No More "Choices": Mayweather Must Fight Mosley
by Scott Christ on Jan 20, 2010 12:50 PM EST
in Boxing Commentary & Opinion
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Floyd Mayweather Jr. takes a lot of flak. A lot of guff. He has "haters." His biggest fans tend to conclude that anyone who dares question anything he does must be a "hater." To be entirely fair, this is not unique to Mayweather. Manny Pacquiao's biggest fans do the same. Cristobal Arreola thinks you're a hater if you question his training habits. It's just a cultural thing now. "Hating" is now the catch-all for any doubt about anything ever.
I don't hate Mayweather. I do sometimes question Mayweather's motives and his level of opposition, and I know not everyone will believe me when I say this, but I question Mayweather because, on some level, I admire him.
Floyd Mayweather Jr. is a talent the level of which you just don't get to see very often. As such, it sometimes feels like a waste to see Floyd in fights like the one last September against Juan Manuel Marquez. Marquez is going to rightly go to the Hall of Fame and is a courageous, tremendous fighter. But for so many reasons, the fight wasn't right. And I would have felt the exact same about Pacquiao-Marquez at anything over 135 pounds, too.
With Mayweather-Pacquiao falling apart (at least for now), we are faced with Pacquiao going head-to-head with Joshua Clottey in a totally acceptable and even very tough fight for the Filipino superstar. Mayweather is in a tough spot now. Frankly, he has to fight. Floyd's not going to want to take a year off before he possibly fights Pacquiao this fall, and another "tune-up" fight just is not acceptable to most of us.
No offense to Paulie Malignaggi, Kermit Cintron, Matthew Hatton, Ryan Rhodes, or any of the other names that have come up either by calling out Floyd, spreading rumors about Floyd, or apparently being contacted about fighting Floyd, but it's not good enough.
With Pacquiao and Clottey tangling, there is only one acceptable fight now for Mayweather, and it's against Shane Mosley. Nothing else will do.
I realize that this fight looks like it's going to happen. And yes, Shane Mosley has reportedly agreed to taking any of the drug tests Mayweather would like him to take.
This fight matters. This fight would be really big. And it would also be the first time in a long time that I'll say questioning a Mayweather fight would truly make you a "hater."
If Floyd were to beat Shane Mosley, it would be easily the best win of the welterweight portion of his career. If he were to beat him easily, it would prove what Floyd says: That he's the man to beat, that he's the best there is, that he's not afraid to take challenges.
Sure, the fight would be coming too late in a lot of ways, but I don't question the status of either man. Both are top five or so pound-for-pound, they're two of the elite fighters in the world, and two of the best of a generation.
It's a fight that has to happen for a lot of reasons. For one, it's been talked about for about a decade now. For another thing, Mosley has been yelling about it since Mayweather beat Marquez. Then there's the fact that Floyd truly has no other direction to go now, and with Mosley being free and agreeable to any testing, what's the issue? There's nobody out there that can offer Floyd more money for a fight now, not with Pacquiao out.
It's all there is. It's all he can do. I want it because it's a great fight that I'd be happy to pay PPV prices to see.
And if Mayweather takes an easier fight, don't tell me anyone's "hating." They're just going to be right.
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You're exactly right
I remember the same tag getting tossed around when anyone questioned Roy’s list of tomato can opponents years ago (when the ‘Roycott’ was employed) – I’ve been pretty critical of Floyd the last few years and that has nothing to do with me hating him but wanting to see him prove that he’s one of the best fighters ever to grace the squared ring. Mosley must happen. So does Pacman.
If Mayweather doesn't take on this fight
I’ll agree with you and most Mayweather haters for once . . .
But he is going to and I believe Mosely was already on his “hit list” when he came back from retirement. This fight does not surprise me, the timing does. But whatever order it falls in, when he fights all these fighters people have been thinking he’s ducking, there will still be some hate to throw around
Let's hope
Other than Mosley and Pacquiao, who else do you think is on the “hit list”? If those are his next two fights, I wouldn’t be surprised to see him retire again. There are other guys he could fight, but other than maybe Cotto, none of them would provide the paydays he wants, and I don’t think he has the cojones to go after Pavlik (not that he should be expected to, but I do think he would beat Pavlik).
