By Dave Lahr: Floyd Mayweather Jr. will have been out of boxing for two years by the time he steps in the ring against Juan Manuel Marquez on September 19th. Two years may not sound like a lot to a normal person, but in the sport of boxing, that’s almost a lifetime. Boxing is a sport where a fighter needs to be in constant training against top level opposition to retrain their abilities.
If they set the sport aside for a long period of time, more of than not, they’re never quite the same fighter they were before they left. They might be able to get some of it back, but it’s usually only a percentage. In Mayweather’s case, he should be happy if he can get 85% back from what he had before.
The reason is because Mayweather has been living the good life in Las Vegas, spending money that most of us could only dream about. Boxing has not been a part of Mayweather’s life in the past two years. He hasn’t taken any punishment, which is a good thing, but he also hasn’t had the training and combat to keep his skills at an optimal level, either.
This may end up biting him in the backside on September 19th, because he will be facing Juan Manuel Marquez, one of the best fighters in boxing. Marquez really wants this fight because he, as of yet, has been denied big money fights in his career because of his lack of a big name.
If Marquez beats Mayweather, he will be in position to fight Manny Pacquiao in a fight that would make Marquez millions of dollars while at the same time help establish him as one of the big money fighters in the sport. It’s unfortunate that he’s had to wait this long for it to happen, but better late than never, I suppose.
Mayweather is a real question mark. No one really has any idea what he has left at this point in his career with the time away from boxing. And there’s also the question of how well Mayweather will do against a fighter as talented as Marquez. Mayweather hasn’t faced anyone like Marquez in years. Seriously, Mayweather has had a string of easy opponents since he fought Jose Luis Castillo in 2002.
Ricky Hatton, Oscar De La Hoya, Carlos Baldomir and Zab Judah weren’t good enough to give Mayweather any real problems. De La Hoya was an old 34, a part time fighter with a questionable win over Felix Sturm and defeats by Shane Mosley and Bernard Hopkins at the time that Mayweather fought De La Hoya.
Hatton was an unproven fighter, who looked more like a club fighter to some than the real deal. Besides that, Hatton was a light welterweight and had no business fighting Mayweather. Baldomir and Judah were both limited and not competitive.
Marquez, however, brings a lot of talent to this fight with Mayweather and is one of the best fighters in the lightweight division at this time. It’s too bad that Mayweather had to pick someone much smaller than him to fight, because Marquez is better suited against other lightweights and super featherweights rather than a welterweight like Mayweather.
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