Playing dirty has always been a part of sports. This is especially true at the top echelons where the stakes are the highest. Players regularly employ any dirty tactic they feel they can get away with in order to gain an edge. However, some sports are much worse than others. For example, soccer probably has the dirtiest players out of any sport on the planet. And soccer fans are so morally bankrupt that they tend to applaud this behaviour if it produces the right results. (i.e. Luis Suarez: Uruguay Vs. Ghana, 2010). But boxing is a different animal. I suspect that because the fighters' physical health is on the line, people generally expect a higher degree of sportsmanship from the athletes. And for the most part, boxers live up to these expectations. There's something about two men spending 36 minutes trying to knock each other's block off that fosters a deep sense of camaraderie and mutual respect. That's one of the reasons I love the sport so much. In Saturday's undercard when Canelo Alvarez had Alfonso Gomez turned completely around after Gomez missed a wild looping hook, Canelo could have clocked him, but instead he waited patiently for Gomez to turn around and get his bearings. If I recall correctly, Canelo even gave a subtle interrogative nod as if to ask "you ready now?". I loved that.
I'm not one of those Machiavellians on the boxing blogs who justify Mayweather's actions by invoking the grossly overused mantra "protect yourself at all times". Not that that's not good advice. The addage is extremely pertinent in this case, and Ortiz messed up bigtime by not heeding it. But that doesn't justify what Mayweather did.
I've always hated dirty tactics, especially when they're used by the outmatched party to compensate for what they lack in skills. I thought it was shady when Marco Antonio Barrera punched a downed and defenseless Juan Manuel Marquez during their fight in 2007. I was equally disgusted by Marcos Maidana's decision to throw a haymaker at a naive and overly deferential Amir Khan, when Khan was just trying to touch gloves after a mid-round pause in the action during their bout last year December. And when, in that same fight, Maidana tried to throw a back-elbow at an unsuspecting Khan as the two were being broken up by the ref, I lost all respect for the Argentinian. Similarly, I was annoyed when Arthur Abraham cocked back and landed a hard right on the jaw of a defenseless Andre Dirrell, when Dirrell clearly had both knees and one hand down on the mat. That punch was underhanded on so many levels.
But I was not at all repulsed by Mayweather's decision to two-piece Victor Ortiz at the end of Saturday night's battle. Here's why... There were several things that made Saturday's shenanigans very different from the three episodes I just described. For one thing, what Mayweather did was legal according to the rules of boxing, whereas what Barrera, Maidana and Abraham did was totally illegal (although this isn't a huge deal for me since I think the unwritten rules are just as important as the written ones). Another difference is that Barrera, Maidana and Abraham, at the time of their infractions, were in danger of losing the fight, and so they used dirty tactics to try to alter the outcome of the contest. This is important because, had their efforts been successful, they would have been robbing their opponents of the thing that matters most, which is a hard-fought victory. By contrast, Mayweather was dominating the fight and had won all three rounds according to the judges' scorecards. Most observers seem to think Mayweather was cruising toward a late-round knockout, so ironically Mayweather may have ended up doing Ortiz a favour by KO'ing him early. And judging by the Colgate smile adorning Ortiz' face after the fight, Ortiz probably understood this.
But for me the biggest difference between what Mayweather did and what Barrera, Maidana, and Abraham did, was that, unlike the other three, Mayweather's actions were completely provoked. Throughout the entire fight, Ortiz was aggressively (and illegally) plunging his head into Mayweather's face anytime the two got in close quarters. By the end of the 4th round Ortiz, apparently frustrated that he could barely land a punch even when he had Mayweather inside a virtual phonebooth, lost his mind and launched a brazen flying headbutt that landed square on Mayweather's mouth, opening up a gash on the inside of his lower lip.
