By Manuel Perez: Still holding fast to his yearlong retirement, Floyd Mayweather Jr. (39-0, 25 KOs) has made hints at coming back soon, being mentioned to be interested in another fight with Ricky Hatton. Though why he’d be interested in fighting Hatton again, besides another easy fight and a guaranteed big payday, is beyond me. There’s nothing sporting about beating someone much less talented than you, which was the case in Mayweather’s easy win over Hatton in 2007. It’s like pistol whipping a blind Man. If Mayweather does return, most boxing fans are hoping that he’ll choose to fight the best fighters in the welterweight division, starting with Antonio Margarito.
Few people, however, expect Mayweather to fight him, nor do they think he’ll fight Paul Williams or Miguel Cotto. More than likely, Mayweather will come back and choose Hatton again, who will probably gladly accept Mayweather’s offer for a chance to get a good payday. Hatton may be even more eager for a Mayweather fight if Hatton loses to Manny Pacquiao in May, because he’ll need a big fight to try and undo the damage of a likely one-sided loss to Pacquiao.
Beyond that, I see Mayweather possibly going after Pacquiao, lightweight Edwin Valero, or light welterweight Timothy Bradley. I suppose there’s nothing wrong with those choice of opponents, because each one of them, including a rematch with Hatton, is rock solid.
Of course, it wouldn’t mean nearly as much than it would if Mayweather were to man up and face Margarito, Williams or Cotto. Those fights would be much huger on a world wide scale, because there wouldn’t be any serious size issues in those fights compared to Mayweather fighting miniature fighters from the light welterweight and lightweight divisions.
But the fact of the matter is, if Mayweather chooses not to fight Margarito and company, I think Floyd’s legacy will be badly harmed. Fans might not realize that he’s side-stepping around Margarito, but the knowledgeable fans will, and they’ll make themselves heard to HBO and Showtime, letting them know what they think of Mayweather.
Of all the fighters that Mayweather should be coming after, Margarito is the one with the most overall ability compared to the others. He’s got the offense, the charisma and the name to make for a huge fight with Mayweather, and probably enough offense to beat him as well. That may be the reason why he won’t likely ever get a shot at Mayweather, because he’s simply too dangerous for him to fight.
Like Joe Calzaghe and Bernard Hopkins with their reluctance to face Chad Dawson, the best fighter in the light heavyweight division, Mayweather probably won’t want to face a fighter like Margarito that typically throws 100 punches per round.
When you have that many punches being thrown at you, Mayweather could do as many shoulder rolls as possible, but he’s still going to get hit with ton of the punches. As bad as Margarito destroyed Kermit Cintron and Cotto in 2008, I doubt that Mayweather wants to be included on that list.
Understandably, it’s going to hurt Mayweather big time if he doesn’t fight Margarito. Say what you want about Oscar De La Hoya, he at least in his prime wasn’t afraid to fight anyone in boxing. True, he’s become more avoidant now that he’s over-the-hill, but he was never that way in the prime of his career. Oscar would have taken on Margarito and not even hesitated. It’s too bad Mayweather probably won’t.
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