Floyd Needs To Take Tougher Fights

By Boxing News - 03/01/2013 - Comments

floyd5453By Mike Mason: With Floyd Mayweather’s new 6 fight deal with Showtime expecting to generate him around a hefty $250million, we can expect to see Floyd in some big career defining fights, right? Wrong, for years now Floyd has been ranked p4p the best boxer on the planet. So my question is when is he going to start proving it? You see, to be the best, you have to beat the best and I just don’t see this happening.

With the supposed leaked list of Floyd’s next 6 opponents including Marcos Maidana, Alfredo Angulo, Saul Alvarez, Devon Alexander and Danny Garcia, the only name that stands out on that list as a possible good fight is the still untested Saul Alvarez. Maidana, Angulo, Alexander and Garcia just don’t cut it and if Floyd is allowed to take these easy fights it’s a joke, he needs to be fighting the best to cement his legacy.

The biggest fight for Floyd for several years now has been Manny Pacquiao, but this fight has never even looked close to happening. Whoever you believe for this fight not happening, the fact still remains it’s…or at least it was, the biggest fight in boxing, it could have generated huge amounts of money. This fight would have, and maybe still could sell 100,000 tickets at a venue like the Dallas Cowboys stadium in Texas. It would likely smash the record for PPV buys, be one of the biggest fights ever, possibly THE biggest non-heavyweight fight in history. So why, hasn’t this fight happened yet?

In my opinion Floyd doesn’t want it, or at least doesn’t want it just yet. I believe this to be the case as in the early days of negotiations Floyd demanded that Pacquiao signs up to random blood testing. Now I’m all for RBT, but I don’t think its down to Floyd to decide who takes the test or not, its too inconsistent, I mean he never requested his previous opponents to take any test so why now? If RBT is going to be used it should be down to the athletic commission to decide not Floyd, or better still with all the bad press about PED’s lately, maybe it should just be made compulsory by the boxing organizations worldwide. Either way, by Floyd demanding RBT it kind of says ‘I’m the main man, you either jump on my command or no fight’. With most fighters this would have been acceptable, but Pacquiao is just as popular as Floyd and generates huge interest in his fights, so why should he bend over backwards to make the fight? Its Floyd making these conditions for the fight, so it’s Floyd making the barriers for the fight not happening period.

With Pacquiao losing twice lately you would think this fight may be now easier to make, but in a recent interview on ESPN, when asked if this mega fight can still be made, Floyd states that Pacquiao now has to avenge his losses to Juan Manuel Marquez and WBO Champion Timothy Bradley before a fight between Floyd and Pacquiao can be discussed. It looks as though Floyd is putting up more barriers and really doesn’t want this fight.

So with Pacquiao out of the equation who is there for Floyd to fight? The next best fight in my opinion is Sergio Martinez. Now I constantly read comments on this site saying that Martinez is too big for Floyd, but Floyd himself is no stranger to fighting a smaller opponent. His next fight is against Robert Gurrereo who is fighting only his second fight at welterweight, and only 4 fights ago was a featherweight! He has also fought in the not too distant past, Victor Ortiz in only Ortiz’s second welterweight fight, a lightweight Juan Manuel Marquez stepped up to a catchweight of 144lbs set by Floyd but not met by Floyd as he came in at 146lbs, Ricky Hatton stepped up from 140lbs to 147lbs to fight Floyd. So as you can see Floyd is no stranger to fighting smaller guys so I don’t buy into the fact that Floyd is too small for Martinez as Floyd’s been beating up on smaller guys for years, if the Martinez fight could be made at a catchweight somewhere between 154-157lbs I don’t see what the problem is…well I do, Floyd so concerned about losing his 0, that he doesn’t bother taking fights if they are too risky. If he were to lose his 0 he would lose a portion of his fans and also PPV buys so it’s best to take easier fights and keep the 0.

Another type of fighter Floyd targets is the over the hill fighter! Shane Mosley was way past his best when he and Floyd finally got in on in the ring, fans were calling for the fight years before but when it finally happened Mosley was way past it, the same can be said about the De La Hoya too.

I actually do believe Floyd is the best p4p out there, but its time he stepped it up and started taking on some big names and fighters in their prime, proving wrong his doubters and cementing his place in history as the greatest fighter to have ever graced this earth. I believe after Guerrero Floyd should fight Sergio Martinez, Saul Alvarez/Austin Trout winner, Adrien Broner, Manny Pacquiao and Juan Manuel Marquez now that he had time to grow into a welterweight.



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