Mayweather: “My last fight is in September”

By Boxing News - 04/15/2015 - Comments

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By Chris Williams: Floyd Mayweather Jr says he plans on fighting just once more in September of this year and then getting out of the game to go into retirement. This is obviously sad news for a lot of boxing fans if Mayweather decides to walk from the game, as there’s no one that can step in and take the baton from Mayweather to carry the sport for another 10 years.

Pacquiao isn’t the answer due to his advanced age and the mostly limited opposition he’s been facing for the past six years. Without Mayweather to interest sports fans, it’s going to be tough for boxing to come up with another superstar with the same kind of talent and charisma to interest fans.

“My last fight is in September,” Mayweather said Agence France-Pressvia on Tuesday.

Mayweather has the fight with Pacquiao on May 2nd at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. After that, Mayweather will be finishing out his six-fight contract with Showtime/CBS this September. If Mayweather does choose to fight on it’s going to take a new contract from Showtime or possibly another network for him to stay on.

If one of the major networks can show Mayweather the good cash that would make it worthwhile for him to continue to fight, then I think it’s definitely possible that he’ll stay beyond the September date to shoot for the 50-0 mark, and continue to fight. What makes it difficult to see Mayweather continuing his boxing career into 2016 is the lack of recognizable opposition for him to face.

floyd55The top fighters at welterweight, Amir Khan, Keith Thurman, Kell Brook, Tim Bradley and Andre Berto, lack the popularity with the casual boxing fans for a fight between them and Mayweather to be of much interest. Khan has already been exposed several times, Thurman struggled recently against Robert Guerrero, and Brook barely got past Shawn Porter. Bradley was recently beaten by Pacquiao, and Berto has a ranking at No.1 by the WBA that is very questionable.

Speaking of the 36-year-old Pacquiao, Mayweather said “Our styles are totally different. I fight with smarts. Every move is calculated. Every move is thought about. He fought very, very recklessly in the [Juan Manuel] Marquez fight. I could have had the same type of career but my career wouldn’t have lasted this long.”

Yes, Mayweather is right. Pacquiao did fight recklessly against Marquez in their 2012 fight, the fight in which Pacquiao was knocked clean out by Marquez in the 6th. That wasn’t the only fight where Pacquiao has fought recklessly. He always fights like that, and was fighting just like that in his most recent fight against Chris Algieri in 2014.

Pacquiao always jumps forward with his in and out style of fighting. He doesn’t stay on the outside to land one shot at a time, and he doesn’t stay in the pocket to trade. Instead, Pacquiao jumps in and out against his opponents, and this puts him at risk of getting nailed with big shots while he comes forward. He’s got all that momentum while coming forward on the attack, and this makes him vulnerable to walking into big shots. Pacquiao’s fighting style is definitely a flawed one that his trainer Freddie Roach has done little to change from the original style that Pacquiao had when he first started training him a long time ago.

“He’s a future hall-of-famer. I am a future Hall-of-Famer and we are meeting at the pinnacle of our careers,” Mayweather said. “From the matchup, it is going to be a very exciting fight.”

It definitely should be an exciting fight as long as Mayweather doesn’t shut Pacquiao out defensively like he did against Marcos Maidana last September, Saul “Canelo” Alvarez and Robert Guerrero. The only fighter who had any real chances to do anything against Mayweather recently was Maidana in their first fight together in May of 2014, and the only reason Maidana had some success was because Mayweather purposefully decided not to move around the ring. He stood with his back against the ropes and let Maidana come at him for most of the fight.

Mayweather was still able to pick off or dodge the shots that Maidana threw in the fight, but he was definitely hit a lot in that fight. In the Mayweather-Maidana rematch last September, Mayweather stayed away from Maidana by moving around the ring, and this totally nullified Maidana’s offense to where he was helpless.

If Mayweather fights Pacquiao like he did Maidana in the second fight, then I think the Filipino star will be unable to do anything offensively. Pacquiao without his offense would be the equivalent of a butterfly without its wings. Pacquiao won’t be able to do anything if Mayweather uses movement and decides to stay on the outside all night long. That’s why we keep hearing members of Team Pacquiao daring Mayweather to stand perfectly still in the pocket for the entire fight so that Pacquiao can have a stationary target for him to jump in and jump out against.

Pacquiao needs a fighter that stands still against him for him to use his in and out fighting style. When he has to move around the ring to try his jumping in and jumping out style, it doesn’t work out well for him. He winds up moving too much, and is too wild with his shots. Pacquiao becomes easy to pick off with shots when he’s chasing an opponent around the ring. He can’t just stand still and hope that Mayweather will fighting him in the pocket, because that’s not likely to happen. If Pacquiao stops chasing Mayweather, then we’ll see Mayweather use his longer reach to jab Pacquiao silly for 12 rounds and win an easy shutout victory.

Pacquiao has to go on the attack for him to have any hope of winning, and even winning under those conditions are not likely. Pacquiao will be very, very sloppy if he’s always attack Mayweather because he’ll leave himself open to Mayweather’s pinpoint shots all night long.



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