Floyd Mayweather Jr. visited Chelsea Lately to promote his upcoming fight and return to boxing. During the interview, Mayweather twice steered the conversation inexplicably toward his personal homophobia. The first time came when Chelsea told Mayweather to get comfy and put one of his legs on the chair (you gotta see the video to understand what I’m talking about):
Mayweather: If I do that then they gonna think I’m heeey [flip of the wrist]. That ain’t my style.
Chelsea: I don’ think anybody thinks that about you.
Mayweather: Oh, OK.
Chelsea: You talk a lot of trash before you fight somebody, right? You like to really…you didn’t like Oscar de la Hoya at all.
Mayweather: Well, um, you wouldn’t like a man who wears fishnets.
Chelsea: I don’t like men who wear fishnets, unless they’re gay and they’re out of the closet. Then I can support that.
Mayweather: OK, he hidin’.
Then, when Chelsea asked him a question about Eddie Murphy making an appearance on Mayweather’s HBO show, this exchange popped up:
Mayweather: Eddie Murphy does some great movies.
Chelsea: Are you good friends with him?
Mayweather: Not good friends with him. We cool. I see him at the NBA Championship game. I see him every now and then. And we speak. Cool guy.
Chelsea: But you’re not good friends with him?
Mayweather: Not friends like that. I mean, he made good movies.
Chelsea: I got the movie part.
Mayweather: Why you gotta say that?
Chelsea: Nobody thinks you’re sleeping with Eddie Murphy.
Mayweather: OK, gotta stay clear.
Chelsea wasn’t questioning Mayweather’s sexual orientation or masculinity in either case, but Mayweather obviously felt he had to go there. The second time was really strange. I got the feeling that Mayweather thinks Murphy is gay, so he had to try to distance himself from he comedian. I may be reading that wrong, but that’s what I got.
Hat tip to Austin.
on Sep 17th, 2009 at 3:53 pm
….It’s boxing; what do you expect from the brutes who participate in such an undignified sport?
on Sep 17th, 2009 at 8:04 pm
Dudes got issues. Big time.
on Sep 18th, 2009 at 1:12 pm
Mayweather sounds like many of the uptight hetero men of the last 60 years.
on Sep 18th, 2009 at 6:25 pm
Methinks the lady doth protest too much.
on Sep 19th, 2009 at 7:03 am
The interview made me very uncomfortable. He obviously has some issues he needs to deal with. Chelsea and I are both pro-homosexual and I’m glad she handled it well. However, I also hope she asked him wtf his problem was when the interview ended.
on Sep 19th, 2009 at 9:10 am
I’m actually surprised and a bit disappointed Chelsea didn’t challenge him more or even stop the interview. Kathy Griffin or Joan Rivers would have never allowed him to be such a douchebag if it was their show.
on Sep 19th, 2009 at 2:00 pm
George-
You are right. I thought about it some more and she could have asked him what his problem was. He looked so utterly stupid. I was appalled and I hope she never has him back on.
on Sep 19th, 2009 at 11:58 pm
A lot of straight guys and not surprisingly closeted gay guys fight so hard on a day-to-day basis not to do anything that will place them in a feminine light. In sports this battle takes on monumental proportions and yes some of it is blatantly homophobic, but most of the time the word “gay” or “fag” are used as shorthand for the word “feminine.”
Mayweather may harbor contempt for gays but that stems from ignorance. In order to rectify such behavior we need to start educating folks. Gay people need to become boring to the mainstream and that’s really it.