In my opinion the repeated headbutts on their own were enough to warrant Mayweather's cunning retaliation. But Ortiz only made things worse by trying to make amends with over-the-top hugging and kissing. Then, after the referee, Joe Cortez, deducted a point from Ortiz and instructed both fighters to continue, Ortiz again tried to hug Mayweather, who by that time clearly wanted no part of it. To me, this was Ortiz's most egregious transgression, even worse than the headbutt itself. It's customary for boxers, after landing a low-blow or a late hit, to make amends by extending an invitation to touch gloves. When this is done, the transgressor is implying that he is sorry and that the transgression was not intentional. This probably just made Mayweather even more angry since it was incredibly disingenuous to try to suggest that such a blatant headbutt was a somehow accidental.
It's true that when Ortiz went in for that last hug, Mayweather extended his arms, ostensibly to reciprocate Ortiz' gesture. Many writers have hypothesized that this was a calculated effort to trick Ortiz. But if you look at Mayweather's facial expression, there was no pretending. The man was super-pissed. I think the more likely explanation for why Mayweather appeared to hug Ortiz back was that it was a natural, instinctive reaction. For all we know, he may have been trying to avoid that really awkward situation where one person goes in for the hug and the other person snubs them, either intentionally or because they didn't see it coming. Then the would-be hugger is forced to try to play it off and somehow not look like a complete tool. (Personally I'd rather get punched in the face.) But in all seriousness, I don't think the deception was that premeditated. I honestly think the decision to launch the sneak attack was made in the split second before the punch was thrown. But even if I'm wrong about that, I still don't see anything wrong with how Mayweather handled the situation.
I think Mayweather really just wanted to punish Ortiz for all the headbutts - not just the E. Honda headbutt that broke the proverbial camel's back, but also for all the smaller headbutts that had gone largely unnoticed up until that point. But again, even if it was Mayweather's intention to end the fight with those surprise punches, I personally have no ethical compunctions about it.
But it really interesting to listen to all the Mayweather haters wax sanctimoniously about how evil the knockout was. Reading the blogs, none of them seem to have any complaints about the illegal and unprovoked headbutt that caused the whole scenario. In fact, I'd be willing to bet that most of those same critics were thrilled when Ortiz left his feet to land that final headbutt. It's especially interesting to read the appraisal's of the so-called "boxing writers", a group of overweight, erstwhile waterboys who get hard-ons every time Mayweather gets punched in the face. Doug Fisher at Ringtv.com was especially self-righteous in his condemnation. Although, curiously, I don't recall him expressing any qualms about the dirty tactics of Abraham, Maidana, or Barrera following the fights I described earlier.
My only disappointment regarding Saturday's events is that, because of the early stoppage, we only got to see 4 rounds of boxing instead of 12. As a Mayweather fan, the perfect scenario would have been for Mayweather to tag an unsuspecting Ortiz with the left hook, and then wind up on the over hand right, but then hold back at the last second, à la Muhammad Ali Vs. George Foreman in circa 1974. This way Ortiz would have made it into the next round, and Mayweather could have continued with his systemic dismantling of the young pugilist, culminating in a late-round stoppage. Unfortunately it wasn't meant to be. But I don't blame Mayweather. If anything, he is to be commended his composure and quick thinking. A lesser man might have immediately retaliated with a headbutt of his own, or perhaps an elbow (Mike Tyson had his own unique recipe for dealing with opponents who like to headbutt) . If Mayweather had completely lost his cool and done something illegal, he would have received a lot less flack than what we're seeing now. And herein lies the heart of the problem.
Barrera, Maidana, and Abraham all played dirty. They all threw cheap shots and they all broke boxing's code of honour. But they also lost. The reason fans are fuming over Saturday's fight isn't because of the cheap shot. Cheap shots happen every week in boxing and most are forgotten by the end of the round. Rather, fans are pissed because Mayweather won the match. They're pissed because Mayweather always wins. Much like Ali before him, Mayweather understands that the majority of boxings fans - who are comprised largely of conservative white men - spend their 50 bucks on the pay-per-view, or their 10 bucks to get into the sports bar specifically to see him lose. And the more Mayweather wins, the angrier they get. That's how the hater's mind works. If you want to attract the ire of a hater, you need two things... You need to be arrogant (explicit, vocal, and unapologetic about your superiority), and you need to be successful. (And, let's be honest, it also helps to be black.) Mayweather has all these things. And that's why I cheer for him.
