Immediately following his drubbing of Shane Mosley this past Saturday night in Las Vegas, Nevada the media center of the MGM Grand was buzzing over Mayweather?s dominant, one-sided performance. Chalked full of boxing personalities, media members, and athletes from other high-profile sports it was hard to recall a post-fight press conference as stocked as this one.
As is customary with most pressers it took Mayweather a while before he made his post-fight presence felt and during that time the room ran rampant with talk of Floyd?s performance and what his future in the sport holds. HBO?s unofficial ringside judge Harold Lederman called the action from ringside and despite being impressed still seems to think that the Grand Rapids native could have done a bit more.
?I thought it was a very interesting fight,? Lederman stated. ?I would have loved to been in Floyd Mayweather?s corner. I would have said ?Throw your right hand and get this bum out of there!? Because I think he could have knocked him out, I really do. He?s so dominant. I gave Shane Mosley the first two rounds but didn?t give him anything after that.?
ESPN?s Kieran Mulvaney felt that Mayweather?s victory was truly profound on many levels. What stood out greatly to the England native was the fact that Mayweather was able to overcome the hellacious second round in which he was tagged and seriously hurt by Shane.
?It was an absolute master class by Floyd Mayweather,? Mulvaney claimed. ?I don?t know if you are a Star Trek guy but he reminds me of the Borg. You have one shot at him and then you are done. He answered the one question we didn?t know about Floyd Mayweather. What happened when he gets hit and he gets hurt? He got hit and he got hurt and the next round he was in command. He responded by becoming the aggressor. Shane Mosley looked utterly and totally befuddled in there by about round five or round six. What I loved about it was Floyd?s economy of movement in the ring. He was so poised and he was making Shane get out of position and waist all of his energy.?
David Mayo from The Grand Rapids Press has covered the Mayweather family extensively over the years but had yet to see Floyd overcome the type of adversity that he did on Saturday night. In giving his assessment of the action Mayo feels that despite his advanced 38 years of age it wasn?t father time that caught up to Shane, it was simply too much of Floyd.
?Well I thought it was a paint job but I was really impressed,? Mayo noted. ?I think we all wanted to see him come back from being hurt and see how he would respond if he got knocked down or something of that nature. He certainly got caught with a couple of knee-buckling right hands in the second round there. I felt that what was impressive as anything was the way he weathered the storm. Other than that it was typical Floyd. I don?t know if Mosley could have won that fight in any era. In my opinion what we saw tonight wasn?t necessarily an old Shane Mosley or a Shane Mosley of old it was just an outstanding Floyd Mayweather. I thought it was another virtuoso by a boxing maestro.?
Yahoo Sports? Kevin Iole wrote a piece prior to the fight focusing on the bevy of critics that surround Floyd and what he needed to do to silence them. Saturday night?s performance against Mosley is certainly a step in the right direction and Iole was surprised to see Mayweather fight slightly out of his character for much of the fight more than anything else.
?I thought it was a brilliant performance,? Iole said. ?One of the best of his career. He fought very offensively which, to me, was a surprise. Normally Floyd is a defense fighter and he uses his jab and he didn?t do that as much tonight. The right hand was a very effective punch for him. I didn?t like all of the holding and banging and all of that stuff but I don?t blame Floyd for a lot of that. Really the big thing of the fight is that Floyd managed to come back after a legitimate Welterweight, who he had been criticized for not fighting, hurt him and he came back and won the next ten rounds. And he did it not by running but by fighting and I thought it was very impressive.?
Following Mayweather?s victory much of the focus has again been turned to a potentially epic clash with WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao. The two men were initially in talks to make the contest a reality earlier this year but things fell apart at the negotiating table over a proposed Olympic style drug testing scenario presented by Mayweather.
The two men would end up moving on in separate directions, with Pacquiao defeating Joshua Clottey this past March and Mayweather trouncing Mosley this past weekend, and nobody can truly deny the fact that it is the one fight in the sport that must be made. Always a fan at heart, Lederman seems to believe that the time is now to make the bout come to fruition.
?The future is if Manny Pacquiao runs out of money he could fight him,? Lederman said. ?I think it would be a very good fight if they are in tip-top condition. If Pacquiao doesn?t take too much time off running for office and he?s really at his peak as I believe he is right now I believe it would be a great fight.?
When asked if Mayweather?s career would be hindered if he were to not ever face Pacquiao, Mulvaney seems to scoff at the notion. While it would be disappointing if Floyd and Manny never came face to face Mulvaney feels that Floyd has accomplished too much to question his career.
?Well obviously there is one fight that everybody wants to see but I have no idea if that fight is going to get made,? he said. ?I just have no idea. It will be a fight that everyone wishes had happened but I think it will be hard to put much of an asterisk next to Floyd Mayweather after what he did today.?
When asked whether or not a clash with Pacquiao was the only direction Floyd could head in, Mayo began scrambling his head for a list of future opponents. While there are certainly capable and talented fighters lurking around between 140 and 147 pounds Mayo feels that none of them are as accomplished or dangerous as the Filipino icon.
?Well I don?t know,? Mayo said. ?Andre Berto and Devon Alexander and Timothy Bradley and some of those guys are probably a little young and a little unproven to him. Paul Williams may be a little too big for him now. I know that nobody wants to see a Mosley rematch after that I don?t think. I don?t know if there is another option out there. The fight to make is Pacquiao and obviously they are at an impasse that may not be bridged but boxing needs it, Pacquiao needs it and Mayweather needs it.?
Iole was asked what Mayweather?s future held and the respected writer thinks that there are more memorable moments left for Floyd before hanging them up. In closing Iole points to the credibility of Mayweather?s last two opponents before mentioning to the one fight that we all want to see.
?I know a lot of people criticize him for the Marquez fight and I?m not going to give him huge props on that because Marquez was smaller. But Marquez was ranked in the top 5, pound for pound by most people when they fought. Shane Mosley was ranked 3 or 4 by most people and he destroyed them. I think we are going to see him in some more fights, the next one hopefully against Pacquiao.?
