By Chris Williams: I wonder if Floyd Mayweather Jr. would stay in boxing for long if he had to fight the best welterweights in a tournament similar to Showtime’s Super Six tourney instead of being able to pick and choose fighters from the lower weight classes to cherry pick from. How would Mayweather hold up if he were to fight in a welterweight tournament and had to face the following fighters in order: Paul Williams, Shane Mosley, Miguel Cotto, Andre Berto, Antonio Margarito and Kermit Cintron.
Would Mayweather stick around until the end of the tourney or would be bail quickly once the going gets tough? Or better yet, would Mayweather even take part in a welterweight tournament if he was invited? Certainly the clout that Mayweather would get if he were to take part and actually win the tournament would be immense.
Can you imagine how Mayweather would be looked at if he was able to fight and beat fighters from his own weight class instead of lightweights and light welterweights opponents? It would be huge for Mayweather. Just think, he’d be facing the best fighters, opponents that for some reason he’s never got around to facing during his career. It would be tough, no doubt about it.
Mayweather might end up slurring his words a little by the time the tournament if over, but at least it would prove to people that Mayweather wasn’t afraid to face the best fighters from his division. That’s a perception that more than a few boxing fans have about Mayweather. The reason is hard not to understand because Floyd has faced Oscar De La Hoya, Ricky Hatton and Juan Manuel Marquez in the past two years.
De La Hoya previously was a welterweight at one time, but by the time he fought Mayweather, De La Hoya was 35 and clearly not the top welterweight or light middleweight in either division. So by beating De La Hoya, Mayweather proved that he can beat a fighter that’s no longer the top dog. Mayweather then beat Ricky Hatton, a light welterweight.
At the time Mayweather fought Hatton, Ricky was considered to be the best light welterweight in the division by many boxing fans. We don’t that Hatton was the best because he had somehow failed to fight other top welterweights Timothy Bradley, Kendall Holt and Ricardo Torres.
We can assume that Hatton was the best, but since he was fighting arguably lesser fighters than Torres, Holt and Bradley, it makes it hard to consider Hatton as the best fighter in the light welterweight division at the time that Mayweather fought him. What we can say is that Hatton was the most popular light welterweight in the division. And that still remains so even with Hatton’s 2nd round knockout loss to Manny Pacquiao on May 2nd.
Never the less, Hatton wasn’t a welterweight and had tried to fight at that weight class but found that he had to struggle in some cases. Mayweather should have been fighting welterweights, not someone like Hatton. The same goes for Mayweather’s recent opponent Juan Manuel Marquez. He’s a lightweight for Christ sakes. What was that? Marquez only recently moved up to the lightweight division. In truth, he’s really a super featherweight.
So would Mayweather ever take part in a welterweight tournament if it meant that he had to face welterweights and not smaller fighters than him from the lower weight classes? The answer is painfully obvious. Of course Mayweather wouldn’t fight in a welterweight tourney. It would be a grueling event, especially if fighters like Cotto, Williams, Mosley, Berto and Cintron took part in it.
Even with Mayweather’s great defense, he would take some solid shots from those guys and be forced to fight for his life against those guys. Cintron would be trying to take his head off with every punch and Paul Williams would probably snow Mayweather under with punches. People say it wouldn’t be fair to match Williams against Mayweather because Williams currently fights as a light middleweight.
He’s just doing what Mayweather is doing, although in the reverse. Williams is moving up in weight to fight guys rather than having smaller guys come up in weight. It would be fair, but the outcome might not seem fair for Mayweather fans if he were to get beaten. It would be as fair as Mayweather’s fight against Marquez. It’s too bad that Mayweather wouldn’t likely take part in a tournament matching the best welterweights, because it would be something that would make his legacy if he were to attend and do well.
It would help regardless if took part and lost to a couple of fighters. At least it would show that Mayweather had courage to fight the best welterweights and not look for older guys or fighters from the smaller weight class to take advantage of.
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