Great records have a lot to do with who you’re fighting
Apart from two rocking right hands in the second round, Mayweather was untouchable against Shane Mosley this weekend.
Sugar Shane was another impressive scalp for the man who calls himself Money, a vulgar nickname that suggests that, for all the class he possesses in the ring, he has none outside it.
Mayweather, once a featherweight but now a welterweight, is building his legacy on fighters like Mosley, Oscar De La Hoya and Ricky Hatton. Mosley and De La Hoya were past their best; Hatton was overrated.
The resum? of fighters he has not faced includes brutes like Kostya Tszyu, who KOed South Africa’s Jan Bergman in 1996, and Paul Williams.
But Mayweather’s eye for picking prot?g?s isn’t quite as good.
Lightweight Weston Ferguson was supposed to be the next best thing since Pretty Boy when he made his debut on the undercard of Mayweather versus Phillip Ndou in Grand Rapids, Michigan, in November 2003. Mayweather stopped Ndou in the seventh round.
A few days before that tournament, I watched Mayweather’s final training session.
Although he didn’t spar, Mayweather worked the pads with astounding precision. At one point he turned to me and said: “Your boy (Ndou) is in trouble.”
I couldn’t disagree.
After Mayweather’s workout, Ferguson did spar, going up against Iran Martinez, a local lad with raw talent frittered away by a criminal pastime (he spent time in prison for selling drugs).
Ferguson, like Mayweather, was a cute fighter. And with Mayweather’s supersized entourage shouting encouragement, he looked good early on.
But when Ferguson landed a punch behind the head, Iran Martinez, with only a few buddies to support him, got dirty himself.
He roughed up Ferguson, and the Mayweather clone didn’t like it. He looked like he wanted to quit.
He didn’t have to, of course. Mayweather’s hangers-on stormed into the ring and pulled Martinez off, even threatening to beat him up.
If a boxer doesn’t like getting hit, he has no business being in the ring. I decided then and there that Ferguson’s career would not be a distinguished one.
He won his debut fight on the Mayweather vs Ndou undercard, but his career hasn’t gone the way you would have expected from a supposed Pretty Boy prot?g?.
He went unbeaten for 10 fights before getting stopped in the third round by an unknown called Arthur Brambila, who today boasts more losses than wins (9-14). Ferguson’s record now stands at 20-4. That alone should tell you how misleading records can be.
Hand-picking opponents has been common practice in boxing for some time now, a method even used by the handlers of heavyweight Rocky Marciano, the world heavyweight champion who retired in 1955 with a perfect record of 49-0 (43 KOs).
Mayweather’s 41-0 record is impressive. His speed and reflexes could be enough to beat Manny Pacquiao, if the fight comes off.
But if Mayweather has a weak point, it is money. Too often boxers keep fighting to maintain their flamboyant lifestyles and armies of sycophants – Muhammad Ali is a good example of this.
They always come back for one (or more) too many. Money, as they say, is the root of all evil.
