By Alex Miles: At the weigh in for tonight’s fight between Juan Manuel Marquez and Floyd Mayweather Jr., there appeared to be a sneaky bit of rigging that has gone unnoticed from the public eye. According to Dan Rafael who was at the weigh in, “Juan Manuel Marquez filed his contract yesterday at 144 pounds… and according to Golden Boy sources, Mayweather’s had been changed to include a 147 pound maximum. They [Marquez and his team] agreed to it as long as a certain amount of money was paid.”
The certain amount of money is $300,000 for every pound over 144 that Mayweather is in at, so Marquez should be making a tidy $600,000 on top of his guaranteed $3.2M.
This turn of events makes all speculation about the fight redundant, with a 6 pound discrepancy between the two fighters laying even more insurmountable odds at the feet of Marquez. It was difficult enough to see him coming up 2 weight divisions in 1 leap to fight one of the best pound for pound fighters in the world, but to do it now that Mayweather came in 2 Pounds over the weight limit is ridiculous; but with another $600k on the line, there are few people who would turn their nose up at it, even with a guaranteed beating on the cards.
I was someone who defended this match up, on account of faith in Marquez, and an acknowledgment of Mayweather’s beginnings at Superfeatherweight, but in my opinion, when you have a guaranteed $10M from one nights work, there is no way in hell that you should show this level of unprofessionalism and come in overweight.
A friend of mine theorized that this was actually the plan all along, and that Mayweather wanted to give himself another advantage so that he could look even better and definitely knock Marquez out. This would give him great power in negotiations with Pacquiao next year, and would seal him at least another $10M.
I hope, for boxing’s sake, that he’s wrong, but either way, Mayweather’s reputation seems tarnished massively. What is he going to choose, being a cheat, or being a moron? because from here, it seems like they are his only choices.
Good luck, Marquez, I hope you don’t get seriously hurt tonight.
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