Floyd Mayweather Jr. – The Rebirth Of The Fighter Of My Generation

By Dewi Powell: Just a quick introduction to myself as this is My First Article! I’m 17 and I live in the South Wales valleys, just 15 minutes from Joe Calzaghe’s native Newbridge and 5 minutes from the up-and-coming home of Nathan Cleverly, Cefn Forest. My earliest memory of boxing is watching a repeat of Lewis-Klitschko and being amazed at the punishment them two were giving and taking each other, I was gripped. Since that young age of 11 I’ve absolutely loved the sport. I’m constantly reading about boxing on here or secoundsout.com or watching it on youtube (I must of watched about 400 fights on youtube!) and i feel like I’ve learnt so much about the sport recently. After commenting on many articles on here I thought to give it a bash myself and I wondered how else to do it than talk about The Rebirth Of The Fighter Of My Generation.

8th of December 2007, it was the type of style-clashes that makes fights. In one corner was the brash American who was the perfect practitioner of the sweet science and in the other corner was the humble working class Englishman, both with perfect efforts. After a brutal 10 rounds Ricky “The Hitman” Hatton was toppled by a perfect check left and his perfect record was no more whilst “Pretty Boy” Floyd “The Money” Mayweather cemented his status as the best in the world.

19th of September 2009, The Money was back. Two years had passed since his victory over Hatton, and in this time a Filipino had jumped through the weights in a way that was rather remarkable to the modern boxing world. On his way to international stardom he had gained a second questionable decision over Mexican warrior Juan Manuel Marquez at super-featherweight, stopped David Diaz after 9 rounds at lightweight, forced Oscar De La Hoya to stay on his stool after 8 rounds at welterweight and Ricky Hatton at Jr-welterweight was simply knocked out cold in the second round. What makes Manny Pacquiao even more dangerous is that he has arguably the best tactician in his corner, Freddy Roach. Floyd Mayweather had it all to prove, rejuvenated with his father back in his corner, he was taking on the man who many believed had defeated Pacquiao, with Pacquiao having beat De La Hoya and Hatton more efficiently than Mayweather, The Money had a statement to make!

Faster, stronger and harder to beat – that’s how to summarise Floyd’s comeback. Mayweather thoroughly controlled the pace; he landed when he wanted too and barely got hit. It was as close to flawless as possible; Mexico’s renowned body punching couldn’t track Mayweather down as his intense padwork proved reliable as he saw everything thrown at him … Before it was thrown! The question now is where does Mayweather go from here and who could beat him?

Firstly I’ll start with the forgotten and underrated man at welterweight, Puerto Rican, Miguel Cotto. To start may I add how tough this man is! Just as he showed against Clottey, even though he has sustained huge cuts in his past he has the heart of a warrior to come through them which is why I wouldn’t say Mayweather would stop Cotto in the distance. Instead I say that Mayweather would thoroughly expose and outbox Cotto. I think a simple way to look at it would be to say that Cotto would close the ring off and make Mayweather fight, yet I disagree. I think Cotto is too flat footed and hasn’t got the ability to fight at a high tempo and still be effective enough to hurt Mayweather or take rounds off him. Also I think that Cotto lunges in too much with his jab and as powerful as his left hook is it’s too wide and these two telling factors combined I think would lead to Mayweather landing many left hand counters, uppercuts and straights. Mayweather to win by UD here in my opinion.

Some say Pacquiao. However, like De La Hoya stated, if Marquez was able to land so often and so clean on Pacquiao then imagine how Mayweather would hurt Pacquiao as it is generally accepted that he’d land bigger and more often than Marquez did on Pacquiao. Coupled with Mayweather’s supreme movement and the fact that since Marquez wasn’t able to close Mayweather down it’s highly unlikely that Pacquiao could I don’t see a way in which Pacquiao could defeat Mayweather. Mayweather wins by late stoppage I think here. I appreciate that this section is small but I elaborate on the reasons why Pacquiao couldn’t beat Mayweather later in the article.