Bad Left Hook - The SB Nation boxing blog
"Baseball is played on the field, not on a calculator."
Matthew Hatton might be on that list......
"I guess I can’t do anything if you’re just irrational, but to point it out and move on."
- fundamentallysound
I believe Cotto was on it before he came back
Doubt he’ll still be on that list though.
This is how it’ll work. He fights the old, the present and future greats.
Mosley, Pacquiao and _______ ?
Amir Khan provided Khan survives Maidana? Berto?
Bad Left Hook
"To the town of Agua Fria rode a stranger one fine day..."
by Scott Christ on Jan 20, 2010 2:13 PM EST up reply actions
My guess is Berto (But where is the money there?)
Then everyone won’t be able to say he ducked anyone. That’s what I truly believe
Unfortunatly Berto is getting major coverage right now
with what is happening in Haiti. If he can setup a couple good fights for the rest of the year he can get people to watch his fights. The public is going to be behind him.
"I guess I can’t do anything if you’re just irrational, but to point it out and move on."
- fundamentallysound
Nice job of stating
some sound logic and not getting bogged down in a larger social critique. I agree on all fronts and unfortunately there are many, many people who will continue to suspend disbelief for the sake of fanboy attitudes. It’s a damn shame because as the attitude spreads it dampens public demand for accountability and legitimate championship level competition.
And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.
Hater
Bad Left Hook - The SB Nation boxing blog
"Baseball is played on the field, not on a calculator."
by Brickhaus on Jan 20, 2010 1:21 PM EST reply actions 1 recs
By the way,
this was an excellent article so I don’t mean to focus on one unimportant detail, but I appreciate the fact that a writer has finally called out the sophomoric tag “hater.” Every time I hear that term, I feel like I’ve wandered into some Brittany Spears chat room by horrible mistake. I hate “hater.”
by Don From Prov on Jan 20, 2010 3:13 PM EST up reply actions
I think this fight will happen. Probably. But I wouldn’t put any money on it until Michael Buffer starts giving the ring introductions.
I don't think it'll happen, personally
I would LOVE to be proved wrong, because it would be a great fight.
I hated every minute of training, but I said, ‘’Don’t quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion.'’ (Bernard Hopkins)
Not sure Mosley is actually the 'best' opponent ??
There’s a part of me that would love to see Mayweather fight Mosley but I’m not sold at all that this is the toughest fight out there for Money. Big named opponent that will sell a lot of ppv buys but toughest?? NO WAY!
Mosley is yet another smaller fighter and although he may indeed be a welterweight, he’s a small one. Could Mayweather handle a guy like Kermit Cinron or Paul Williams? Those are two opponents I’d much prefer over Mosley. Fighting and beating either of those guys would actually tell mr something about Mayweather. Fighting Mosley at this stage of his career really doesn’t do much for me. I’m one of the many who love Floyd but truly wonder if he could handle Cintron’s strength and size…or Williams freakishly ling frame. I know Floyd is quick and can handle fighters like Mosley but beating Kermit Cintron…well that’s another story. I guess I won’t be terribly upset I’d Floyd chooses Mosley but for me it’s yet another safer choice. I’ve stood next to Mosley and he’s lucky if he’s 5’7 1/2 maybe. I want to see Floyd against a bigger fighter in the same weight class. If he never fights one of the bigger, legitimate guys, he’ll never be able to claim he’s the best ever…I don’t care if he’s undefeated or not!
Personally I think Mosley is far better opposition than Cintron could ever be, even at 154. Mayweather would box his ears off all night long. Mosley is a genuis in the ring and still has amazing speed even at 37.
by God_is_an_Owl on Jan 20, 2010 2:52 PM EST up reply actions
Paul Williams
I would love to see
Pacman vs. Paul Williams
Mosely vs. Paul Williams
or Mayweather Jr. vs. Paul Williams
I really doubt Mayweather is going to step into the ring against Paul.
