Gatti-Mayweather: Guts & Heart vs. Talent & Arrogance

You’ve got to figure that most of the guys in cell block H will be cheering for Floyd Mayweather Jr. if he fights Arturo Gatti later this year. After all, Mayweather is close to joining the ranks of the three to five gang. He’s almost one of them, a guy with quick fists and a short temper who still hasn’t learned to follow the rules.

Mayweather has been testing the judicial system for so long, he forgot he wasn’t playing a game, that you just can‘t take your ball and go home. And now he could be looking at some serious time spent eating his dinner off trays, sharing the soap and asking permission to use the payphone down the hall.

But that’s what happens when you beat the mother of your children enough times and then ignore the court that sentenced you. Eventually, even the judges have to quit turning their backs.

Mayweather has been charged with domestic violence something like three times since 2002. He received a suspended six month sentence after pleading guilty to two domestic violence charges in 2002, and was told if there was a third domestic violence charge within seven years, he’d be doing some serious time in the big house.

Of course there was a third charge.

He’s become more dangerous outside the ring than inside it. But that‘s only if you‘re a woman.

One of the best pound for pound fighters in the world, Mayweather apparently forgets when to swing and when to walk away. And that’s not a fine line we’re talking about here. That’s as wide as Interstate 80. Yet Mayweather still insists on crossing it.

If the Gatti-Mayweather championship fight ever gets put together, it will be a classic matchup between the good guy and the bad guy, between Superman and Lex Luther. The roadrunner meets Wile E. Coyote.

Guts and heart versus pure talent and arrogance.

You don‘t choose a side here. You grew up with it.

Following his easy, impressive win over Jesse James Leija on Saturday night when he defended his WBC title, Gatti was supposed to meet up with Mayweather at the post-fight press conference. There they would announce their upcoming title fight set for June 11 at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, where Gatti has become the hometown favorite, despite living in Jersey City.

But Mayweather, who supposedly told the court that he’d be there, skipped bail, er, skipped out. He was a no show. And as of early this week, we still don’t know what the hell is going on with him.

Book ‘em, Dano.

Along with battering women, Mayweather is also not very good at keeping appointments. And Michigan and Nevada judges frown on tardiness and broken promises when it deals with their court.

Gatti, meanwhile, has a big advantage over the various mothers, daughters and sisters Mayweather has attacked. And maybe that’s why Mayweather didn’t show up Saturday night.

Gatti knows how to hit back.