Others are saying Sugar Shane Mosley. For this point I think it is key to look at two of Mosley’s recent fights to help explain why Mayweather will win. But first let’s look at some other factors on why Mosley shouldn’t even be given the chance to fight Mayweather. In the post fight interview, HBO’s Max Kellerman seemed to make out Floyd only fights people who are naturally smaller than him but i think they are forgetting him moving up to 154 lbs to fight De La Hoya which was a massive effort as the fight showed. Also, maybe they are forgetting Mosley being unable to agree fights with Pacquiao and Judah (and Berto for a long time) so i think questions should be asked to Mosley about the people he hasn’t fought, especially the fact that the likes of credible opponents like Cintron have been calling him out all year yet he ignores them. Mosley wanted a rematch with Cotto before he defeated Margarito but since he’s got a welterweight belt back he doesn’t want to fight Cotto now he has something to lose. The BIGGEST point against Mosley in this argument is why didn’t he take HIS chance when Mayweather was calling him out in 2005 for a fight in 2006? After his second fight with Vargas his excuses were that he wanted a 2 week holiday (even though Floyd gave him 6months notice), that he has a loose tooth and finally that Margarito deserved the fight more (Margarito better than Mayweather? What the hell was he thinking?!). Finally, Mosley’s actions after the Mayweather-Marquez fight took me by surprise as I’m sure it did you. Critics say that Mayweather looked scared which I don’t think he was but everyone deserves their own opinion, but i thought Mayweather’s reactions were the same as mine, Shock! Shock that Mosley would be so stupid and disrespectful to damage the good image he has. Like I said, I was surprised with Mosley but i wasn’t with B-Hop, what an idiot! As if saying ‘’I’ll never lose to a white boy’’ wasn’t stupid enough, now he’s getting involved in Mosley’s arguments. Back to the reasons why Mosley won’t beat Mayweather.

Firstly, 27th September 2008, Mosley got into the ring with the Argentinean un-orthodox Ricardo Mayorga. After defeat to Miguel Cotto this was meant to be a comeback fight for Mosley, expecting a victory at Jr-middleweight for the first time in 2 years Mosley struggled to impose himself. Mosley was extremely one dimensional; he seemed to be looking for a big shot every other punch and when the two got close Mosley often attempted to lean with his shoulders to work on the inside. This didn’t work! Mayorga saw the big punches coming; by this he landed two or three of his own because his two punches were faster than Mosley’s big punch, on the inside he often didn’t let Mosley attempt to use his strength, instead he stepped away and landed before Mosley got his telling punches off. On success of his tactics Mayorga got carried away, especially in rounds 10 and 11, he tired himself out and in round 12 it was the first time Mosley’s tactics came into effect. Mayorga was stopped with literally seconds left. Some say that this is the beauty of Mosley, the ability to knock his opponent out when he wants; they also say that he struggled because he’s an average sized Jr-middleweight whereas in the welterweight division he’s one of the big guys. Others like myself, prefer to say that Mosley demonstrated that against a fighter with a small ability to move his style and tactics get exposed and he gets caught. Against Mayweather this would simply spell defeat for Mosley.

Secondly, 24th January 2009. Mosley, stepped into the ring with the conqueror of Miguel Cotto. Antonio Margarito. Take nothing away from Sugar Shane his performance was world class this night but I refuse to accept that this fight is an indicator to suggest that Mosley could beat Mayweather. I don’t see how Margarito resembles Floyd in any way. Many boxing experts in the media have said that this was Mosley back to his best but when has the style he would use against Mayweather been successful against Mayweather? The answer being, never. Even when executed as precisely as De La Hoya did it, it isn’t enough to beat Mayweather. (Mayweather to win by UD here I think) Leading on to my next point …

The game plan of going to Mayweather’s body, cutting off the ring and getting him into a brawl on the back-foot has to be abandoned now, like Floyd said 40 fighters have fought with that game plan and they’ve all left empty handed. I saw Freddy Roach say that doesn’t work because of the shoulder roll and to break it you would need to throw fakes to expose his body but i think that wouldn’t work because Mayweather’s pad work is SO INTENSE that nobody is capable of making him take a good enough fake to land big enough punch to hurt him (so I couldn’t see Roach’s man Pacquiao doing this). As Antonio Tarver proved with Roy Jones Jr who in his day was a master of the shoulder roll (even if fight night 4 have grossly exaggerated it!) not that he was much of a defensive fighter, the only way to land it is to land big to the head, simple and effective but i think Mayweather is probably the hardest fighter in the world to land on. And for me there isn’t a lightweight, light-welter, welterweight or junior middleweight that can throw fakes good enough to land big enough to hurt Floyd … except Paul Williams! In my opinion this is the only fighter out there with the attributes to fight Mayweather in the current time and have a realistic chance of victory. Williams as Larry Merchant has put it “fights tall”, he has a tremendously effective jab, can cut off a ring and not be so direct due to the ability to lead with both hands and he possesses what I said is most needed to beat Mayweather is the ability to land big and hurt your opponent (demonstrated by his 70% knockout rate). If Williams is to get a fight with Martinez and later to re-organise with Pavlik and can still make Jr-middleweight then this is the only way I can see Mayweather being defeated!

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