By Robert “Big Moe” Elmore: Coming toward the end of one’s boxing career, fighters often to look for cash out fights. What is a cash out fight? It’s when boxers look for the most profitable opponent that will generate them the most cash in a boxing match. These are often called a high reward/low risk bouts as well. For example, fighter A has a huge following, can fill up an arena, and bring some decent cash.
He can also bring in high ratings for a particular network (not necessarily pay per view). Then you have fighter B who doesn’t really have a huge following (but big enough), and has decent rating on TV. Put those two together and one can have a huge pay per view event. Before I go into my point I would like to say, I see nothing wrong with a fighter, after he’s paid dues in the game and worked his way up the ladder, to get as much cash as they can before they leave the game. But here is where the problem with fans comes in.
Fighter A has put in work, faced some of the best that’s out there and made it look easy I might add. He’s the man to beat. Fighter B has fought some okay competition, but not enough to put him into elite status. But beating fighter A will put him there. Before the fight, fighter A is considered a cherry picker and fighter B will his toughest challenge yet. Fighter B is seeking to prove he’s not just padding the record with chumps. The fight is a huge success, breaks pay per view records, and both fighters make a ton of cash. But the mêlée has just begun. Fighter A is still deemed a cherry picker and avoiding the best out there; blah blah blah. Meanwhile fighter B is looked upon as “when it came to the big time, he could not produce”. In my opinion, there is no such thing as low risk fight. There is always high in boxing. They include brain damage, broken ribs, detached retina’s, face fractures, and more.
But when it comes to “cherry picking”, what does it say about the guy s who asking to be picked? Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pcaquiao are the most sought after warriors in boxing right now. For example, Shane Mosley began to call out Floyd after his win over Antonio Margarito. He even went as far as to interrupt Floyd’s interview after his win over Juan Manuel Marquez. Before the fight, it was Shane’s power and speed would be enough to beat Floyd. When Floyd won, it was every excuse in the book. But fans leave out one simple thing here. Mosley was asking to be picked. So why didn’t anybody come down him? Shane knew he was 38 years old and had sat out a full year before facing Floyd (Shane was set to face Andre Berto in January of 2010, but Berto pulled out because of the earthquake in Haiti). Shane saw the financial reward as well as the possibility of upset Floyd so he signed up.
Oscar De La Hoya was beaten mercilessly by Pac in their match. The bout took place at a welterweight, but Oscar hadn’t made in nine years. I can’t fault Pac for him taking advantage of Oscar’s actions. Oscar accepted the weight, he knew he was more comfortable at 154, so why call Pac the cherry picker? People can call these two cherry pickers all day long, but no one is forcing their opponents to say yes. In fact, the opponent wants to be picked. This is why we see in interviews where these young fighters call these two out. But it’s easier to call Floyd and Manny cherry pickers because they are on top. I have and will continue to look at it from this angle; the cherry picker can ask, but the one being picked has to say yes or no.
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