Jackie Kallen on Boxing: Floyd Mayweather: Stupid, Stupid, Stupid

By Jackie Kallen

Happy Holidays, Floyd. At least you’ll have the next couple of weeks to enjoy Christmas and New Years before heading off to the Clark County Detention Center on January 6 for a three-month, all-expenses paid vacation. Three meals a day plus a whole group of new buddies to hang out with.

I guess the 90 days in jail plus another 90 days of probation will side-track your May 5 fight (and pay day). What the hell were you thinking when you grabbed Josie Harris by the hair, threw her down on the ground and punched her in the head in front of your kids? Surely you realize that that is no way to treat a lady. Especially the mother of your children.

After living together for over seven years, and supposedly “moving on,” it is not a smart move to threaten to kill her and make her new boyfriend disappear. That tactic seldom works. In fact, it leads to exactly where you are heading on January 6.

Being ordered to pay $2,500 in fines is a joke since that is equivalent to an evening out at the club for you. You will attend a yea-rlong domestic violence counseling class and hopefully learn something about anger management and you will perform 100 hours of community service. I think you’ll actually enjoy that, since you are basically a good guy who likes to help the community.

Now if you can just manage to avoid further arrests or citations as part of your sentencing, you can get your career back on track and give the fans what they want to see–you handing out a beating to an opponent of the same weight and gender.

Be grateful that the more serious felony charges of coercion, robbery and grand larceny were dismissed as part of the plea agreement. If convicted on all charges, you could have faced up to 34 years in prison. By the time you got out, you’d be 68 years old, collecting Medicare and Social Security.

Please use this 90-day sentence to reflect and think about your life. You are still only 34 years old. You have never been beaten in 42 bouts. A fight with Manny Pacquiao would be worth mega-millions. Can’t you focus on that and keep your temper under wraps outside the ring? Don’t you want your kids to be proud of the blows you delivered against your opponents instead of the shots you landed on their mama?

Put the streets of Grand Rapids and the mentality that comes with it on the back burner. Be the role model that a world champion like you should be. We all know that you come from a family background of violence and criminality. But don’t feel obligated to repeat the past. Start a new legacy for the future generations of Mayweathers.

You can do it, Floyd!

Jackie Kallen is a boxing manager who has been in the business for over three decades. Her life inspired the Meg Ryan film “Against the Ropes” and she was a part of the NBC series “The Contender.” www.JackieKallen.com, www.facebook.com/JackieKallen