By Jim Dower: Now that Ricky Hatton is planning on fighting Manny Pacquiao on May 2nd in Las Vegas, Nevada, unbeaten Floyd Mayweather Jr. (39-0, 25 KOs) finds himself without a dance partner in the 1st half of 2009. Recently, Mayweather had made some noises about wanting to make a comeback for a fight against Ricky Hatton, but with Ricky now taking on Pacquiao, it looks as if Mayweather is going to have to come up with some other options for a fight.
To be sure, Mayweather isn’t serving his self well by staying out of action as long as he has. Next month, he’ll be turning 32 – an old age for a smaller fighter like him. Whether he feels that he can wait for a fight against the winner of Hatton-Pacquiao or not, it probably would be a lot smarter for him to start considering other options in the meantime.
The problem here, though, is that all of the best welterweights are incredibly dangerous fighters for him, especially now with his long layoff. It’s doubtful that he would want to fight Antonio Margarito, Miguel Cotto, Shane Mosley, Joshua Clottey or Andre Berto, but even if he did, he’d have to wait for them to get through with their scheduled fights.
Berto would seem like the best bet, a talented by flawed fighter, who fights well offensively but gets hit a lot. Mayweather, even if he’s lost a step or two, would probably pick Berto apart. It wouldn’t be easy, though, because Berto would get his licks in before folding up. But, as far as the younger champions go, this would seem to be Mayweather’s best chance of getting a victory in the welterweight division.
Then again, Mayweather could opt for his old standby and choose to fight Oscar De La Hoya again. The bout is hardly necessary, as Mayweather already beat De La Hoya previously in 2007, and although the fight was close with Mayweather winning by a 12-round split decision, there’s probably little interest in seeing those two fighters mix it up again.
However, since when did the public’s interest ever interfere with boxers choosing to fight each other? If Mayweather wants this fight, the public has nothing to say about it taking place, as it will regardless of how farfetched and ridiculous it might seem to be at this late stage of De La Hoya’s career. Heck, Mayweather might as well pull Azumah Nelson or Roberto Duran out of retirement and choose to fight him.
If Mayweather wants to impress people and win respect, he’d go immediately after Paul Williams or Margarito. Those are the best welterweights in the division by far and would give Mayweather huge problems with their work rate and size. Unfortunately, we’ll probably not ever see those fights happening. Two years ago when Mayweather was still fighting regularly, he wasn’t interested in fighting them, so why should he chance his mind now?
If Mayweather was a little bigger, a fight against the washed up Roy Jones Jr. would be an option, but it would be too much of a size disadvantage for Mayweather. I think he’d beat Jones, but would get hit with some hard shots from in the process.
But the fight would be interesting because it would be a match-up of the best pound for pound fighter from the 90s against the best from 2000. In his prime, Jones would have probably made easy work of Mayweather, but right now that’s far in the past and I’d have to give Mayweather the nod because of his youth.
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