HBO's 24/7: Juan Manuel Marquez and Floyd Mayweather, Jr.

Last night was the premiere episode of HBO's 24/7 series to lead us into the Juan Manuel Marquez v Floyd Mayweather, Jr. bout on September 19th. Even without commercial interruptions, the series is the fastest thirty minutes on television. Did we learn anything new? No.

The obligatory footage of Mayweather's charity work was there to show us the softer side to Money May; however, he is and always has been the villain of 24/7. Some villains are more charitable than others.

Cast as the good guy will always be Mayweather's opponent, which in this case is Juan Manuel Marquez. Enter the scenes of Marquez's old neighborhood and stories of his poverty stricken childhood and you have a hero who you feel good about rooting for in a few weeks.

After the episode last night, we are supposed to believe that Mayweather's camp is drama central. Can Roger and Floyd, Sr. get along? Who will be running Junior's corner? What will if Roger is convicted in October? Will a revenue agent be waiting a ringside to garnish Junior's substantial paycheck? Did Floyd, Jr. have a role in the skating rink parking lot incident? The rib injury! What about the ribs May? Yeah, we already knew all of this.

Our hero on the other hand is all work and birthday cake. He is striving for perfection and working on combination to overcome Mayweather's shoulder roll defense. He is hitting hard and is focused on delivering killer shots to the body. Marquez is smart, fast, powerful, and a genius inside the ring who can make any adjustment in the ring necessary to obtain victory. We knew all of this as well.

Not to spoil the remaining three episodes for you, but you will hear Mayweather declare that he is "the best" about a hundred more times. Roger and Floyd, Sr. will give us unintelligible one-liners that we will laugh at anyway. Junior and Marquez will downplay the ultimate goal, Manny Pacquiao, and the series will conclude with us believing that we are in store for the fight of the century.

More than anything else, 24/7 is a pay-per-view infomercial. A few suggestions as to how to make it better:

-Stir the drama pot further by featuring match-up commentary from Bert Sugar and Freddie Roach.

-Add subtitles to whatever it is that Roger and Floyd, Sr. are saying.

-End each program with video clips of Sugar Ray Robinson so that we never forget what being "the best" really means.

-Have Marquez explain what happened with Chris John and Freddie Norwood.

-Get Mayweather to admit that the rib injury was actually caused by a roller skating mishap.

Maybe it's too late for such program enhancements. Regardless, the series is fantastic and in many cases better than the actual fights. Not in this case. Mayweather v Marquez will not be the fight of the century, decade, or year, but it is going to be better than most people think.

Source: http://www.examiner.com/x-8370-Boxing-Examiner~y2009m8d30-HBOs-247-Juan-Manuel-Marquez-and-Floyd-Mayweather-Jr