I have stopped being upset at Floyd Mayweather a long time ago.
It's difficult to antagonize a dominant athlete for being dominant. LeBron James is a cocky bastard, yet whenever he wins, he does it by the skin of his teeth *. Floyd has been dispatching the best of the best his sport has to offer with ridiculous ease for over a decade, so he is a rare case warranted cockiness. Seriously, I enjoy seeing Floyd Mayweather fight for the technical prowess alone, yet I have given all hope that something original would happen during his career.
So the high point of last night's fight (aside from watching Canelo Alvarez's self-esteem plummet for 36 minutes) was the mystifying presence of Justin Bieber in Mayweather's corner. Seriously, it put me in such a foul fucking mood, I had a difficult time focusing for the first three or four rounds.
I'm not a Justin Bieber is-gay-ridiculous-untalented-stupid type of person. For years, I have lived a happy life being recalled his existence every once in a while only. But see, I'm also a sports fan. Not a die-hard by any means, but I am interested in basketball, hockey, boxing and mixed martial arts. Since the Biebs has hit puberty, I just cannot get rid of him during sporting events.
Shit, he's in baseball too.
His presence is both fascinating and infuriating for one particular reason: I doubt Justin Bieber is a sports fan. Fans have a team. The very act of sports fandom is political. You root for the team who you elect to represent you. I am a New York Knicks and Montreal Canadiens fan. Bieber doesn't like a team in particular, but he loves winning a whole lot. When the Los Angeles Kings won the Stanley Cup, he was there. Same thing happens when the Chicago Blackhawks won last year. In 2010, he happily took a photograph with Los Angeles Laker's coach Phil Jackson' CHAMPIONSHIP RING and yet guess who was wearing his most sparklicious lip gloss at the Heat game last playoffs? The second Mayweather walkout last night was the last straw.
Can this guy leave me the fuck alone? I don't have anything against celebrities at sports games. I'm cool with Jack Nichsolon being at the Lakers game. I'm also cool with Spike Lee being a Knicks fan even if he behaves like a psychotic cheerleader. Seeing Justin Bieber at sporting events doesn't have anything to do with sports. He is not going to sporting events to enjoy himself. If he did, he would have been sitting in the crowd like the dozens of other celebrities present. Sports is one of the last refuges of spontaneity left in a society where irony and cynicism sell high on the marketplace, so can I PLEASE have this black hole of meaninglessness off my screen when I'm doing one of the last things I can do with all my heart.
Goddamn.
I get it. I get why he is doing all this. The Biebs is perceived as uncool by young males of his age and the sports thing is a big PR campaign. He wants to tap into the male demographic. He's doing it wrong. Instead of showing how priviledged he is and hanging around like a useless chump around the heroes of the boys that despite him, he should be doing what young boys do or be like Justin Timberlake, grow a mind of his own and take control of his career.
I get why Floyd Mayweather walks out with him too. It's a powerful cultural statement. If Money makes Bieber cool by simply having him around, his legacy will have transcended boxing. It's good business for Floyd. If it works, he becomes much more than a boxer to his generation and if it doesn't, it will be regarded as a silly eccenticity, which he is renowned for ANYWAY.
I like Floyd Mayweather Jr. I really do. But seeing Justin Bieber walking out with him offends me. Seeing a pop star I REALLY don't care about standing in the camera frame at EVERY GODDAMN sporting event I watch is an insult to me. It will not make me buy his records, even less like his musi. It will not give him an ounce of credibility in my eyes. I am not more sympathetic to his brand because he associates himself with brands I like. Justin Bieber makes me feel old, out of date and silly for putting up with his lifeless cherub fae on my television screen.
I do not hate Justin Bieber because he makes silly music. I don't listen to it. I hate him for parasiting things I love.
* and has his ass saved by Ray Allen, but that's another story.
