San Mateo, CA- The career of Floyd Mayweather has been a very interesting and rare example of talent trumping over all other factors. Today, the development of a fighter-opponents he faces and when, this has become more important than the actual talent or skills of the boxer. With a good management team, you can almost guarantee twenty to thirty fight win streaks. Look at a fighter like Prince Naseem Hamed. Undefeated in his first 35 fights, Hamed became one of boxing’s biggest moneymakers from 1997 to 2001 without fighting the top three RING magazine rated featherweight contenders at the time. When Hamed finally fought a world class champion, in his prime, Marco Antonio Barrera, who Team Hamed chose mainly because Barrera had lost to Erik Morales, he was finally exposed as a fighter who could not live up to the record he brought into the ring. CAN’T SAY MAYWEATHER WAS PROTECTED! In less than two years of ring experience and 17 wins under his belt, Mayweather stepped into the ring against the reigning super featherweight World champion, Genaro Hernandez. Mayweather not only beat him, but dominated the outstanding champion right into retirement. After another sensational performance against Angel Manfredy, earned Mayweather RING’s “fighter of the year” award in 1998. IT DIDN’T MATTER WHO FLOYD FOUGHT In 2001, many boxing fans believed that the power punching Diego Corrales would walk right over the boxer Mayweather in a 130 lb. showdown. At worst, the experts call this a dead-even fight. But when the bell sounded to end the very first round, Mayweather left little doubt as to who was the overwhelming superior fighter. Granted, Corrales had a lot of distractions going into the fight and killed himself to make the weight limit. However, Mayweather dominated ever minute of every round to the point that Corrales, even on his best night, would not had a chance against Floyd. Mayweather fought the best super featherweight, Corrales, while both were still young, hungry and undefeated; which is a rarity in today’s game. I mean, it’s taking months of negotiations to (possibly) match Paul Williams and Antonio Margarito in a mandatory bout. If current attitudes prevail, we may never see Joe Calzaghe face Mikkel Kessler. MAYWEATHER DUSTED ERIK’S VICTIMS FIRST No one can doubt that Erik Morales is a future Hall of Fame member. Late in his career, 2004, Morales strung together two consecutive wins against two top 130lbs contenders, Jesus Chavez and Carlos Hernandez. Those two hard fought victories cemented Morales’ place at the top of the super featherweight ranks. However, just three years prior, Mayweather impressively made easy work of Chavez and Hernandez, coming off of his big win against Corrales. Mayweather withstood hundreds of punches by Chavez, till Jesus ran out of gas and Mayweather finished him off. Against the hardnosed Hernandez, Floyd boxed brilliantly with a hurt right hand. And don’t forget his two wins (the first was controversial) against Jose Luis Castillo, who is making his bid to the Hall of Fame after his Mayweather bouts. 140 LBS. AND UP IS A DIFFERENT STORY During Mayweather’s run of fighting some of the toughest fighters in his weight division, he was still not one of the big stars of boxing. That still belonged to Oscar De La Hoya, Felix Trinidad, Roy Jones Jr. , and Lennox Lewis. As long as those fighters continued fighting, Mayweather was still second fiddle. That all changed when slowly but surely, each fell off their high pedestal-Trinidad retired, Oscar became a part time boxer, Lewis retired, and Jones was knocked out twice in succession. When Bernard Hopkins lost his “pound for pound” crown, dropping a 12-round decision to Jermain Taylor, Mayweather suddenly became the star. At the deep jr. welterweight division with fighters like Ricky Hatton, Kostya Tszyu, Zab Judah and Miguel Cotto, Mayweather instead fought Arturo Gatti, a popular but less worthy opponent. The plan was simple: build on Mayweather’s pound for pound status and make him into a marketable fighter. IT’S PRIZE FIGHTING OVER ANYTHING!!! When Mayweather moved up to the welterweight (147 lbs.) division, it was obvious that he was gunning for Oscar De La Hoya. The power did not improve as he moved up in weight and Mayweather was simply winning fights with his superior boxing skills. The toughest match-up for Mayweather was a fight against Antonio Margarito. All the boxing writers agreed that Margarito posed the biggest threat to Mayweather’s undefeated record. Maybe the Mayweather who was unnoticed by the casual boxing fan at 130 lbs. would have stepped up and silence the critics, but not the “pound for pound” king. Instead, he fought the World welterweight champion Carlos Baldomir, whose two biggest wins were against Judah and Gatti, two fighters Mayweather clearly beat. Therefore, it was no surprise that Mayweather wiped the floor with Baldomir. Many questioned Mayweather’s legitimacy at welterweight but it is hard to argue against Mayweather’s multi-million dollar purse (reportedly $8 mill US) and the possibility of a huge Pay-Per-View fight with De La Hoya. STILL THE UNDEFEATED FIGHTER! Now that Mayweather had received the recognition and the accolades he has sought for and deserved, the “Pretty Boy” is now more businessman than fighting champion, like he’s opponent Oscar De La Hoya. It’s not about fighting the toughest fighter in his division but making as most money as possible before leaving the sport. Although Mayweather, 30, has stated that this WILL be his last fight. At the same time he has left open the possibility of fighting a re-match with De La Hoya; of course if the money is right. Now, you can never tell a fighter to retire too early or not make enough money as possible. However, businessmen do not fair well in the squared circled when tested (ask Hamed). That being said, Mayweather’s talent and smarts in the ring has yet to be matched and Mayweather has never had an “off night” since the first Castillo bout. SOME COMPARE FLOYD TO ROY JONES JR. When Roy Jones Jr. was finally hit with a solid shot against a strong power puncher, he crumbled to the canvas and never recovered. Oscar De La Hoya’s left hand will be the strongest punch Mayweather could possibly be hit with. However, when Roy Jones Jr. suffered that shocking one punch knockout to Antonio Tarver in 2003, Jones was already past his prime and simply running his car out there till the gas tank became empty. Mayweather is still in the prime of his career and has only lost punching power since moving up from 130lbs. The speed, footwork, and movement are still there and clearly superior to any fighter. And Mayweather has been tagged with a straight left at the hand of DeMarcus Corley but recovered nicely. Roy Jones never fought the young hungry contenders Mayweather fought previously. He may be going straight to the bank with this next fight, but don’t expect the word “exposed” be attached to Mayweather whatever the result of May 5th will be. LATER THIS WEEK: HOW OSCAR GOT TO MAY 5TH Next week, we’ll take a look at the development of the Golden Boy, Oscar De La Hoya. De La Hoya has fought some of the biggest names in boxing, but does his resume even match up to the Mayweather’s? Find out mid week here at www.RingTalk.com