“Hater”
Note, whenever you encounter anyone who decides to call you a hater, just ignore them. They usually do not value logic or having a rational discussion. They tend to believe that they have haters.
Happy Holidays and A Happy New Year
by VeeisAnimated on Jan 20, 2010 3:03 PM EST up reply actions
Mosley is on a far higher level than Cintron. Cintron is so slow I’d consider it an upset if he averaged over 4 punches landed per round on Floyd.
Bad Left Hook
"To the town of Agua Fria rode a stranger one fine day..."
by Scott Christ on Jan 20, 2010 3:05 PM EST up reply actions
"Hating" is now the catch-all for any doubt about anything ever".
truth
"Yes Gina, I am a Wise Cracker"
Dana White has been quoted as saying if the May v Mosley goes ahead on May 1st,the UFC will move their UFC 113 show to the May 8th.Also it would no longer be a double main event,with just Machida v Rua 2 as the main event.Less competiton for Golden Boy probably means another crappy undercard.Mind you,so long as May v Mosley happens,i’ll be happy.
That's good news
"Honey i forgot to duck" - Jack Dempsey
by Drunken cutman on Jan 20, 2010 3:59 PM EST up reply actions
Haters
I hate the use of the word “hating” and “haters”. Most of the time it’s just a cop out to avoid having to address legitimate criticism. Instead of proving someone wrong, just call them a hater and be done with it. It’s bullshit. But anyway….
I used to be one of the ones who disliked Mayweather for many of the obvious reasons. I’ve grown to like him now, not only for his skills as a boxer, but because I’ve come to find that some of the criticism is unwarranted IMHO. Some of it is fair and reasonable too.
The thing is, even if Floyd wins, there will be some people who will find an excuse to denigrate his victory. My guess off the bat is that it will be that Shane is old, washed up, or something to that extent.
If he loses, then I know someone is going to say Floyd was “exposed”. And I wish I could slap that person when he does it, but I know I wont be able to. I hate the overuse of the word “exposed” too when it comes to boxing. Losing to Shane Mosely doesn’t mean you are exposed. Losing to some scrub does.
Anyway, looking forward to the fight. I don’t doubt it will be made.
Erod
I try to give Floyd credit where he deserves it and criticism when it is called for.You are right about these idiots who just spew the word ‘hater’ because they lack the vocabulary or intelligence to have a reasonable debate or to accept justifiable criticism of their favourite fighter.However,i acknowledge that there are some people who really do hate for no good reason and they deserve to be called out for it.
I respect the abilities of Mayweather as a fighter(who doesn’t) but,as has been stated on many occasations,he needs to fight the best at 147,otherwise he might as well just retire permanently.SC has already stated this.The main thing i don’t like about Floyd is that i get the impression he thinks the fans are stupid and he tries to con them by carefully picking opponents for big money but little risk.
He would no doubt have made the ridiculous Matthew Hatton ‘fight’ if he thought people would be gullible enough to buy it.
He will only step up if he is made to by the public voicing their disapproval/approval of his fights.
And
By not paying for his fights unless they are against elite competition,and that ONLY includes-Pacquiao,Mosley,Williams,Martinez,Berto or Bradley,imo,if we are taliking PPV fights,which is apparently the only place Floyd will fight these days.
after the JMM numbers, and the acclaim of how great he looked, its clear that he’ll do big numbers fighting non-elite competition at 147. He could easily take a ‘stay-busy’ fight and wait for Pac again (and for them not to agree/not fight again…)
I hated every minute of training, but I said, ‘’Don’t quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion.'’ (Bernard Hopkins)
Plus
That fight did good numbers mainly because it was Floyd’s return after nearly 2 years out.If he followed his tune-up with another tune-up,i think even his fans who wont have a bad word said about him would be dubious about paying $60 again for another foregone conclusion.
