By Chris Williams: Manny Pacquiao and his promoter Bob Arum may not be too happy to know that Floyd Mayweather Jr. is talking about wanting to end his 19-year pro career this September against an aggressive opponent.
Obviously the guy that Mayweather will be facing in September won’t be named Pacquiao, because the Filipino fighter is still healing from his shoulder surgery following his one-sided loss to Mayweather on May 2nd. Mayweather has already said that there won’t be any second chances for Pacquiao in terms of a rematch.
In other words, Pacquiao blew it by complaining about having an injured shoulder after his loss to Mayweather, and saying that he felt he won the fight instead of Mayweather.
“I don’t know at this particular time,” Mayweather said about his September opponent via SiriusXM’s Shade 45 Radio. “But I’m sure we’re going to find a style of guy that’s going to push me for the last fight. When I go out, I’m going to go out with a bang.”
With a rematch against Pacquiao off the table, it leaves a fairly listless crew of fighters who don’t have the popularity or the talent to do much against Mayweather. If Mayweather is looking for someone to pressure him and make it a good fight in September, he’s probably going to need to pick out a light welterweight rather than a welterweight because the top guys at 147 are mostly the cautious sort. Lucas Matthysse would be the ideal opponent for Mayweather because he would put constant pressure on him from start to finish.
Danny Garcia was just exposed by Lamont Peterson, so he’s not a good choice. Peterson would be a good option, perhaps even better than Matthysse. Amir Khan wouldn’t be good because he’s too defensive, and he holds and shoves too much. It wouldn’t be an aggressive opponent if Khan got the fight.
Kell Brook is too much of an unknown in the U.S, and he already showed in his fight against Shawn Porter that he holds too much. Keith Thurman, the WBA welterweight champion, runs around too much and doesn’t stand and trade. He wouldn’t even trade for the full 12 rounds against stationary fighter Robert Guerrero in his last fight.
Some people think that Khan will get the fight with Mayweather, but I don’t think that’s going to happen. Khan fights too defensively and it would be potentially be a boring fight unless Mayweather chose to open up on his offense to force the issue with Khan. It would be a mistake for Mayweather to fight Khan because it would be a lot of running, shoving and holding from Khan.
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