“Money” Mayweather and The Hurricane

Just watched The Hurricane, one of the all-time feel good sports movies about an imprisoned boxer whose integrity and resolve were more powerful than even his greatest punch.

Then I dialed up the web and read a front-page story about Floyd Mayweather Jr.’s arrest for grand larceny today after he allegedly beat up his ex-girlfriend and stole her iphone.

It’s about as disparate a pairing of boxers as most of Mayweather’s fights.

While there’s certainly more to Rubin Carter than the empowering portrayal Denzel fashions on the big screen, the latest act of Mayweather Me-Fest 2010 is all too real.

I didn’t say true, of course: Mayweather has only been charged. His ex-girlfriend Josie Harris alleged in a protection order request filed Thursday in Las Vegas that Pretty Boy Floyd punched her in the head and “yelled and screamed that he was going to kill me and my boyfriend…[he] threatened to have others do harm to me as well. ”

Right. He also told world No.1 Manny Pacqiuao that he was going to make him cook him some rice.

Whatever happened in Las Vegas, we didn’t need Floyd having a training session on his ex’s face to know that he’s an incredibly misguided, incredibly rich young man. Idiocy and opulence have long-been Mayweather’s headlining acts. But being exposed as a racist and a wife-beater brings a different dimension to Mayweather’s self-perpetuating circus.

He is in danger of going from the villain everybody loves to hate to the human being no one cares to respect. Mayweather loves the idea that he is respected for being calculating in his antics in order to up his dollars. He craves respect almost as much as money and attention.

Beating your wife erodes that. It certainly can’t do wonders for the brand. I hope. Not when you’re sitting around shooting internet videos and ducking the only fight that matters in boxing.

But what upsets me the most about Mayweather is that I WANT to like him.

I like that he’s American. I like that his nickname is “Money.” I like that he’s not afraid to say what he feels, idiocy be damned. And I especially liked it when he came out in a sombrero and “Mexico Loves Mayweather” kits when he fought Oscar de la Hoya in 2007.

But with every passing headline and fight opportunity, it’s getting harder and harder to like the self-made millionaire from Grand Rapids, Michigan.

The thought of Mayweather compared to Rubin Carter’s inspirational character in The Hurricane made it all the more so tonight.