Is/Did anyone watch the Mayweather-Hatton fight in an interracial setting?
I ask this because I’ve found something in my time…nothing will point out how polarizing race still is in this country like a fight. Let a fight break out at the supermarket between a black man and a white man, and it’ll look like the courthouse in “A Time to Kill.” Lines will be drawn, and they will be drawn quickly.
I’ve got a friend that watched Mayweather-De La Hoya on closed circuit in Vegas. Said the room was primarily black and Mexican, which made for quite the interesting scene when Mayweather entered the ring looking like a Mexican minstrel.
Either way, a fight broke up between a group of Mexicans and a group of black folks. My boy was nearby. He said he quickly moved away. Didn’t want anyone to get the mistaken impression that he came with that particular set of black folks.
Good call on his part.
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I was actually in Vegas to cover other fights along with checking out DLH/Mayweather. While I was lucky to be at the Mandalay Bay where despite race, everyone just wanted to get twisted later on – it was Cinco de Mayo – there was a strong divide of fandom based on race. What was funny was that as close as it would get to a heated confrontation between the groups, it never got there. When Pretty Boy came out, you saw the Mexicans getting riled up about him wearing the colors of their native land while the blacks found it comical that he was so bold. Outside of that, it was all about the fight and folks proceeded to find the nearest hot girl afterwards. Of course, I couldn’t say what happened elsewhere because I left for my flight an hour after the fight.
I’m watching this with black folks – my best friend and my brother – but I found that while Hatton will have an overwhelming majority of white and/or British fans, he’ll have a few black folks waiting to see Floyd fall as well. Sort of like how a lot of folks got tired of 50 Cent.
This fight was interesting too because race even trumped nationality. A lot of my white friends magically became Hatton fans last week. But no one would admit that it was because he was white.
Chalk this up to the preference for the underdog as well as the “regular guy”/”blue collar” narratives that are popular among sports fans. White athletes benefit disproportionately from the latter, and black athletes are usually depicted as flashy, spoiled, me-first loudmouths. Hatton and Mayweather fit these “Rocky” roles to a t. Race frames these stereotypes and makes them resonate with a wider audience, but it doesn’t determine them entirely.
Because boxing is a 1 on 1 sport, you see these kinds of racilalized rooting patterns more clearly than when you’re dealing with modern team sports.
Plus, as you suggest, boxing is violent, and has a long history of antagonistic racial and ethnic fandom.
Jerry,
When it comes to white fans, you’ll rarely see race trump nationalism, but when it does happen, it’s usually in individual sports (think white American men hoping that Sharapova crushes “the manly” Serena or Venus). The only time I can remember it happening for an American team sport was when many white American sports fans rooted against the all black 2004 Olympic Basketball team.
Do you guys remember a great movie from the 90’s called the great white hype starring my man Samuel L. Jackson? Man, that was a funny movie… A plot summary won’t do it justice but I’ll say this: its a parody on this entire subject: Nobody is watching boxing anymore b/c all the fighters are black showboats, so some fight promoters decide to manufacture a white superstar who’s the ultimate underdog (from cleveland, Irish, white, ect) and then the film just goes off from there.
Seriously, if you’re interested in this topic you gotta watch this movie. Its hilarious and the social/sports commentary is spot on.
I was at the closed circuit broadcast @ the Luxor. I found it to be a rather cool crowd except for one jackass in the 2nd row that was spewing shit between rounds. As far as rooting interest goes, I was one of about 2 or 3 white Americans not rooting for PBF. There was surprisingly little/no racial tension @ Luxor. Just some friendly jabs and smack between a few of us.
Now, here’s where I’m shocked a riot didn’t break out…The PPV feed cut out before the 10th. Yes, the screen went blue JUST BEFORE THE 10TH ROUND. I still can’t believe it. At least we all got our money back, though.
All in all, it was a fun/good experience for my 1st visit to Vegas. I’ll be going back again sans g/f next year hopefully.
a friend of mine was there and actually went back in the dressing room w/ the mayweather camp after the fight.
he said the crowd was full of brits (PC?), and that he felt compelled to move a few times when mayweater started to serve dude. He said there were fights (assuming along the race/nation lines) erupting around him, and he decided to keep it moving as the minority (again, hella brits).
i know someone is saying “you can’t move at a prize fight”, well he got in on the “network system”, and basically moved from point to point at the allowable “movable” points throughout the evening.
Somebody w/ more prize fight experience can probably expound.
Bo, where’s that Spice 1 post I just KNOW you are working on??
I think we see what we want/expect to see. Don’t really think racial lines trump nationality lines.
Just don’t see it as the norm…