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But Mayweather is not charming the way Ali was charming. And he didn’t smile the way Leonard smiled. And he doesn’t make you worry about blinking and missing a second of the action the way Tyson did, even long after he had none of that left.

Mayweather is the ultimate pragmatist. He doesn’t leave you wanting more. He makes you wonder why you bought in in the first place. He is a technician, magnificent in his ability to not be hit. He is boxing’s neutral-zone trap. He plays defence first and last and, in his case, defence does win championships — 12 of them in all, in five different weight classes.

Photo by Ethan Miller / Getty Images

And in between, he sends out a Facebook post indicating that the best strippers in the world will be coming to his club here this fight weekend, and he has spared no expense with his imports. That’s important because it’s Money Mayweather, always on an edge or a place you’d rather avoid, always about his brand of uneducated finance.

Imagine the reaction should Clayton Kershaw promote the imported dancers at his fictional strip club on the days leading up to his start of Game 1 of the World Series. Imagine the talk shows, the reaction, the disgust.

This passes as just another day in another week in another year of Mayweather’s sporting life, with one difference: This may be the sales job to end all sales jobs.

“This will be the most widely distributed pay-pew-view bout in history,” said Leonard Ellerbee, the CEO of Mayweather Promotions. “That’s not hyperbole. That’s fact. We’re talking some 200 countries. By the weekend, it could be 225 countries.” (There are only 195 countries in the world.)