By Peter Howells: In case you didn’t notice, Floyd Mayweather made his return to the ring last Saturday night with a beautiful display of his considerable boxing skills to completely shutout and dominate the fighter many believed to be the pound for pound no.2 boxer in the world, Juan Manuel Marquez.

It was an amazing display of defense, punch accuracy and speed over 12 rounds to the point that Marquez didn’t win a single round on most people’s scorecards, (how a couple of the judges gave him a couple of rounds, I’ll never know) something that had never been done before.

However you cannot talk about this fight without mentioning the weight difference. It was too heavily stacked in Mayweather’s favour. There was no way Marquez was comfortable at the weight or able to fight at his best and so his challenge was doomed from the start even if Mayweather had weighed in at 144 pounds. Saying all this, I believe the skill difference was too great also. Marquez wouldn’t have won this fight even if they had of fought at lightweight. It probably would have been closer but Mayweather is too good for Marquez. Simple as.

Mayweather’s post fight interview was where the story really got interesting. Mayweather was interrupted by a fighter who could really challenge him, a fighter who is in the same weight class and perhaps even in the skills department also. This fight of course was ‘Sugar’ Shane Mosley. Now these two great fighters have been dancing around each other for years. Mayweather has called out Mosley before. Mosley didn’t take the fight. Mosley then called out Mayweather. Mayweather didn’t take the fight. I would never say these two have ‘ducked’ each other but neither has wanted the fight at the same time and for a while it looked like that it would never happen. Thankfully, I strongly believe that the time has now come thanks to that confrontation this past Saturday night.

Whilst I don’t condone Mosley’s actions of doing a ‘Kanye’ and interrupting Mayweather’s moment of glory, I do think it served its purpose. I feel this confrontation wasn’t planned per se, but I do think that Mosley-Mayweather was talked about as the next step for Floyd before the Marquez fight. Many will disagree and say that he’s gonna wait for Manny Pacquaio as he’s the more lucrative option and maybe even an easier option. I, however, feel that Mayweather-Mosley is more likely to happen next and theres one strong reason for that; Golden Boy Promotions.

In interviews, Mayweather will gladly tell anyone that listen that he’s his own promoter. On paper that is true also. He has his own company, Mayweather Promotions. But in reality, Floyd’s promoter is Golden Boy. They always do the main promoting of his fights and its them he reportedly has a three-fight deal with after coming out of his self-imposed retirement. Now Golden Boy and Mosley will pretty much give Mayweather everything for a fight with Mosley. A bigger share of the pot, choices on the gloves, what the ring size should be, everything. Mayweather knows that if he waits for Pacquaio (if he gets past Cotto and that’s a big IF) he wont get these luxuries. Top Rank and Pacquaio will offer a 50/50 deal on pretty much everything. And rightly so, Pacquaio has achieved more recently and most probably has a bigger paying fan base. So I believe for these reasons, Mayweather may prefer a fight with Mosley who I truly believe he thinks he can beat due to Mosley’s dwindling age coupled with the fact that if they do clash, Mosley would have been out of the ring over a year by that point which would not be good at his age.

So I believe Mayweather will fight Mosley. I also believe it will be by far his biggest challenge yet. Mosley is almost as fast, has much better power and also has a great chin. Yet I would expect Mayweather to win a close unanimous decision due to his far superior defensive work. Then I think Floyd will look to a fight with Pacquaio. Mayweather is certainly a shrewd businessman and he knows that if he fights Mosley first and then fights Pacquaio, his fight with Pacquaio would be even more lucrative than it is now and Floyd would wield even more power at the negotiating table than he would now, thus making himself much more money in the long run. And it’s not even like Mayweather/Mosley wouldn’t make him a wad of cash. If he does it this way, it enhances his legacy as well as his bank balance (considerably) and we all know ‘Money’ Mayweather would like the sound of that.

Of course this could all blow up in smoke if Pacquaio loses to Cotto and if they fought, Mayweather lost to Mosley. There’s a very real chance of that happening. Cotto and Mosley are both great fighters. I just believe Pacquaio and Mayweather will get by them as they’re even greater fighters. Here’s to hoping this sequence of events occur.