Canadian singer Justin Bieber defended his BFF Floyd Mayweather Jr. by calling people who hate the boxer "stupid."
Bieber is the cover story of the October/November issue of Complex where he said bashers of Mayweather are reading too much at the pugilist's bragging and boasting. He explains that what people see is just an image that Floyd created to attract pay-per-view (PPV) buys.
However, he also admits that Mayweather does a poor job of being humble. Bieber points out, "He's saying wild stuff just for attention." The singer says people should "just stop being stupid" and just be aware that Floyd is bragging only for entertainment.
However, the strategy has backfired because during the May 2 "Fight of the Century" against Filipino boxer Manny Pacquiao, Mayweather was booed by the crowd several times even if he won the fight by unanimous decision.
And the strategy backfired insofar as getting more PPV buys because for his last professional fight on Sept. 12 versus Haitian boxer Andre Berto, PPV buys was estimated to be between 400,000 and 550,000 only. In contrast, the May 2 fight broke records with 4.6 million PPV buys. Live gate was only $10 million for Sept. 12, while the May 2 fight got a record $72 million.
Huffington Post, however, points out that Mayweather is "an indefensible human being." It had no quarrel with his boasting to boost his career as the daily notes that "Many of boxing's all-time greats have used their colorful and braggadocious personalities to sell fights."
But it stresses the bigger problem with Justin's BFF is Mayweather's "extensive history of domestic abuse with multiple women, including the mother of his children." Huffington Post concludes that the boxer's violent history "is the defining part of his 'image' - not what he did for a job."