Floyd Mayweather to Fight Basketball Failure

Getting chokeslammed into the hearts of redneck America.

Floyd Mayweather, seemingly determined to shift his legacy from "greatest pound for pound fighter of all-time" to "Rickey Henderson-Style Circus Sideshow", will wrestle Paul "The Big Show" Wight at Wrestlemania XXIV this month. The move is a controversial one, as Mayweather stands to either follow in the footsteps of Muhammad Ali (referee at Wrestlemania I) or Mike Tyson (referee at Wrestlemania XIV). However, unlike the other two, Mayweather will be actually wrestling, which seems like a ridiculous idea for a successful athlete who currently holds multiple boxing titles (Ali and Tyson weren't active boxers at the time of their matches).

Mayweather will take on former Wichita State center Wight, who at 7ish feet, 441 lbs, outweighs his opponent by nearly 300 pounds. Adding to the danger factor is the fact that while Wight is seemingly in better shape than he has been in the past 5 years, he hasn't wrestled in a WWE match since 2006.

Let's think about this. The Tennessee Titans banned Pacman Jones, a player that they have no intention of retaining as anything but trade bait, from wrestling in TNA during his year-long NFL suspension. All he was allowed to do was show up on camera, occasionally acting as though he'd just been attacked mysteriously off-screen.

Mayweather, who is not suspended from boxing, has plenty of money, and is arguably boxing's best hope at a revival against the rise of MMA, is fighting seemingly because he can't find more constructive ways to quell his boredom.

Mayweather-Hatton. The most romantic weigh-in since
that time George Foreman fought Leroy "Cuddles" Jones.

What's worse is that Mayweather couldn't win over the WWE fans, a group so fickle that they'll support a corpse-raper like the Big Boss Man so long as there's someone slightly more evil around for him to punch. Mayweather, despite following the time-tested WWE script and throwing money to the crowd, was unable to garner any support and as a result was turned into the bad guy for his face-off with Wight, who supposedly will now be turned into the sweetest 7-foot giant you've ever met. Sort of like Gheorge Muresan.

So unless the WWE has some ingenious plan where Mayweather is disqualified for saving big breasted hookers and kegs of Natty Light from a sinking ship and giving them to the fans, he's not going to make any headway with the rest of America. And for a man who is known for making it rain over strippers/hookers/white chicks, clearly the money is not an issue. So Mayweather has no good reason to be a part of Wrestlemania other than as a wrestling fan, and possibly to join the ranks of Mike Tyson and Muhammad Ali - a group that he seemed destined to join regardless.

Will the Big Show ruin Mayweather's undefeated record? Will Mayweather ever admit that this pay-per-view is a mistake? I doubt it on both counts.