I'll beat him with my blackness

Like most things boxing, the most hyped fight of the 21st century failed to live up to its billing. Or did it? If you see boxing in the classical sense, two fighters in a ring by themselves, squaring off until the death, then by all means, this fight fell in line with many other flops.

However, if boxing is the event, the hype, the marketing, the money, then De La Hoya-Mayweather 1 (I say 1, because we know that 2 will be announced once there are no other fights to promote) perhaps has just revolutionized the world of sports. HBO and Golden Boy Promotions commoditized racial stereotypes in a way that has never been done before. Sure, Holmes-Cooney may have been more anticipated yet it relied on racial tension to push the fight, rather than create them to make the fight.

Oscar De La Hoya is a Mexican-American. He is not white as in Gerry Cooney or Jim Jeffries white. Yet America, which to be fair has always embraced Oscar, has never pulled harder for a fighter since Cooney took the ring across Larry Holmes. He became the model of family values with his wife sitting ringside and his two children's name across his shorts. He was polite. He was respectful. He became white America.

At the same time, Floyd Mayweather Jr. became everything this country is, but rejects in its typical hypocritical manner. He is brash. He is arrogant, cocky, and rude. He donned the Mexican colors to mock De La Hoya's heritage. 50 Cent brought him into the ring with "Straight To The Bank" (fitting for many reasons) blasting to a crowd where all in the arena have commas in their bank accounts and all watching on television contributed 50 Dollar.

And as expected, the fight was a complete domination (how the fight was a split decision is beyond me). Mayweather used his quick hands to exploit De La Hoya, poking jab after jab with the precision of a marksman. Yet the irony of the fight is that Mayweather in the ring isn't flashy. He is smart. He uses his speed, yes, but it was his superior boxing intelligence that won the fight. He outwitted De La Hoya just like Jack Johnson and Muhammad Ali made routine. The Pretty Boy sat back and picked away and the "wows" and "yeahs" that roared from the crowd when De La Hoya came at Mayweather in a flurry of ineffective punches were nothing compared to the "oohs" the came after each Mayweather carefully delivered blow to De La Hoya's head.

Is this the end of boxing? Of course it's not, because with technology making pay-per-viewing on plasma TVs a reality for many, boxing will continue its marketing domination. What presents a more frightening situation is that as the entire world of sports begins to realize the money that can be made by proffiting off of this country's racial tension, we may be entering a world when Don Imus may just find himself employed again very soon.

In the meantime, who else is looking forward to watching Golden State and Utah play?