By Raj Parmar: As Floyd Mayweather Jr (46-0, 26 KO’s) prepares for his looming showdown with Marcos Maidana (35-4, 31 KO’s), many in the boxing world are wondering what exactly is the “big surprise” that Floyd mentioned will take place in his next fight after Maidana.
While Marcos gave Mayweather a great battle in May, the consensus opinion is that Mayweather will make the right adjustments for the rematch and take home a victory. Maidana is a huge puncher and while it’s never wise to totally write off such a heavy handed fighter in any fight, let’s take a look at some of the options available for Floyd’s big surprise for May of next year if he pulls off the win over Marcos once again.
1) Manny Pacquiao: Excitement spread amongst boxing fans when a TMT truck was spotted outside a Top Rank boxing gym recently, which many believed was evidence that a Floyd-Manny fight was possibly finally being put together. I personally feel this event had nothing to do with a potential Floyd-Manny fight and that the mega-fight is as far as it ever was of being made. All one has to do is look at one of Floyd’s recent media roundtables, when he referred to Manny as “that dude” that got knocked out by Juan Manuel Marquez and refused to even say Manny’s name. His reasoning for not having to refer to Pacquiao by name was that he alone sits atop boxing’s mountaintop and Pacquiao is not even close, which gives away that the fight is just not in the cards and may never will be.
2) Miguel Cotto: I believe that this is the fight that may come to fruition. Floyd requested and got permission by the boxing governing bodies to defend both his 154 and 147 titles in his rematch against Maidana. I think this may be a step in setting up a fight against Cotto who holds the middleweight title. The plan would be have all three weight division belts on the line and this would definitely be a huge event. Floyd has beaten Cotto once already and Miguel definitely would want to seek revenge while Floyd would love to further cement his status in boxing history by being champion in three weight divisions at the same time.
3) Amir Khan: This fight was rumored to occur instead of the Maidana rematch however Khan’s religious obligations took him out of the running for September. Khan is on the comeback trail with new trainer Virgil Hill and put on a decent showing in outpointing the tough Luis Collazo on Floyd’s undercard last May. The only way this can be the big surprise Floyd is mentioning is if the fight is staged in the massive Wembley Stadium in England and Mayweather for the first time in his career fights outside the United States.
There are other names out there such as the young, hungry lions Shawn Porter and Keith Thurman, however fighting either of them would not be considered a huge surprise from Floyd’s standpoint and those two likely are going to have to battle each other first with the winner maybe getting a shot at Floyd. Therefore I feel a Cotto rematch with three weight division titles on the line will happen next May if Floyd avoids Maidana’s bombs for 12 rounds and beats him again in September.
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