By Jemique Harris: With the recent systematic annihilation of yet another opponent Juan Manuel Marquez (ranked as #2 pound for pound) Floyd Mayweather Junior has a life size target on his back. In light of what I have seen in terms of Mayweather’s fights, and what I have heard in barbershops, basketball courts, and blogs; I have found Mayweather junior to be somewhat of a conundrum. People seem to make up their mind about Mayweather pretty quickly and draw their line in the sand while doing so. It has come to my attention that Floyd Mayweather Junior is a truly interesting character which I have dubbed as “The Pugilist enemy No. 1”.

Floyd Mayweather Junior has been dissected, criticized, and has fallen on the sword of scrutiny. What is most intriguing about Floyd Mayweather Junior is not his perfect record of 40 wins 0 losses and 25 knockouts, but the fact that it seems that his intelligence, skills and ring generalship are underappreciated. It almost seems that with every fight Mayweather wins, the more “verbal jabs” get thrown at him. Let’s get straight to the facts. In Mayweather’s last fight against Marquez, Mayweather landed 59% of his jabs, power shots and total punches. Marquez landed 7% of his jabs, 16% of power shots and 12% of his total punches. To put it into perspective, Mayweather landed more jabs in the fight then Marquez landed total punches. Mayweather did this after a two year lay off from boxing and he did it against a hungry world class fighter who is known for making adjustments in the ring at the speed of counter left hook. Total numbers: 290 landed for Mayweather vs. 69 for Marquez. Marquez was held to single digit punches landed for the entire 12 round bout! Before during and after the Mayeather vs. Marquez fight, I heard via ring analyst, casual and diehard fans that Mayweather was picking on the “smaller man” in Marquez. While I must admit Mayweather was and is the naturally bigger man, such is the nature of boxing. As a boxing fan, I have seen many a match where a fighter has moved up or down in weight to fight an opponent. However, I don’t remember a fighter being more criticized for “picking” on smaller fighters in recent times more than Mayweather. What seems to have been overlooked is Mayweather (the naturally bigger man) did not use his size advantage to “walk down” Marquez and bully him into the ropes as Margarito did to Cotto. Instead, Mayweather used his skill and speed to hit Marquez with sobering accuracy, making a future hall of famer look like nothing more than a sparring partner at times.

When Mayweather retired as the #1 pound for pound best fighter in the world, he gave up his title to Manny Pacquiao. Pacquiao destroyed Ricky Hatton in all of two rounds and made Oscar De La Hoya quit on his stool to earn his pound for pound moniker. However, Mayweather had already accomplished those feats two years prior. Mayweather knocked out Ricky Hatton when Hatton was undefeated (which is much harder to do since the specter of doubt has yet to creep into an undefeated fighter’s mind). Also, if De La Hoya was past his prime when he was dominated by the smaller Mayweather in 2007, then De La Hoya was a dinosaur by the time he fought Pacquiao in late 2008 and looked the part (old and withered.)

Boxing is the art of finding your opponents weakness and exploiting it without exposing yourself to danger in the process. Mayweather is a master at such. Since Mayweather is a boxer not a fighter who will stand toe to toe and be a human punching bag, Mayweather is not respected and revered as the late Arturo Gatti. Gatti was a fighter who seemed superhuman in terms of taking punishment and had an endless reservoir of resolve, heart, and will. Ironically, what made Gatti superhuman in resolve also made him very human and identifiable to the common person as you must be knocked down in order to dust yourself off and get up again. In this sense it seems like Floyd Mayweather Junior is his own worst enemy. Mayweather’s speed, defense, and precision, makes him seem superhuman as well, however, Mayweather’s weakness has not truly been discovered so he seems less vulnerable and therefore less identifiable to the general public. Nevertheless, when these two “superheroes” that had different powers/gifts at their disposal did collide, it was a lopsided defeat in which one had to throw in the towel. That super hero was Arturo Gatti. Interestingly enough, Mayweather is not known for being a power puncher and Gatti was known for his resilience and will, Mayweather was not only able to stop Gatti, but make him quit in the process.

Floyd Mayweather Junior or “The Pugilist enemy No. 1” as I call him seems to be the fighter that many people love to hate. It could possibly be his bravado and his lack of humility. However, his bravado can also be perceived as confidence, and intelligence. Boxers unlike other sports do not have agents to represent them, insurance/retirement funds, or a boxers union to protect them. All they have are shady promoters, critics and fans that either pay or get paid to see them bleed by the pint. Most likely Mayweather will be able to remember his accomplishments and his kid’s names when he retires because he doesn’t take a lot of punishment.

Some people claim that Mayweather runs around the ring and doesn’t stand and “fight like a man”. According to compubox, Mayweather is boxing’s most accurate puncher. Mayweather hits his opponent with almost every punch he throws and shoulder rolls away from danger while doing so. Mayweather usually holds his opponents to single digits in terms of punches landed per round. To hit and not be hit is the essential art of boxing otherwise the sport would be called “Brawling”.

Mayweather is held to a different standard than other fighters. Mayweather dominated Oscar De La Hoya. Although De La Hoya was past his prime, De La Hoya was the bigger man. (De La Hoya has fought as heavy as super-middle weight) De La Hoya also had a height, reach and weight advantage over Mayweather in their bout. In the end, Mayweather masterfully landed 57% of his power punches to De La Hoyas 24%. Interestingly enough, the general consensus after the fight was that it was a boring outing. De La Hoya looked old, and Mayweather was scrutinized for not taking chances and going for a knock out after thoroughly dominating De La Hoya in the later rounds. Not enough emphasis was made on how Mayweather outclassed De La Hoya and made him look like an old fighter. Why couldn’t De La Hoya, who was the bigger man bully Mayweather into the ropes and impose his will on him? That is a lingering question in my mind and one that I don’t hear being asked that often.

In closing, Mayweather has fought smaller men, but he has also fought larger men as well. I will admit that I skeptically raised an eyebrow at Mayweather’s refusal to be weighed on fight night vs. Marquez. I also would like to see Mayweather defeat the likes of Mosley, Cotto, and possibly Pacquiao, before he can say truly he’s one of the best ever. I think it’s only fair to judge him one a fight at a time until he retires for good.
And judging from what I have seen in terms of skill and accuracy, he’s a fighter on the edge of greatness.