Mayweather Poking Update.

From the AP:

Unbeaten fighter Floyd Mayweather Jr. was given a February 3 trial date in a hearing Wednesday on a misdemeanor battery charge for his run-in with a security guard over parking tickets.

Mayweather was allowed to remain free by Las Vegas Justice Court judge Tony Abbatangelo, who noted Mayweather was already free on 33,000 dollars bail ahead of a January 24 arraignment date on an unrelated charge.

Mayweather, 33, did not appear at the hearing.

Last month, Mayweather was involved in a dispute with a 21-year-old security guard outside Mayweather’s home, the fighter being accused of poking his finger in the face of the homeowners association guard, what prosecutors claim was a willful and illegal act.

Watching Floyd’s descent into the realm of reality television has been a sad experience. One wonders if the villainous persona and black hat first donned to sell tickets may have gotten the best of him after all.

For most of his career we viewed Mayweather as a master manipulator of the media, a pure pugilist that managed to translate a flair for stagecraft into the type of commercial success someone with his  fighting style would ordinarily never enjoy.

Surely Floyd left his interviews chuckling at all of us, fans and boxing writers silly enough to think it was about anything besides business. But increasingly it appears Mayweather himself is not in on the joke.

Whether there’s something else at play or this is simply an extraordinary run of poor temper and bad luck, the incidents of the past few months have made it extremely difficult to remain a fan and public defender of Mayweather, our shared Michigan heritage notwithstanding.

The allegations involving Floyd’s ex-girlfriend are ugly; even if the charges aren’t proven his actions strike too close to the angry persona he insists he leaves at the gym. Plus given Mayweather’s past antagonism it’s not hard to understand why the press has taken such pleasure in his current predicament. Friends and public supporters are few and far between.

Of course there remains a path to public redemption, but even that must wait in the face of his mounting legal problems. Should Mayweather manage to escape without having to serve significant jail time a superfight with Pacquiao would still offer him the opportunity to resurrect his career and cement his status as an all-time great.

But it appears the sands have shift once again and it is Floyd who has the most to gain from a bout with the Filipino phenom. Whether he finally agrees to sign on the dotted line remains to be seen, but either way here’s hoping Floyd first remembers who he really is and why he got into the fight game in the first place.