LAS VEGAS — Floyd Mayweather Jr. won the fight with a questionable — if legal — pair of punches that Victor Ortiz never saw coming. He followed it by berating an 80-year-old announcer in the ring and demanding he be fired.
Later, he would insinuate that Manny Pacquiao keeps winning because he is juiced.
All in a night’s work for boxing’s bad boy, and a profitable one at that. Probably not as profitable as Mayweather claims, but a huge payday without doubt. He sells because people buy pay-per-views to either cheer him on or yell at the big screen. On Saturday night he won for the 42nd straight time, and he wasn’t about to offer up apologies.
If Mayweather deserves criticism, it’s probably not for the two punches that ended the fight prematurely. But he berated HBO’s Larry Merchant in the postfight interview in the ring and questioned Merchant’s knowledge, to which Merchant replied, “If I was 50 years younger, I’d kick your (rear).”
