Were fans booed for chanting “U-S-A” during the Floyd Mayweather versus Canelo Alverez fight Saturday night? Based on the videos that have been widely circulated, it’s hard to tell.
The chant begins at about the 2-minute mark:
Reports have been mixed about the nature of the boos.
USA Today, mentioned the incident in its coverage of the event writing, “Alvarez appears to be growing frustrated. Chants of ‘U-S-A’ broke out, as the Mexican contingent booed in reply.” The paper later clarified that the boos from the “Mexican contingent” may have been in response to Alverez’s poor performance.
Sports Illustrated, meanwhile, had a slightly different take: “A U-S-A chant rings from the rafters. Floyd moving around the ring. Jabs again. Tags Canelo with a right hand as Canelo charges in. Canelo still throwing. Crowd boos a little.”
On radio this morning, Glenn, Pat, and Stu struggled to hear the boos at all.
“Well, the allegation, I don't hear it that much but the allegation is that while some of the crowd chanted ‘USA, USA,’ the Mexican contingent in the audience booed them,” Pat explained. “Now, the only question was on the story, were they booing the poor performance of their guy or were they booing the chanting of USA, USA? I don't know. I didn't really hear it. You didn't either?”
“I don't hear it at all,” Glenn agreed.
When you put the incident in the context of other sporting events, it’s really not all that scandalous. In many cities and states, allegiance to a particular team is quite sacred and sporting events are filled with chants and boos depending on the situation.
If the fans at the fight were in fact booing the USA chant, Glenn had less of a problem with the booing itself and more of a problem with the larger context.
“Let's not take ourselves so seriously at a sporting event. But I actually think that people are serious when they boo ‘USA,’ and you're in our house,” Glenn explained. “You know, I wouldn't mind it if we went down, and I think it would be rude – you go down to Mexico and you're shouting, you know, USA, USA, USA and they booed us, I would be like, ‘Well, we deserve it.’”
“Sporting events, though, cross those lines a lot of times,” Stu countered. “The point is, though, that the United States, if they cared enough about the sport, which they obviously don't, [boxing has] been dying for years. If they cared enough about boxing, they would show up in enough numbers that this wouldn't be a factor. The point is that the Mexicans seem to care more about the sport than we do. So they get there and they get enough seats to be able to, you know, make themselves heard.”
Front page image courtesy of the AP
