John Gotti III, the godfather’s nephew and Mayweather: boxing exhibition ends in brawl. “Now You’re My Enemy For Life”

“You’re my enemy for life, I’ll make you pay.” Had the grandfather and father pronounced this phrase, it would have created many concerns for the recipient. But even said by the heir, with the name and surname that is found, it has a certain effect. The threat was uttered by John Gotti III, a kinship with someone who made crime history in the United States: his grandfather was the head of the Gambinos, one of the most powerful crime families in New York. The sentence on the sidelines of the performance in the ring that saw him opposed to Floyd Mayweather, one of the greatest boxing talents of all time. Six two-minute shots, a sweet substitute for boxing that Mayweather likes so much also because it inflates a bank account already as big as a balloon after an extraordinary career: his alias, Money, is not there by chance. Mayweather stopped serious boxing some time ago (50 fights all won), now he drags on like a sort of overpaid Buffalo Bill who dispenses flashes of the class he was: among his ‘opponents’ is the Japanese Hasegawa (the only ), youtuber Logan Paul, Don Moore and Aaron Chalmers.

Money still manages to command some attention. It was also like this in the ring of Sunrise, in Florida, in a weekend which, among other things, saw splendid real boxing matches (above all the super lightweight world championship won by Teofimo Lopez on Josh Taylor). Difficult to explain the phenomenon, it is as if in football competing against Manchester City-Inter were a match of old glories with a refined touch but capable of playing only at slow motion rhythms. The problem is another: Mayweather and Gotti III took it seriously. Let’s start from the assumption that Gotti, 30 years old against Floyd’s 46, comes from MMA and that he has a barely mentioned relationship with boxing: two matches with as many victories against gentlemen nobody. Too little to even think of daring something – and there’s no age difference that matters – against someone who beat De La Hoya and Pacquiao.

In the ring, however, something broke, or maybe it was broken specifically for advertising purposes. “Last name matter”, the surname is important, (the title of the meeting) is also that of a documentary dedicated to it. Mayweather began to mock his rival, without forcing the blows but teasing him at will and making any reply harmless with his traditionally unassailable defense. The fact is that at a certain point Gotti went off the rails, he didn’t respect the referee’s stop and attacked the former champion in a drunken brawl style in a bar.

Perfect spark to bring back the supporters of the two (and among them also John Gotti II, another with a questionable criminal record), who started a shameful fist fight. In short, if the meeting wanted a publicity return, the mission was accomplished. But for the rest, the Florida evening will certainly not go down in history, sportingly speaking destined to be forgotten. There is always that threat and above all the origin. “Last name matter”, it’s really true.