I’d say anyone on this list is a good one for Floyd:
Grade A (in terms of marketing, not boxers ability)
Williams, Mosely, Pacman (obviously)
Grade B
Bradley, Citron
Grade C
Maligniaggi, Collazo, Hatton II
Grade F (all featherweights:
Rocky Juarez, Isreal Vazquez
Bradley should probably be grade A too
He’s a much better boxer than Cintron.
"Honey i forgot to duck" - Jack Dempsey
by Drunken cutman on Jan 20, 2010 4:00 PM EST up reply actions
Actually you're right, Cintron should be C
Bradley is B because of weight perhaps.
"Honey i forgot to duck" - Jack Dempsey
by Drunken cutman on Jan 20, 2010 4:33 PM EST up reply actions
Probably
Also, while 140 is becoming a deep weight class in terms of numbers, in my opinion the best fighters at 140 are still only about as good as the second tier fighters at 147. If someone like Collazo could somehow make 140, he’d clear out the division other than Bradley and Khan.
Bad Left Hook - The SB Nation boxing blog
"Baseball is played on the field, not on a calculator."
Matt's list
of what could or should be PPV is, given where we are, a good one. Perfect world, only Manny, Mosley, Williams, Martinez at the moment. Perfect world is long gone.
Don
Yeah i take that back,about Bradley at least.Seen as he is a 140lber,he is not really PPV worthy.Berto would be questionable as PPV i suppose but he is an undefeated beltholder,at least.They should put a solid undercard on if they did either of them on PPV.Would they do that for us??….NO! :).
A really
solid under-card would make a big difference on a lot of cards IMO. The thing has become to throw out one major bout or one big name recognition bout and a lot of drudge that adds up to a four hour night. I’d rather there only be 3 bouts if one highlighted well matched up and comers and the other two were quality matches (would even take 2 quality matches). It like having the choice between a gourmet two course meal or gouging out for a whole afternoon at KFC.
by Don From Prov on Jan 20, 2010 5:13 PM EST up reply actions
The JM Marquez v Juan Diaz/Chris John v Rocky Juarez double bill last year was a good example of a show containing 2 top quality fights.I dont know if these were the only fights on the bill but they were all that was needed,seems as both were FOTY material.Good on Golden Boy for that and i understand that it must be hard to make it work financially but if the boxers and promoters offered a bit more value for money more often,people would definitely come back for more.
The off-TV undercard for that show had a bunch of good prospects. Danny Garcia, Daniel Jacobs, Hylon Williams Jr., etc.
Bad Left Hook
"To the town of Agua Fria rode a stranger one fine day..."
by Scott Christ on Jan 20, 2010 5:57 PM EST up reply actions
They tried really hard on the Mayweather-Marquez undercard
It just didn’t pan out. John-Juarez was a rematch of a great fight, and Katsidis-Escobedo had war potential, but both fights were a little more disappointing than how they looked on paper.
Bad Left Hook - The SB Nation boxing blog
"Baseball is played on the field, not on a calculator."
Weight
I’d love to see Floyd vs. Paul Williams, and I think it would be a great fight. However, I’m not sure if Paul can still make 147 and be effective (last time he was that low was 6/2008 against Quintana). So, by the time a fight could get put together, it’d be around 2 years, with most of his fights coming around 160. And, lets face it, Floyd isn’t going to take a fight if it isn’t at 147.
Well,
that would be on Williams then, right? His team claims that he can still make 147. No one seems to want to call him out on that.
by Don From Prov on Jan 20, 2010 3:32 PM EST up reply actions
I think people have also seen that he might actually be taller than the 6’1" they were claiming for a long time. He’s a nightmare welterweight (in theory, and I don’t think he can make the weight effectively anymore), especially for Floyd or Pacquiao. I think Mosley might be aggressive enough to bust him up, but style-wise he’s hell for Mayweather, I think, and I just think Manny is too damn short for that one.
Bad Left Hook
"To the town of Agua Fria rode a stranger one fine day..."
by Scott Christ on Jan 20, 2010 3:59 PM EST up reply actions
I think he's taller than 6'1
I’m 6’1 and he looks taller than me.
