Is Mayweather’s Retirement Good For Boxing?

By Boxing News - 06/06/2008 - Comments

hatton44341.jpgBy Nate Anderson: With today’s announcement that unbeaten WBC welterweight champion Floyd Mayweather (39-0, 25 KOs) is calling it quits and retiring permanently, I can’t help wondering whether this is for the better in boxing. Mayweather, 31, though a 5-division winner in his career, he’s often won his titles against the weaker champions in boxing, somehow avoiding the best champs for the sake of easier fights. I can’t say I blame him for doing that, because I suppose I would do the same thing if it were my choice.

But, then again, I wouldn’t consider myself the best fighter in boxing if I had done such a thing, and I’d feel less than happy with myself I avoided taking on the perceived best fighters in each division. This, unfortunately, has been a major problem that Mayweather has had for much of his career. Instead of fighting excellent champions like Kostya Tszyu, the former WBC/WBC/IBF light welterweight champion, WBA welterweight champion or WBA/WBC/IBF light middleweight champion Winky Wright, Mayweather chose instead to take on fighters like Arturo Gatti, Carlos Baldomir and Zab Judah, as well as Oscar De La Hoya. All of the said fighters are good in their own right, but I don’t consider any of them as good as the champions that Mayweather never got around to fighting for some reason.

In the past couple of years it became a major point of frustration for many fans, which saw Mayweather taking on fighters such as Henry Bruseles, Gatti, Sharmba Mitchell, Baldomir, Judah, De La Hoya and Hatton, while skipping over other top welterweights in the sport like Cotto and Antonio Margarito. At the same time, Mayweather became less entertaining to watch, as many of his bouts ended with him doing more boxing and moving than slugging. It seemed far less entertaining to watch him fight, even though he was fighting lesser fighters than him.

You’d think with the apparent mismatches that he was often in, he’d be a little more open to letting his hands go more often and risk taking a couple shots in return. Unfortunately, Mayweather fought mostly dull fights until his most recent bout with Ricky Hatton, which saw Mayweather at his best as he expertly took apart the English bulldog and eventually stopped him in the 10th round. However, just when it appeared that Mayweather was finally coming into his own and becoming a more exciting fighter, he had to go off and announce his retirement from boxing.

I’m conflicted about this in a way, because I could see the potential in him to be a good fighter, but with scheduled rematch with De La Hoya for September and his talks about a potential rematch with Hatton, I was really put off by the thought of having to waste time watching either of those fights. The reason is because both of Mayweather’s previous fights with them were conclusive enough to make a rematch altogether unnecessary. I saw both fights as nothing more than a chance for Mayweather to make even more money on highly inflated PPV events. I have no problem with watching Mayweather on PPV, but I don’t particularly want to watch him go over old ground, when it’s entirely unneeded in this circumstance.

Like many people, I don’t see Mayweather staying retired for long. I see this as basically a cry for love from him. I think he wants the people to need him, to break down his barriers with a big show of support in order to make him feel wanted. The problem with that, however, is that it may not be forthcoming from fans. In just six months, Mayweather has become almost an afterthought in most of the boxing stories, many of which are now focused on rising stars like Miguel Cotto and David Haye rather than bothering wasting time with Mayweather.

He only has himself to blame, however, because Mayweather could be the biggest star for years to come if he wanted to, but he seems to constantly under achieve and sabotage himself by either fighting lesser opposition or with this latest retirement announcement. We’ll likely be hearing from Mayweather in the near future, mark my words. In short order, he’ll come out and likely say he’s fighting someone like Hatton, De La Hoya or some other fighter along those lines, and in the process make previous retirement seem like nothing but a bit more of the same old drama from him that we’ve seen in the past.



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