever holding his tongue in the first place. If he was, I would be shocked to know what was more outrageous than the commentary that's always come out of his mouth in the first place.

Mayweather ignores the fact that for years he, as an African American boxer, was lauded as the king of boxing. The champ. The face of the sport in a time when the heavyweight division has been a mockery. You don't headline the richest fight in boxing history by being swept aside by the media. Yes, Oscar de la Hoya took home a much larger purse than did Mayweather, but attribute that to the Golden Boy's role through his promotion company, Golden Boy Promotions. Any negative promotion of PBF was due to him running his gums and portraying himself in the heel of a major event run by the most marketable fighter to ever step into a ring. De la Hoya certainly didn't make that money fighting Steve Forbes.

With DLH's career finale looming at the end of this year, Mayweather stood in the perfect position to take over that role. It wouldn't have been in the same likeable, Latin Grammy-winning, smiling persona, but he would have been the king. And the passing of the torch couldn't have come any more perfectly than through the proposed rematch with the Golden Boy -- an inevitably one-sided, boring fight, but a marketing dream nonetheless. From there, all he had to do was take a meaningful fight, and I don't mean a WWE cameo against the Big Show. Miguel Cotto, Antonio Margarito. Hell, the boxing world would have given him credit for at least appeasing us with a beatdown of Kermit Cintron or Paul Williams. Prove your dominance and step up to the Junior Middleweight ranks again -- this is where PBF fought DLH, and Mayweather came in 4-lb. short of max weight, stepping in at 150 -- and fight a Sergio Mora, or a Vernon Forrest.

Or, a novel concept, attack the source of your contention directly. Mayweather claims that HBO has favored white fighters like current middleweight champ Kelly Pavlik. PBF has had us believe that he could step up to any weight class and emerge victorious. Prove it. A fight against Pavlik would silence the critics, though I doubt it would silence Mayweather.

However, Mayweather has left boxing without a dominant African American fighter. Look at each division -- Sam Peter won't get his due until he fights Wladimir Klitschko; Joe Calzaghe beat Bernard Hopkins to take over the light heavyweight division; Kelly Pavlik is dominating the middleweight division while Winky Wright continues to talk himself out of fights; and nobody can argue that anyone other than Miguel Cotto and Antonio Margarito are the kings of the welterweight division. Black presence in the sport is at a lull; there's nothing to say that it's anything permanent, it's just the facts of the current situation. Any lack of focus on African Americans in boxing is because of the departure of their most dominant representative, Mayweather.

The history of boxing has been built on the success of African American fighters. Muhammad Ali. Joe Frazier. Joe Louis. Sugar Ray Leonard. Sugar Ray Robinson. Lennox Lewis. Mike Tyson. I could go on for days. Each has affected the sport and changed it with his presence.

Joe Louis was a hero for African Americans and for the nation as a whole in his day. His victory over Max Schmeling was a symbolic victory both for America over Nazi Germany, as well as a triumphant stand for the place of African Americans in sports.

Look at Ali-Frazier. Frazier was the establishment, the hard-working, tough, nose-to-the-grindstone champ that everyone loved. Ali was the young upstart, loudmouthed, über-athletic phenom who many loved to hate. You think boxing doesn't embrace villains? Ali may be regarded by many as the greatest fighter to ever set foot in the squared circle, but he didn't do it all by making friends.