The New Em Was Bangin’: Mosley-Mayweather 24/7 Pt. 4

Last week…heck this season on 24-7, training reached “furious peaks,” viewers got a peek at Olympic drug testing procedures, Mayweather talked trash, Brother Nazim dropped some racial sociology…

...and the theme song takes us into the real-timey recap and the highlight of these four episodes. “I’m not afraid…”

Both camps are shown in states of preparation, Mosley watching KO Nation reruns and Mayweather running, Richardson praying, Uncle Roger Mayweather doing…what the heck was Roger doing?

Who cares…all of this plays over a hot new track for Eminem and…oh my…it’s actually good. After two stinky albums in a row, could it be that Eminem will stop making goofy voices to disguise oafish lyrics and get back to just dropping hot tracks?

Rumors of a quality album can only build after this. Mayweather is talking over the song which is just annoying since he’s not saying anything new. “My Daddy believes in…” shhhhh.

And that’s it. Song over. That means just regular old 24/7. It’s off to a cute start as Mayweather spends time with his kids, making up a song about Shane Mosley’s “jheri curl.” See episode two for further information. His daughter is adorable and she’s getting A’s in school. Right on.

Nothing, ever, snarky about the kids. Kids are cool.

At Camp Mosley, chanting is going on to get in the mood of the warrior. Swimming tubes and towels abound and Mosley voices over about why he wants to, believes he will, win. Richardson says he sees exploitable flaws in Mayweather.

This all feels familiar, like we’ve seen it before. What’s next doesn’t. As Team Mosley loads up to head for Vegas from Big Bear, the anti-doping folks arrive for the latest random test and Mosley seems agitated, doping tests in conflict with his efforts to make sure he’s on weight. The doping official, Kris Forberg, gives a speech on why this is so important to sports which is basically a commercial for the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency’s (logically assumed) desire to get beyond the amateur ranks and crack that pro sports money in a bigger way.

Back at the gym with Mayweather, it’s mitt work and Roger lets the audience know that “however (Floyd) got 40 wins, he’ll find a way to get 41.” Then they work the mitts. The requisite scene of locking the gym and reopening to a bloody sparring partner was omitted in this version of the show.

More kids, this time working out in the gym, with nephew Lakai and “Cash Flow” back for cameos. Both those kids rock when they’re firing in combination. I smell pay-per-view 2025. Floyd skips rope and invokes God.

With Big Bear in the rearview mirror to the sounds of Bob Marley (is that USADA approved?), Mosley arrives to the mobs in Las Vegas. “It can get real intoxicating.” Mayweather arrives shortly after, shaking hands with the fans and voicing over about how the stars make it out for “Mayweather-mania.”

Whatcha’ gonna do?

Mosley gets in a light workout but stresses the light. “My task is to make sure that I don’t leave anything in the gym and to make sure that I give the fans and everybody 100% of me. Everything in the fight.”

The camps are then shown preparing for their face-to-face time at the final Wednesday press conference. Nazim shoots down the efficacy of trash talk and narrator Liev Schreiber states that “hyperbole is simply a stylish way of communicating the truth” before taking us to the dapper dressing of Floyd Mayweather Sr.

The proud father feels a win here will push his son’s legacy “over the hill,” giving his son son a chance to beat pretty much everyone “they” said he couldn’t.

Pretty much everyone is a way of not saying Manny Pacquiao.

Uncle Roger states the family name, Mayweather, is one of the great ones in boxing, that his nephew is one of the best ever. Brother Nazim counters, saying Floyd can’t be seen as great by all until he truly faces adversity.

At the presser, everyone gets a line.

Golden Boy executive Richard Schafer feels these are the two best fighters in the world.

Mosley predicts “one of the greatest fights in this decade, maybe in history.”

Uncle Roger: “This is what makes great fights. If it wasn’t a great fight all (the press) would be here eating for free.”

Papa Mayweather: “It’s here now. You (Mosley) are in trouble.

Brother Nazim? “You have good fighters, you have champions, you have elite fighters, and then you have guys that are special. And in this fight you get a rare occasion where you get two special guys competing against each other.”

Does Floyd have anything to say? Does the sun rise? “On May 1st, I’m gonna’ go out there and be Floyd Mayweather and do what I do best. Be smart; be sharp; and fight hard. And as they say, may the best man win.”

With that, it’s some strange analogy about Vegas’s neon graveyard, the home of trashed old casino signs. Some more meta-talk is uttered as the show hits its lengthy closing montage. Oddly, there is no late cut of weigh-in footage but who cares?

What matters is the fight. It’s almost here.

Grade: As is typical, this show is best in weeks one and the final jump off before the fight. It doesn’t mean it picked up from much being a little dry. The déjà vu quality is just hard to miss, down to retelling and reintroducing people from week to week as if they haven’t already had their stories told.

So be it. The job of the show is to sell the fight. It likely aided in that and this wasn’t a tough sell anyways. People who know what they’re looking at know this is real, it could be special, and any mainstream media types still whining about it not being Floyd Mayweather-Manny Pacquiao merely display the ignorance they have cultivated in regards to the sport.

24/7 is so formula at this point that it may need a rethink soon. When it started, it vaguely hid its infomercial nature. Now it’s just blatant. There’s a better show in there somewhere and they should find it. For now, it’s enough that Mosley and Mayweather will be lacing them up within hours. Grade: B+

Author: Cliff Rold

Source: Boxingscene.com