By Chris Williams: I’m really curious which Floyd Mayweather Jr. will show up on September 19th against Juan Manuel Marquez. Will it be the exciting fighter from the past that liked to throw speedy combinations and take his opponents apart, or the dull safety first, pitty pat defensive fighter that we’ve seen in many of Mayweather’s fights in the past three years.
Mayweather may have a reputation of being one of the biggest stars in the sport of boxing, but I can’t say that he deserves in based on how boring many of his fights have turned out to be. If the boxing public enjoys watching a defensive artist like Mayweather at work, consider me in the minority in hating his fighting style.
I would feel the same way if this was a UFC star, who jabbed and ran around the ring inside of staying in front of his opponent and trading shots. That, to me, is much more appealing that watching a fighter that pot shots and runs. I know I didn’t enjoy watching Mayweather’s fights against Carlos Baldomir and Oscar De La Hoya.
Those were some really boring fights. Mayweather won, but man that was really awful to watch. Give me a less popular fighter who likes to mix it up, and I’d satisfied rather than watching this boring garbage. The good things about the Mayweather-Marquez fight, though, is that Marquez will be taking the fight to Mayweather and will be giving him less chances to stink up the joint.
Oh, Mayweather can certainly elect to run like he did against Baldomir and focus on his defense, but he’ll be sorry he did that afterwards. It will basically ruin a fight against Manny Pacquiao in the future.
With Marquez being a fighter that is much smaller than him, I’m counting in Mayweather showing some courage and letting his hands go for a change. I don’t want to see him focusing all his energies on trying not to get hit and showing us what a great defensive fighter he is.
Mayweather may be a great defensive fighter, but the money they’re asking to watch his fight, along with the boring fight card, I expect some blood and an actual fight. I work too hard for my money to watch a fighter running around the ring trying to avoid a pumped up super featherweight.
Personally, I never considered Mayweather a pay-per-view attraction given his dull defensive style of fighting in the past, but the cable networks seem to be counting on the casual boxing fans to feel differently. We’ll see about that. So far, it looks as if the normal boxing fan is about as excited in the Mayweather-Marquez fight as I am, which is to say they are bored stiff and staying away in droves.
The bout may still sell out, but only with the help of HBO’s Mayweather-Marquez 24/7 reality series, which has looked pretty boring and corny up to this point. I’m hoping to see a good fight between Mayweather and Marquez on September 19th, but I’m honestly expecting the worst. Look for Mayweather to taste some of Marquez’s early power and start running after that.
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