Floyd Mayweather: A Big No Show
Floyd Mayweather, Miguel Cotto, Shane Mosley, Kermit Cintron, Antonio Margarito, Carlos Quintana, Paul Williams and Joshua Clottey, round out the top eight fighters in boxings welterweight division. The current welterweight division is very competitive. It's not the deepest its been, but it's plenty deep. Mayweather, the fighter who is considered the best in the division, is also considered the best pound-for-pound fighter in boxing. He's also the only fighter among the top eight who hasn't faced one of the other seven who make up the elite eight. On April 12th, Margarito and Cintron will be facing each other for the second time, due to Margarito handing Cintron his only professional loss three years ago.
This coming Saturday night, boxings supposed best pound-for-pound fighter will take on a 7'1" 400 pound wrestler named the "Big Show" at the WWE's Wrestlemania XXIV. Obviously, this is for a lot of money along with the outcome being pre-determined. This would almost be tolerable if after Mayweather gets his acting check, he'd go back to what he is paid most for doing and take on the fighters who not only have earned their shot at him, but are also most capable of beating him. But this won't happen. Mayweather's already penciled in to fight a rematch with Oscar De La Hoya in the fall. De La Hoya is far past his prime, he doesn't match up with Mayweather at this time and regardless of who wins the fight, it says nothing about either one as to what kind of fighters they are.
Floyd Mayweather is following the Roy Jones path to wealth, which is that of least resistance. As long as he knows that, he's Okay. However, after all these years of talking shit about how great he is, he'll be more remembered like Jones than he will be Sugar Ray Leonard. It's even possible that Mayweather will retire undefeated. And even at that, he'd still have one of the thinnest resumes I've seen compared to the greats he thinks he is on par with. Floyd Mayweather is a borderline great fighter. Physically, there's nothing he does great. In the ring, he's smart, and his defense is thought to be very good, but in my opinion it's more fundamental than anything else. IF he fought and took more chances trying to prove how great he is, he'd get hit much more than he does.
The sand is almost through the hour glass and time is running out for Floyd to prove that he's one of the greats. No more De La hoya's, Hatton's, or Wrestlers. Is it asking too much of Floyd Mayweather to clean out one division in which he competed in before he moves on to what he does best, which is manage fighters?
Labels: Antonio Margarito, boxing, Carlos Quintana, Floyd Mayweather, Frank Lotierzo, Joshua Clottey, Kermit Cintron, Miguel Cotto, Paul Williams, Shane Mosley, Wrestlemania
posted by Frank Lotierzo @ 12:55 PM
7 comments
7 Comments:
Frank,
Your point is very well taken. It's incredible, really, to realize how skimpy Mayweather's record is -- for a guy who is widely deemed the best in the game. A three-time Fighter of the Year, according to Ring. Based on Carlo's recent inquiries into California Jackie Wilson, you could make the case that Sugar Ray Robinson was tested more in one month of 1943 than "Money" has been in his whole career. Given the realities of the sport these days, it's not reasonable to expect champions to have 100+ fights, but shouldn't they at least have to fight SOME of the best in their divisions to be considered truly great?
Paul Wight, AKA Big Show, is not a wrestler, is not seven feet tall, and is not 441 pounds. Wrestlers compete in college for the NCAA or similar organizations, and internationally for FILA, which is part of the International Olympic Committee. I know of no reference in any of these groups' histories to any Paul Wight.
Stallone is more of a boxer than this guy is a wrestler.
As for Mayweather, interesting points. However, he was slated to fight Zab Judah when Judah was still unified welterweight champion. Even when Zab lost to Baldomir, he fought him anyway, and then beat Baldomir afterwards. Zab, by the way, is being pushed in his May 31 pay-per-view vs. Mosley, which the promoters are screaming is the “best against the best”. This is the losers’ bracket from their Cotto fights, and still is “only” $44.95 cold, hard money.
Hatton, the 2005 fighter of the year, ventured up from junior welterweight to welterweight to fight Floyd, and got check hooked so hard that our girl Jen puked all over herself and almost on her mum. Now he is back to 140.
So your observation is correct to a point. The real test will be next year if Mayweather-Cotto takes place, assuming they both retain their unblemished records. If, after toying with the sick Chris Benoit league and a rematch with De La Hoya almost no one wants, he still avoids Cotto, then we will once again see that the best fighting the best was a temporary quirk of the good old days of 2007.
