By Tom Stokes: I recently wrote an article involving the catch weights between the Floyd Mayweather (39-0, 25 KO’s), Juan Manuel Marquez (50-4, 37 KO’s) and Miguel Cotto (34-1, 27 KO’s), Manny Pacquiao (49-3, 37 KO’s) super fights. Now for those of you who saw the weight in for the Mayweather/Marquez super fight, I doubt I’m the only one who was shocked.
With a catch weight of 144 pounds; Mayweather came in at 146 and Marquez at 142, it seems to me as though the catch weight has be disregarded by both fighters, but then again who expected Mayweather to come in at 144?
It is obvious Mayweather knew he would be weaker at 144 so he decided to bite the bullet, take the fine and come in 2 pounds over the catch weight limit (seems as though he doesn’t own the IRS as much money as was previously stated), which to me shows a total lack of disregard for the fight itself. As for Marquez coming in 2 pounds under the catch weight limit he must have thought he was going to be stronger and faster at a lower weight than packing on the extra 2 pounds of muscle.
So where does it go from here, I know Mayweather will be fined, but whether marquez will is another question, but both fighters are supposed to be “the best” and showing no regard for the catch weight limit pretty much sums up how much they care about the fight and I can understand why no one is really interested in watching it, the whole fight seems like a big publicity stunt now.
Now let’s wind the clocks back two years when Ricky Hatton (45-2, 32, KO’s) met Mayweather at the welterweight limit although outclassed by Mayweather it’s obvious welterweight isn’t Hatton’s division, so this being said Hatton should have come in a lot lower than 147 and tried to stay in his comfort zone weight wise (do what Marquez did), although whether or not this will work for Marquez we will have to wait and see.
Let’s take into account Pacquiao whose been criticized for his catch weight limit with Cotto. If Pacquiao comes in under the proposed 145 limit, the media frenzy that will be created would probably overshadow the entire media frenzy for Mayweather/Marquez (if you can call it media frenzy).
So at the end of the day, it’s obvious no one really cares about Mayweather/Marquez and their catch weight limit, and this fight will slip under the radar. Meanwhile, the likes of Pacquiao will continue to be hounded by the critics over his catch weight and super fight with Cotto and his so called weight drained opponents.
But the upside for Marquez now is that if he beats Mayweather, he wouldn’t be beating a weight drained Mayweather, like Pacquiao seems to have done for his last few fights, so boxing fans lets have your say on the catch weight debate.
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