Who Should Mayweather fight First: Pacquiao or Mosley?

By Boxing News - 09/22/2009 - Comments

mayweather445645By Sean McDaniel: Floyd Mayweather Jr’s impressive 12 round unanimous decision last Saturday night over Juan Manuel Marquez may have done enough to reestablish the 32-year-old Mayweather as boxing’s number #1 pound for pound fighter in the sport. The fight was so one-sided that it because somewhat boring to watch after the first few rounds because Mayweather was far too fast and superior defensively for the slower and smaller Marquez to handle.

The victory leaves Mayweather with the choice of facing the winner of the November 14th bout between Miguel Cotto and Manny Pacquiao or fighting Shane Mosley, the World Boxing Association welterweight champion, who is considered to be the best welterweight in the division by many sports writers. Pacquiao, 30, would seem like the best option for Mayweather if he wants to get a huge payday.

There’s little question that Pacquiao is the much bigger star in comparison to the 38-year-old Mosley, and a fight with Pacquiao would likely translate into a huge PPV numbers. Pacquiao, an offensive dynamo, with hand speed about as good as Mayweather, would make a fight with Floyd interesting for as long as it lasts.

Pacquiao isn’t a fighter that Mayweather could pot shot his way to victory because Pacquiao would make Mayweather pay for his single shots. Additionally, Mayweather couldn’t run away from Pacquiao like he did against the slow-footed Marquez last Saturday night and hope to be able to escape unscratched.

Pacquiao is very fast on his feet, perhaps even faster than Mayweather, and would quickly track Mayweather down and make him pay for any pot shots that he lands. Mayweather didn’t look good while backing away from Marquez. During those many moments in the fight, Mayweather was ineffective while fighting going backwards.

This is something that Freddie Roach will no doubt pick up while watching the Mayweather-Marquez fight and will give Pacquiao instructions to keep pursuing Mayweather when he runs away to avoid confrontation. Another weakness that Mayweather showed against Marquez was that when Floyd would throw one of his right hand pot shots, Mayweather would almost in every instant, duck below his waist to avoid a counter shot from Marquez while moving underneath him. Mayweather does this move all the time and is very predictable.

Pacquiao only needs to wait for Mayweather to land his pot shot, and then meet him with a right hand uppercut or a chopping right to the head because Mayweather will almost be ducking low and trying to move past Pacquiao.

A fight against Mosley would be a better match-up for Mayweather as far as size and power goes. Mosley is slightly bigger than the 5’8″ Mayweather and has the better power. It would be a welcome break for Mayweather to fight Mosley because this is a fighter who at least fights in the same weight class as Mayweather.

Floyd has fought a light welterweight (Ricky Hatton) and now a lightweight in his last two fights. If Mayweather wants to avoid being pegged as a fighter that hand picks opponents from the lighter weight classes to fight, he might do himself a favor by breaking up his patter of fighting smaller guys by choosing Mosley next.

It would be a fight in which Mayweather wouldn’t get as much money as I stated already and it would probably be more risky for Mayweather as well because of Mosley’s hand speed, boxing talent, experience and ring movement. However, Mayweather would get a lot from the fight in regards to the respect of boxing fans and that’s something for Mayweather to consider before ruling out a fight against Mosley.



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