Mayweather’s options for May 4th: Canelo or Bradley; Guerrero out of picture?

By Boxing News - 01/23/2013 - Comments

mayweather500By Chris Williams: Floyd Mayweather Jr. chose to shoot down the rumors earlier today about him facing WBC interim welterweight champion Robert “The Ghost” Guerrero on May 4th by saying on his twitter “Me fighting Robert Guerrero is just a rumor.”

Mayweather probably wouldn’t have said that if he was really interested in facing Guerrero. He would have stayed silent until the fight was signed. As such, you’ve to figure Guerrero out of the running for the May 4th fight date.

If Mayweather isn’t going to be fighting Guerrero then that leaves only two appealing options – Tim Bradley or Saul “Canelo” Alvarez. Bradley is reportedly in negotiations for a fight with Yuriorkis Gamboa on March 16th. However, the negotiations have reached a sticking point over the catchweight.

Mayweather still has time to snatch up Bradley for May 4th if that’s a fight that appeals to him. It’s not really a fight that boxing fans would have a great deal of interest in due to Bradley’s lack of a big name and because of his poor performance in winning a questionable decision over Manny Pacquiao last year in June.

Canelo will give Mayweather the biggest payday but he’ll also be the biggest risk. Mayweather chooses Canelo to fight on May 4th instead of in September, he’ll make sure this PPV card does really well. I could see it bringing in at least 1.5 million PPV buys, but not the 2.4+ million that Oscar De La Hoya is dreaming of.

It’s still hard to imagine Mayweather agreeing to fight Canelo just now because Canelo still needs at least two to three good fights to prove himself worthy of the Mayweather fight. It would be better if Canelo would first take on Austin Trout and then the winner of the Erislandy Lara vs. Vanes Martirosyan.

If Canelo would win both of those fights then I think he would be a lot more popular than he is now and it would make a Mayweather-Canelo fight that much bigger. But if Mayweather chooses to fight Canelo now, before he’s even started facing junior middleweights, then the fight won’t be nearly as big.



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