WITH just less than a month left before he faces a rampaging Victor Ortiz, Floyd Mayweather Jr. doesn?t need another lawsuit to distract him.
It?s the third one pending against him and this stems from an incident way back in 2009.
Ordinarily, a litigation-plagued fighter would probably have lost focus leading up to a world championship fight, but then again?who said Floyd Jr. is your ordinary run-of-the mill champion?
CONSIDER. I beg to differ from those who maintain that Floyd Jr. has been carefully cherry-picking opponents on his way to becoming a five-division world champion.
At 22 years of age, he was practically still a callow novice when he picked apart Angel ?The Devil Manfredy in two rounds.
The subsequent TKO victory over the late Diego Corrales three years later was huge.
At that time, the undefeated ?Chico? was on most pound-for-pound lists, and was freakishly huge for a super featherweight at 5?11.?
The consecutive victories over world champions Carlos ?Famoso? Hernandez, Jesus Chavez and Jose Luis Castillo–all boot-tough brawlers still at their respective peaks who loved to go for broke, were no easy feats.
Sharmba Mitchell and Zab Judah were top level champions, but Floyd outclassed them. Ditto with then undefeated Ricky ?Hitman? Hatton.
The split-decision effort against Oscar del a Hoya was probably his worst performance to date, but his comeback fights against Juan Manuel Marquez and Shane Mosely were dominant displays of his speed and skill.
YARDSTICK. All told, it takes a different ilk of a special fighter to accomplish the foregoing, and that?s why he is Floyd Mayweather Jr.
So don?t believe the hard-sell about the alleged distractions. He?s a Mayweather. Chaos courses through his bulging veins.
Making it sound like ?Pretty Boy? is pretty distracted takes away from the compelling pugilistic battle featuring different skill sets that await us.
His choice of Ortiz is clearly meant to be a measuring yardstick for his eventual challenge of Manny Pacquiao.
No matter how obstinately he denies it, he can?t afford not to fight Manny before his retires.
Floyd is obsessed with his legacy of excellence and never mind the crap he spews out about Pacquiao not having accomplished anything worthwhile for him to worry about.
Deep down inside, he knows the Pacquiao fight has to happen before he walks away from the sport.
He?s like an artist who doesn?t paint if not conjured up by inspiration. Fighting Manny will bring out the best in him, and because he respects Manny so much, he is opting to fight a probable mirror image of the Pacman–an aggressive southpaw who loves to dictate a frenetic pace.
Without knowing it, he is paying homage to Manny?s awesome fighting skills.
DIFFERENCE. But that is where he could be palpably wrong. Ortiz is a young, aggressive guy who doesn?t mind taking in counters. He?s fan friendly because he likes to seek and destroy.
But that?s not how Manny fights anymore.
Instead, Ortiz is arguably a younger version of Manny, probably the one who fought Juan Manuel Marquez the first time.
Yes, the wild one who scored three knockdowns in the first round, but could not sustain his success due to lack of strategy, thereby allowing Marquez back into the fight through sheer counterpunching prowess.
The Pacquiao you see now still fights with aggression, but it?s measured and tempered, which has turned him into a superior fighter.
(To be concluded)
PUNCHLINE. ?I became visible in a time when black people were invisible. Nothing is more powerful than an idea whose time has come. We had torn down barriers and set a new tone in enterprise. Suddenly, black men were working with white men.? Promoter Don King, who recently turned 80, reminiscing his accomplishment with the ?Rumble in the Jungle? (www.dailymail.co.uk)
LAST ROUND. It?s on my niece, Bianca Nicole Q. Hubahib, who celebrates her birthday this week. Cheers, Bam!