"Honey i forgot to duck" - Jack Dempsey
by Drunken cutman on Jan 20, 2010 4:02 PM EST up reply actions
He was about a half inch taller than Pavlik
And about a half inch shorter than Arreola. A lot of fighters get their heights fudged a little bit though. I suspect that Pavlik is actually about 6 1’ 1/2, Williams is about 6’2" and Arreola is about 6’2" 1/2 (he was listed as 6’2" earlier in his career, for instance before the Wills fight, and then suddenly they started listing him as being 6’4" once he became a contender).
Bad Left Hook - The SB Nation boxing blog
"Baseball is played on the field, not on a calculator."
Along with Hater
Exposed is another word which i dislike the use of. Unlike hater it is a perfectly legitimate word when used correctly, however this is rarely the case. I have heard people say that Pacquiao would expose Mayweather, or vise versa, which is nonsense.
Boxers are exposed when they are beaten by journeymen or cans, or an upset is scored by a person seemingly outclassed. No one will ever be exposed by the best boxer in the world; they will just lose to a great boxer.
"Honey i forgot to duck" - Jack Dempsey
Exposed is up there. I also hate the usage of “tomato can” because it’s rarely used right. And that “positive/negative” crap that popped up so big after Froch-Dirrell drove me up a wall.
Bad Left Hook
"To the town of Agua Fria rode a stranger one fine day..."
by Scott Christ on Jan 20, 2010 4:35 PM EST up reply actions
Bad Left Hook
"To the town of Agua Fria rode a stranger one fine day..."
by Scott Christ on Jan 20, 2010 4:37 PM EST up reply actions
I didn't get that positive/negative thing either
Froch talks about it in a post-fight interview, and all of a sudden seasoned reporters who had NEVER used those terms before were using it like it was commonplace.
Bad Left Hook - The SB Nation boxing blog
"Baseball is played on the field, not on a calculator."
Yeah,exposed means that the fighter that got beat turned out to be nothing like as good as he was touted to be.Some people use it out of context when they just mean that one good fighter might beat another good ’un.Look at Hagler v Hearns.No one would say Hearns was exposed would they?Maybe a better example would be Hopkins v Trinidad.When great fighters fight great fighters,someones got to lose.
i am a pretty big mayweather supporter, hes up there with my fav active fighters and watching his fights is what made me transition from more of a casual fan to what i am now which is more hardcore obsessed type fan. dont like many aspects of his personality or all his choices of career/opponent though i have accepted and even defended many of them.
i was pretty pissed when the pac fight fell apart, but as much as i wanted to see that fight i was always alittle skeptical of it actually being made. now floyd’s in a corner he has to fight ssm and i do not think there would be an acceptable reason for him not to. this is a fight that i personally have wanted to see for years, a matchup i am truly excited for and a ppv i would gladly pay for. i talk to alotta former floyd fans that stopped supporting him often from one specific point in his career for one reason or another. him coming in over weight for the jmm fight was almost the tipping point for me, if somehow this fight doesnt get made i can honestly say that i’d be done being a fan of pbf.
Weighin' in
on the use if the words, exposed and hater, both are used improperly far too often, BUT my all time worst term used to describe a fighter is “BUM”. I truly detest the use of that word, if you think that little of someone that climbs thru the ropes and puts his health and indeed his life on the line to wage combat with another man thats looking to render you unconscious, then I have no respect for you. Certainly there are different levels of skill, I prefer to rate a fighter say from, A level to D level. Respect!! Peace!!
At least "bum" has a grounding in boxing history
i.e., the bum of the month club.
Or to put it like how Two Ton Tony Galento might have said: “Mayweatha? Neva hoid of ‘em. I’d moida da bum.”
Bad Left Hook - The SB Nation boxing blog
"Baseball is played on the field, not on a calculator."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-qffG9F-cQ
Very funny
"Honey i forgot to duck" - Jack Dempsey
by Drunken cutman on Jan 21, 2010 3:40 PM EST up reply actions
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