Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao will face off this weekend for what many boxing fans are calling the "fight of the century." Regardless of how great the sparring actually is, it will certainly feature the highest payout in the sport's history, with the two fighters sharing up to $300 million between them. Music Times might not be a sports outlet but we wanted to get in on the action by creating playlists for each of the contestants involved. Here are five tracks to get Floyd Mayweather pumped, ranging from Lil Wayne to Phil Collins. Check out our Pacquiao playlist here.
"So Ruff, So Tuff" by Zapp
Mayweather is often affiliated with rappers above musicians from other genres. After all, he's been spotted hanging out with Lil Wayne, 2 Chainz, Rick Ross and other emcees before his fights in the past (and his history with 50 Cent is long and complex like Gossip Girl). For as uninterested as Mayweather is in subjects such as reading, we've got to give him credit for having an open music palate. During 2013 he revealed his workout playlist on Spotify, a selection of 30 tracks titled the "Mayweather Boxing Club." Only a few acts got more than one song on the playlist and one was Zapp, a funk band from near Cincinnati that peaked on the Hot 100 at no. 86 with "More Bounce to The Ounce." Although that track does sound like a pretty good descriptor of the quick boxer, we're going to stick with one of the tracks he himself selected: "So Ruff, So Tuff," a track originally released as a solo number from Zapp founder Roger Troutman. It's also a good companion track for the band's "Playin' Kinda Ruff."
"Believe Me" by Lil Wayne
We mentioned that one of Mayweather's loyal supporters from the rap game is Lil Wayne. The emcee accompanied the boxer to his match with Marcos Maidana during May 2014, walking him into the arena alongside Justin Bieber as well. Weezy realizes that advertising space near Mayweather is at a premium on fight night—Pacquiao will make $2.5 million from ads placed on his trunks for Saturday's fight—so he took the opportunity to entertain the crowd with his new single "Believe Me" as he walked alongside his boxing pal. The song had just been released that morning and Lil Wayne wanted to build hype for his forthcoming album-Tha Carter 5—which of course has still not been released due to the ongoing Cash Money feud.
"For The Love of Money" by The O'Jays
Just like his personal taste in music, Floyd Mayweather doesn't liner on one entrance song for too long. Despite being undefeated in the ring, it isn't like professional baseball where players occasionally become famous for both their talents and entrance tunes (most notably Mariano Rivera and Metallica's "Enter Sandman"). One of the classics that the boxer has used to introduce himself is The O'Jays' single "For The Love of Money," a nice choice that both demonstrates the fighter's taste for classic soul and R&B while playing into his nickname, Floyd "Money" Mayweather. One might wonder why a man would enter a profession where he would be subjected to constant punches to the face, and indeed the answer is "for the love of money." Mayweather topped Forbes' list of the highest-paid athletes again during 2014, hauling in $105 million. Both fighters in Saturday's match will probably top this list during 2015 thanks to this fight alone.
"In The Air Tonight" by Phil Collins
This might seem like a joke, but Mayweather listed the classic Phil Collins single on the 2013 "Mayweather Boxing Club" playlist. In fact, Collins was one of three performers who landed two tracks on the list, including Zapp and the seemingly even less-likely Hall & Oates. The moral: Don't make fun of dudes if they listen to softer music than you...because they can quite possibly punch much harder than you. In all seriousness however, "In The Air Tonight" makes for a great workout track, especially for boxers. Although Rocky has embedded "Eye of The Tiger" by Survivor and Bill Conti's "Gonna Fly Now" into our '80s-montage mindset, Collins and his electronic drums kit bring a different kind of inspiring vibe to the image of a guy pummeling a punching bag in a darkly-lit gym.
"Control" by Big Sean
Plenty of songs have made reference to Floyd Mayweather and his boxing prowess but we opted to whittle them down to our favorite. That prize goes to Big Sean and his opening verse on "Control." While you were paying attention to Kendrick Lamar calling out virtually everyone in the rap universe, Sean was actually dropping a pretty good play on words that incorporated the world's best boxer at the moment as well as Spring weather patterns: "They praying on my mother*cking downfall b*tch, like a drought but / you gonna get this rain like May weather." Raining fists on enemies? Raining cash on women? Both seem like things Mayweather is plenty capable of doing.
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