By Tom Stokes: Defeat to Juan Manuel Marquez (50-4, 37 KO’s) is probably the last thing on Floyd Mayweathers (39-0, 25 KO’s) mind, but at some point it must have passed through, he’s going in against the pound for pound No2, a tough tested fighter, who’s looking to cause an upset, and Mayweather hasn’t really been tested in the ring since Oscar De La Hoya (39-6, 30 KO’s) in may 2007.
Mayweather has been out of the ring for a year, he may be rusty he not be, but if Marquez can pull off the upset what options does Mayweather have.
The Mayweather/Marquez match up hasn’t been selling very well and it’s about a month away, and to add to that UFC 103 will be broadcasting on the same night and it seem as though that will gain the majority of viewers that night.
What also attributes to this fight not selling well is that Mayweather has slowly been driving fans away from the box office fighting the likes of Baldomir, and due to his defensive style which fans find boring, but give Mayweather his dues it a style that’s won him all his fights.
Now it’s clear that Mayweather has lost some of his box office value, for whatever reason that may be, so on September the 19th if Marquez the underdog does manage to of pull the upset, then what will Mayweather do?
His mega fight against the winner of Pacquiao/Cotto would be very hard to justify as Marquez would be the man to beat, and Mayweathers stock would drop. Therefore Mayweathers options for getting a big money fight would be slim.
One option would be to fight the ageless Shane Mosley (46-5, 39 KO’s), an opponent that Mayweather himself has said he wasn’t interested in fighting saying he wouldn’t provide much in terms of PPV, but he may be Mayweathers best option, after that the next best thing for Mayweather would be the likes of Clottey, Berto or Margarito, but again Mayweather would most likely not want to get into the ring with these guys as they don’t provide the PPV attraction as someone like Pacquiao.
Retirement is another option for Mayweather, but if you know Mayweather you know retirement is not permanent, it’s a smart move although the coming out part seemed to work better when he faced Hatton, and not so well now against Marquez, since the fans the tired of this ploy and didn’t want to play along this time round.
At the end of the day if Mayweather did lose, he would have to listen to the fans, find out what they want and make it happen, and speaking as a fan I would love to see Mayweather/Mosley, what Mayweather says is partly true, Mosley isn’t a major PPV attraction like Cotto or Pacquiao, but one fighter alone isn’t necessarily a box office draw, two fighters are, and Mayweather/Mosley would be a mouth watering clash for the fans and a box office success.
But Mayweather already knows this he’s not stupid (even though he claims a clash with Mosley doesn’t interest him), he’s got a business brain as well as a boxing brain, although his boxing brain is better, so if Mayweather did lose his upcoming clash to Marquez, he would have big decision to make, would his next fight be for the money, for the fans, or both.
Comments are closed.