It defines the word inevitable. You could easily see this coming. It’s like the surprise birthday party you already knew about. The wait is finally over and on May 1st, 2009 Floyd Joy Mayweather Jr. announced his return the ring. First I’d like to say welcome back. Secondly… what took you so long? Or better yet, why’d you even leave in the first place?
Floyd Mayweather Jr. Just the mere mentioning of his name conjures up wildly mixed emotions. Whether its love, hate, respect, or admiration, the feelings are always strong. You either love him or you hate him. But I take the high road. I ride the fence on this one. I try to look at Floyd from a rational, logical viewpoint. I try to not be clouded by his over-the-top bravado and flashiness (although he definitely makes that hard sometimes). When the announcement of his unretirement came, we learned his opponent would be Mexico’s Juan Manual Marquez. A legend in his own right, Marquez owns marquee victories over Marco Antonio Barrera, Rocky Juarez, Joel Casamayor, and Juan Diaz. He also has a SD loss and a draw to current pound-for-pound champion Manny Pacquiao and a UD loss to Chris John. So how do you go from being ranked as the #2 pound-for-pound fighter on the planet to being called a tune-up opponent? You jump a couple weight classes and fight Floyd Mayweather. This is actually where my rational/logical assessment of Mayweather begins.
Although Mayweather’s 39-0 record is without a doubt impressive, it can almost be viewed as two separate careers. Junior welterweight and below, versus junior welterweight and above. He won his first world title as a super featherweight against Genaro Hernandez in 1998, and made successful defenses against Angel Manfredy, Carlos Rios, Justin Juuko, Carlos Gerena, Gregorio Vargas, Diego Corrales, Carlos Hernandez, and Jesus Chavez with a non-title win over Emanuel Augustus. He then moved up to lightweight beating Jose Luis Castillo (twice), Victoriano Sosa, and Phillip N’Dou. Moving up to his third weight class as a junior welterweight, he won title fights against DeMarcus Corley, Henry Bruseles, and Arturo Gatti, with a non-title win over Sharmba Mitchell. Taking titles in yet another jump in weight class from Zab Judah, Carlos Baldomir and Ricky Hatton. And of course his Junior Middleweight title win over Oscar De La Hoya. With that being said, his career as Super Lightweight and Lightweight aren’t in question, it’s his career 140 lbs. and north that I think are less than stellar.
His first fight at 140 lbs. was against DeMarcus ‘Chop Chop’ Corley, which was a title eliminator and a very tough opponent. Next came another eliminator (for the WBC title) against Henry Bruseles which was barely competitive. Then his first light welterweight title against the overmatched Arturo Gatti. And then…nothing. He had one non-title fight at welterweight and never fought at 140 lbs. again. At the time the title holders of the other 3 major belts were Ricky Hatton, Miguel Cotto, and Carlos Maussa. Highly ranked at the time were Kostya Tszyu, Junior Witter, and Vivian Harris. But Floyd chose to fight Corley, Bruseles, and won his only Junior Welterweight title against Arturo Gatti. It seems to indicate he took the easiest route to a world title and left the division. This is where the cherry-picking accusations begin.
As a Welterweight, he took his first title from Zab Judah (IBF), which is beyond respectable. All of his problems-in and out of the ring-considered, Zab is always a dangerous fighter, and it looked like he was really giving Floyd some problems early in the fight. Then he chose to fight Carlos Baldomir for the WBC and IBO titles. He then jumped to 154 lbs. to fight Oscar De La Hoya. Only problem with this one…from the time he fought Zab to when he fought Carlos, there were champions with other belts in Miguel Cotto, Antonio Margarito, and Kermit Cintron. The only tough test he faced as a welterweight at that time was Judah.
For a fighter who debuted at 130 lbs. to move to 154 lbs. and beat an all-time great in Oscar De La Hoya is truly a great feat. There are many detractors who claim De La Hoya was well past his prime (and he may have been), but that doesn’t take away from this win in any way.
For his final fight before retirement Floyd fought Ricky Hatton back down at welterweight. Hatton had only fought as a welterweight previously time; a WBA title win over Luis Collazo. Two glaring problems here. One, Ricky Hatton isn’t a welterweight. Two, you still had titleholders in Paul Williams, Miguel Cotto, and Kermit Cintron; who are legit welterweights.
The term cherry-picking itself is overused but look at the roster as a whole and decide for yourself. At 140 and 147 lbs. Floyd fought DeMarcus Corley, Henry Bruseles, Arturo Gatti, Sharmba Mitchell, Zab Judah, Carlos Baldomir, Zab Judah, and Ricky Hatton. The fighters who were either champions, or became champions during that period of time were Kostya Tszyu, Junior Witter, Carlos Maussa, Ricky Hatton (Junior Welterweight), Vivian Harris, Antonio Margarito, Miguel Cotto, and Kermit Cintron. And as he entered each division it seems he took the easiest opponent with a world title, and never intended to unify. Regardless of how people assume he would fare against these fighters isn’t relevant. You can’t tell people you would beat an opponent so it’s a waste of your time to fight them (as was done with Margarito when Floyd left $8 million on the table). You have to fight them, and you have to beat them. And hindsight is always 20/20 when an opponent you chose not to fight loses (i.e. Margarito losing to Paul Williams). It’s very easy to play I-Told-You-So. But as any educated boxing fan knows just because Fighter A beats Fighter B, and Fighter B beats Fighter C; doesn’t mean Fighter A will beat Fighter C. Paul Williams beat Margarito, Floyd didn’t. Cotto beat Mosley, Floyd didn’t. Floyd can’t TELL me he can beat Mosley, I want to SEE him do it.
Hopefully his unretirement will provide him a chance to fill these voids. Facing Juan Manuel Marquez is a really good comeback fight, and hopefully will lead to a much-anticipated showdown with Manny Pacquiao. But don’t forget that Cotto is still here. So is Williams. So is Mosley. We’ll just have to wait and see. There is no doubt that Floyd’s talent in the ring is arguably one of the pound-for-pound greatest of all time. It’s who he’s chosen to stand across from in that ring that may prevent him from being one.
