I Believe

I believe that Zab Judah actually fell in the bathroom of the Top Rank gym and put his right arm through a glass shower door, thus both requiring 50 stitches and the cancellation of his May 31 pay-per-view fight with Shane Mosley. Rumors that poor ticket sales and competition from the free CBS EliteXC mixed martial arts show featuring Kimbo Slice, scheduled for that same night, were the real reasons which prompted this cancellation are just that, rumors.

I believe that there is a huge audience for proposed rematches between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and both Oscar De La Hoya and Ricky Hatton.

I believe that Golden Boy Promotions is becoming the leading boxing promotional company through integrity, honesty, hard work, and determination.

I believe that Samuel Pater will finally fight Vitali Klitschko by this October, as has just been agreed to by the promoters involved.

I also believe that beer is good for you, and that the cute bartender who was serving it to me last night and blew me a kiss as I left the barroom is madly in love with yours truly.

Floyd Mayweather: Not Even Fighter of The Month

I just received my BWAA invite to their 2007 awards dinner on May 1, 2008. The second I saw Floyd Mayweather was voted "Fighter of The Year" by boxings finest, I threw the invitation out. Mayweather being voted FOTY is another layer of proof that todays boxing writers are more fans than anything else.

Miguel Cotto clearly faced and defeated better opposition than Mayweather did, not to mention he won more convincingly. Mayweather beat Oscar De La Hoya by split decision in 2007. The trouble with that is Oscar hasn't won a big fight since 2002, and has been a part-time fighter since 2004. Floyd followed the De La Hoya fight up with a 10-round TKO over undefeated Jr. welterweight, Ricky Hatton. In that fight, I had Mayweather up a point going into the final around. Other than the final blow Mayweather landed to end the fight, nothing else beyond him struggling with the limited Hatton will be remembered. On the other hand, Cotto stopped Zab Judah (who Mayweather had to come from behind to win a decision against in late 2006), and decisioned Shane Mosley, who beat Oscar De La Hoya in 2000 & 2003. For the record, I had Mosley over Cotto by a point.

Along with Cotto, Kelly Pavlik had a better 2007 than Mayweather did. Pavlik scored a pair of seventh round stoppages over hard hitting Edison Miranda and undisputed middleweight champ Jermain Taylor. Like Cotto, Pavlik fought two of the better fighters in the division in which they campaign. Compared to Mayweather, who chose a semi-retired fighter, and another who campaigns in a division beneath him.

I'm not going to take the time to compare Mayweather's body of work to other fighter of the year recipients, you do it, because it makes me ill when I do it. In closing, Floyd Mayweather being voted FOTY is another reason why boxing is sometimes hard to take serious and 90% of boxings finest writers should start covering hunting and fishing.

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?