Mayweather-Canelo: Cut the malarkey

By KenWoods123 - 09/13/2013 - Comments

DSC_5189By Ken Woods: The mega fight between Floyd Mayweather Jr. (44-0, 26 KOs) and Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (42-0-1, 30 KOs) is here. September 14 will be a historic night for the sport of boxing.

However, there has been a vast amount of criticism thrown towards Mayweather for years now, and it is unreasonable when compared to his current adversary.

Let’s take a look at some common opponents and scenarios.

Before we dive into the deep end of their respective career pools, let’s define the physical prime of any athlete. The physical prime for most athletes ranges from 23 years old to 33, give or take a few years depending on the athlete. Some excel past their prime ages and some fade before.

Until late 2006, Mayweather was a fighter under Bob Arum’s Top Rank banner. Therefore, he did not have the final word on his choice of opponent. But let’s look at his first fight after he left Top Rank, when he was able to pick his opponents. His first bout was against Carlos Baldomir for the lineal welterweight championship. Alvarez also faced Baldomir, but it was four years later and at a higher weight class. Alvarez did knock him out, but it wasn’t for a lineal title. Which is the more egregious case of handpicking?

Both guys also faced Shane Mosley. Mosley knocked out Antonio Margarito in his previous fight before Mayweather. Mosley was 37 at that time. When these two faced each other, Mayweather was 33 and Mosley was 38.

When Mosley faced Alvarez, it was two years later and Mosley was coming off of a 0-2-1 stretch. Mosley was 40 at the time, and Alvarez was 21. In other words, Alvarez was facing a man that was literally old enough to be his father. Who really fights foes when they are old and not at their best?

In addition, many claim Mayweather feasts on smaller fighters. Let’s examine this a bit closer. The second fight after Mayweather left Arum was against Oscar De La Hoya. De La Hoya made Mayweather come up to 154 pounds for the first time in his career and outweighed Mayweather by about 15 pounds on fight night and still lost. Granted, De La Hoya was past his physical prime at the time. No one accused De La Hoya of picking on a smaller fighter, not to mention Mayweather started his career at 130 pounds, so coming up in weight is not uncommon to any boxer.

Still, others point to the fact that Mayweather made Juan Manuel Marquez come up two weight classes to face him and cheated the scales by two pounds at the weigh-in. This is true. However, Alvarez fought Matthew Hatton at an agreed upon catch-weight of 150 pounds in 2011. He didn’t make weight and paid a fine as well. Alvarez came in at 151.8 pounds.

In addition to fighting the smaller Hatton, Alvarez also fought Josesito Lopez and made him come up to junior middleweight. He knocked him out in the fifth round. Lopez broke Victor Ortiz’s jaw, who lost to Mayweather at the age of 24. Ortiz outweighed Mayweather by 13 pounds on the night of the fight.

Marcos Maidana made the same Ortiz quit in the sixth round, and Maidana recorded a knockout of the aforementioned Lopez in a similar fashion in which Alvarez did. However, if Mayweather were to face Maidana in this fight, many would claim Mayweather was ducking Alvarez, even though Maidana is in his natural weight class. This type of logic is confusing.

Many claim Mayweather faced Miguel Cotto when he was past his prime. However, if Cotto was past his physical prime at 31 years old, wouldn’t Mayweather have also been past his prime at 35 years old? In any event, Mayweather beat Cotto, who outweighed him by 16 pounds at the opening bell. Mayweather was 150 and Cotto weighed 166. Cotto was also coming off an impressive stoppage of Margarito.

Alvarez is once again facing a fighter much older than himself. Alvarez will also significantly outweigh Mayweather on the night of the fight, yet no one criticizes Alvarez for picking on the smaller, older pugilist.

The criticism tossed at Mayweather can apply more aptly to his current rival. Everything stated in the article is factual and cannot be denied.



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