Mayweather beating Zab Judah after Tszyu, Spinks and Baldomir beat him, doesn't cut it for me regarding all time great status. And I had Mosley beating Cotto by a point. The hype around Mayweather astonishes me. He's not as good as prime Whitaker or Mosley. Nor did he fight anywhere near the level of fighters that they did, nor will he.
Paul Wright, AKA Big Show isn't a real wrestler like 95% of the rest of the WWE entertainers.
Perhaps not surprisingly, I take a slightly contrary view from the group in regard to Mayweather's choices. As Frank suggested, Floyd is at his best while managing, and I have no quarrel with any manager who makes his client a ton of money while subjecting him to little risk. Let's be honest here: there's nothing that Mayweather can do at this late stage of his career to sway any of us into believing he's an all-time great. The fights simply aren't there for him to do that. He could beat Miguel Angel Cotto, and that would impress us. But would it overwhelmingly change our opinion of Mayweather? Would we start to mention his name along with Robinson's or Duran's? Absolutely not.
I don't blame him for calling himself an all-time great; it's what a good businessman should do. If he believes it, he's deluded. So what? It's still the right move.
I also have no qualms about his doing business with Vince McMahon. He's going to make something like a million dollars (or, in WWE-speak, twenty million) for eight to ten minutes work. Is there any conceivable reason for him not to do that? (Incidentally, I've been on a number of flights with Paul Wight. He's definitely very close to seven feet tall and certainly weighs a legitimate four hundred-plus pounds. All that means in practical terms is that he has to be somewhat careful in his handling of Mayweather.)
Fighters wind up broke. And they generally wind up sustaining neurological damage. Floyd Mayweather is trying to make decisions that'll prevent those things from happening. He doesn't owe us anything. History won't hold him up to be an all-time great (although, if IBHOF choices in recent years are indicative, maybe I'm mistaken about this), but that's at best only a secondary consideration.
I have no problem with Mayweather or any other fighter making more money than they could burn. The problem is, when you take the Jones/Mayweather path, don't bitch and cry when you're not mentioned as one of the greatest of the greats. Just say I have more money than I can burn. See, there's a trade off going the route Jones did, and the one Mayweather is currently traveling. No risk, no historical reward. A fighter can't have it both ways.
A fighters record is who he is in most cases. That's why wins & Loses count. But that's not all of it. The ultimate truth detector is who a fighter won and lost against. And that's where Floyd comes up short. He danced around most of the best fighters in every division he's fought. Yet he willing fought smaller fighters, or big names coming out of retirement who were beaten in their prime seven years before he got to them.
I don't know how great Cotto is, just as I don't know that about Mayweather. I just know if they fought, we'd get a better read on both. Now, why is there no interest from one side in making the fight? I guess because there's bigger money else where. So when you're accused of avoiding Cotto, don't say he wasn't worthy of fighting me or I have nothing to prove -- Say I took an easier fight for five times more money. That I can respect and understand. It's just that in doing so, you never proved how good you were versus the contemporary who was viewed as your equal.
We'll see if Mayweather fights Cotto next year, after in essence taking a sabbatical in 2008. One problem is the lingering feud between Mayweather and Arum, but no doubt there will be enough money in this fight to make that irrelevant. The question is if Mayweather actually wants it and wants to train for a prime Cotto.
I'm still not as negative on his career. In 2001, he fought a prime Corrales and beat him up. His first fight at lightweight, in 2002, was for a title against a prime Castillo, the controversial win. He had an immediate rematch and won more decisively. 2006 was Judah and Baldomir, then among the top guys at welterweight. 2007 was the aging Oscar, but also Hatton, the 2005 fighter of the year. That may not be earth-shattering, but it is not a bad resume.
Corrales was not himself when he fought Mayweather, due to major personal problems, but it was a very good win. Castillo clearly beat him the first time they fought. Even Ledderman had the house fighter losing 115-113, just as I did. Floyd clearly won the rematch.
Mayweather beating Hatton doesn't blow me away. I had the fight very close when it ended. He beat Judah after falling behind earlier and Zab fading both mentally & physically. Yeah, he beat Baldimor, but did anybody call Ali great for being the first and only fight to stop Oscar Bonavena?
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