Dontae’s Boxing Nation spoke with former light heavyweight champion Eddie Mustafa Muhammad about Al Haymon and Eddie said exactly what was on his mind. He loves what Al Haymon is doing and the people that don’t, are racist. Sooo… let’s do some quoting.
“Al Haymon had the balls to step up to the plate when other people just talked about it… he put his money where his mouth is… And now the haters gonna come out.”
I’m with Muhammad right now. I agree that it took some testicular fortitude on the part of Al Haymon to do what he has been doing. And, like many that become successful and refuse to fall in line with what people deem “acceptable”, he has acquired his detractors along the way… much like Miley Cyrus, bless her heart.
Anyway, enough of that. We all need Eddie to get real.
“You know why they’re not praising [Haymon]? Because he is a black man. Bottom line, let’s be real! There is so much racism in this country; it’s unreal.”
Goddamnit, Eddie.
Okay, full disclosure; I am white. Nothing annoys me more than a white person arguing about something not being racist. So how do I approach this?
First, I have to concede that the world (not this country, but the entire world) is an ugly place that contains many racist people. We see it on the message boards, we hear it in the news… racism exists. Hell, racism is so common that Eddie himself is wearing a hat created by a well-documented racist.
Yes, racism is all around us but does that mean it absolutely must be the reason some people do not like Al Haymon?
Saying that people dislike Al Haymon because he is a black man is a cop out. That statement ignores the fact that Al Haymon has done some legitimately unlikable things over the past couple years. He (allegedly) had an associate (Richard Schaefer) perform corporate sabotage on a rival promoter. He made enough waves in the industry to be a major catalyst for the much maligned “Cold War” and he has blocked his share of exciting fights. These are the types of things that would piss off boxing die hards no matter what color skin one has.
Are there people that hate Al Haymon because he is a black man? Absolutely. That’s the shitty world we live in, but they are the ignorant minority. Those racist people have very little to do with the groundswell of anti-Haymon sentiment that came about after a year in 2014 where Al Haymon put terrible match-ups on premium cable and sat on great fights while he waited for his PBC vision to become a reality.
That said, I do believe it is time for people to get over their grudge against Al Haymon. His past indiscretions increasingly look like a “means to an end”. As Haymon’s master plan unfolds he continues to redeem himself with good matchups and increased exposure for the sport. If you can’t accept that, I’m with Eddie Mustafa Muhammad… you are probably racist.
