Mayweather Jr. side stepping Margarito: Great Move

By Boxing News - 10/15/2010 - Comments

By Robert “Big Moe” Elmore: Over the years, many boxing fans, analysts, and experts, having been calling Floyd Mayweather Jr. a coward for side stepping Antonio Margarito. Yes, while I am a hardcore Mayweather fan, I think it was great move not to fight Margarito. Take time to read the facts before judging.and lets start here.

1) Mayweather wanted bigger fights and the bigger paydays

In 2006, Mayweather was offered $8 million by Bob Arum to face Margarito. The bout was set to take place on pay per view on August 12th of that year. In return, Mayweather wanted $10 million and a guarantee from Bob to fight Cotto and Ricky Hatton. Bob said no and only offered him $7 million. Leonard Ellerbe claimed Mayweather’s hands were not 100% after the Judah fight, but the idea of facing Margarito was not out of the question. (Side note. He did fight Carlos Baldomir for $1 dollar more. But Baldomir was the linear welterweight champ at the time) Maybe the hand injury was true or maybe not, but Mayweather played it for what it was worth using it to buy him time on his next decision. At the same time, May was eying the De la Hoya-Mayorga outcome. May knew Oscar was the cash cow at the time and he knew there was good chance that fighting DLH could possibly be his breakthrough as a superstar. He asked for $20 million to fight DLH and Arum said no and here was his reason “I don’t want to, because if I did that fight, I would be working for such a small percentage, it’s not worth it,” he said. Mayweather wanted more control of his future and who he fought from that point on. The end result; May bought out his contract for $750,000; ended up fighting and beating Oscar; the highest grossing fight at the gate and pay per view sales in fight history; he took home over $30 million for the fight ($10 million purse; another $15 from ppv sales, ticket sales) There was no way he could have done all this fighting Margarito. In his next fight against Hatton he made over $15 million plus pay per view sales, $10 million plus against Juan Manuel Marquez, and $60 million versus Shane Mosley. Currently he behind Tiger Woods on the Forbes 400 richest people. Can’t make this stuff up.

2) Margarito had nothing to offer and still has nothing to offer.

Since Mayweather has left Top Rank, he has smoked the competition by a long shot. Beating Margarito back then and now would be like (in a boring tone) “okay he beat Margarito”. Some would have us to believe that fighting and/or beating Margarito, one would be the toast of the town; get bigger pay days, and racking up big numbers on PPV But lets take a look at some of the prominent fighters today and where there careers are after fighting Margarito.

A) Paul Williams- Defeated Margarito on July 7th 2007. What is doing now? Was Practically begging for a big pay day fight against Pacquiao or Mayweather; was willing to weight drain himself to make weight. His fight against Sergio Martinez was pretty big, but then followed that up with lame bout against Kermit Citron. He’s now agreed to fight Martinez in a rematch.

B) Miguel Cotto-Got the crap kicked out of him by Margarito, fought Mosley; beat Clottey (Top Rank) was mangled by Pacquiao (Top Rank), but came up with a victory against Yuri Foreman (which was not on PPV and oh yeah Top Rank). Right now, he’s healing from shoulder surgery. Currently, he has nobody on his plate to fight.

C) Shane Mosely- Stopped Margs in the 9th round in 2009. He did not fight for an entire year; Begged Pacquiao for a fight and was willing to come down to 142 to get the fight. He was trounced by Mayweather; The WBA took there title from him because May didn’t want to pay sanctioning fees; and let a challenger off The Contender (Sergio Mora) hang with him.

D) Kermit Citron- Got creamed by Margarito twice. And was busy taking a “dive” out the ring against Paul Williams. His career too is average.

E) Roberto Garcia-Who? 15,000 buys for PPV- Enough said.

3) May didn’t want to get caught up in the “Fighting nothing but Top Rank Fighters” loop

Make no mistake. Pacquiao is one of the most explosive and exciting fighters around. People love him, he’s a congressman, and is making uncle Bob rich. But Pacquiao has used a catchweight in his biggest victories; De La Hoya,145 Cotto,145, Ricky Hatton after fighting May at 145 then drained himself back down to 140 to fight Pacquiao; and as of late he seems to be content fighting his own stable mates. Mayweather saw this a long time ago and opted to take his career into his own hands. He would not be where he is today if he was still Arum. Today, he makes over 40 million a fight; and averages 1.4 buys on PPV.

4) The Plaster situation

Only God knows how long he’s had this stuff on his hands. Margs insists that he didn’t know anything about the substance. Come on!! A manager can not wrap his fighters hands while he’s laying down, on his side, or doing cart wheels. He has to sit in front of his manager while this goes on. So he knows something. Right now he’s bending himself all out of shape for this fight. Its rumored that he is only making $1 million for this fight. Come on this is Antonio Margarito we’re talking about here and he’s only getting a million dollars?!? Yes, that was sarcastic.

In conclusion, I say Mayweather did the right thing by going after the bigger and better opportunities. To be honest, he’s earned that right. He paid his dues coming up through the ranks, watching Arum take most of his money and winning titles along the way. It is ridiculous that he makes more money fighting only once or twice a year than every fighter out here including the Klitschko’s and they run the heavyweight division. While i do not agree with all of Mayweather antics, he knows how to sell a fight, make money, and fill arenas. He will make even more if he and Pacquiao get it on. Now judge for yourselves. Peace and Love!



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