By Giancarlo Malinconico: Floyd Mayweather’s insecurities began reaching the surface following his first bout with Jose Luis Castillo. Up until that point, Floyd would not dodge an opponent. He dismantled the dangerous Diego Corrales at 130 pounds. But after he was overmatched by Castillo at 135 pounds in their first encounter, Mayweather would begin to pick and choose his battles to ensure he would remain undefeated. Although he “defeated” Castillo in their rematch by a close decision, many questioned that victory as they did the first bout.
Mayweather would eventually move up to 140 pounds, but would avoid Kostya Tszyu and Ricky Hatton. After facing “Chop Chop” Corley, he would face Puerto Rico’s Henry Bruseles instead of Puerto Rico’s Miguel Cotto, even though he and Miguel were both under contract with Top Rank. After beating an exciting but overrated Arturo Gatti (Rest in Peace), he would move up to welterweight to challenge a Kostya Tszyu-knockout victim, Sharmba Mitchell. Afterwards, he would square-off against Zab Judah who had just been defeated by journeyman Carlos Baldomir. After surviving Judah, Floyd would take less money and meet Baldomir instead of Antonio Margarito. Perhaps Floyd saw Margarito as a true welterweight-version of Castillo.
Mayweather would then face a middle-aged Oscar De La Hoya, and barely escape the contest with a split-decision. Not to mention, many online-website polls showed fans believed De La Hoya had won. Nevertheless, Mayweather would next face Ricky Hatton at welterweight. It was clear, however, after his battle with Luis Collazo, Ricky was not cut out for the 147 pound division. After “Money” soundly defeated Ricky, he retired, avoiding a rematch with De La Hoya and a possible bout with then-undefeated Miguel Cotto.
Mayweather would return. And Floyd wanted to return to the sport so anxiously that he could not wait one more day until after the Pacquiao-Hatton bout– he had to face Juan Manuel Marquez right away because Marquez “called him out”. Had Floyd forgotten there was a true welterweight available who had just destroyed Margarito named Shane Mosley? But Floyd would face the 135-pound kingpin, Marquez, force him to move up to a catch weight of 144 pounds and still came in two pounds overweight.
And after witnessing Pacquiao dominate Cotto, Mayweather seems to be ducking Manny more than he ducked a Castillo trilogy and matches with Margarito and Mosley combined. The blood-test demand by Mayweather is a sham. Pacquiao has agreed to three blood tests including one immediately following the clash, which would be sufficient. The fact that Mayweather believes the Pac Man needs to be tested extensively is reason to believe that he is alarmed of the Filipino icon. If Mayweather does not reach contractual terms with Pacquiao, he will go down in history, if he remains undefeated, not as a Rocky Marciano, but as the American version of Sven Ottke, someone who had the chance to fight top-notch competition but did not. Although Mayweather has faced better opposition than Ottke, he can never be thought off as the “greatest of all time”, if he ducks a match up with the man considered the greatest pound for pound fighter of his era. It would be like “Sugar” Ray Leonard not facing Thomas “Hitman” Hearns, or Muhammad Ali not fighting George Foreman. Memo to Floyd: If you want to be considered the “Greatest of All Time”, then sign to fight Pacquiao. And if you’re clearly victorious, then you can say you belong in the same conversation with Sugar Ray Robinson, Joe Louis, Rocky Marciano and Muhammad Ali.
(But when it comes to Manny Pacquiao versus Floyd Mayweather, I see the fight turning out similar to the first four rounds of Floyd’s bout with Judah and the second half of his first fight with Castillo.)
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