March Madness is around five months away as the college basketball season now begins. Boxing has its own version of the ?Final Four? going on as the four top welterweights in the business are paired up for a couple of very exciting fights.
Who can argue that the top four 147-lbers are not consisting of Floyd Mayweather, Jr, Miguel Cotto, Sugar Shane Mosley and Ricky Hatton? Perhaps promoter Dan Goossen would disagree with my list.
Only 28 days separate Cotto vs. Mosley and Mayweather vs. Hatton, but there will be much separation when two of these four boxers are victorious. Predicting winners for this ?who?s who? of the welterweight division is not so easy.
Boldly calling this boxing?s final four implies that when the four become two, those two shall meet next spring. Considering how major promoters are working together these days, and how the top fighters are finally challenging each other, I think our chance of next year?s superfight involving the two winners is very good.
COTTO VS. MOSLEY
This weekend at Madison Square Garden, we have one of the best matchups available in the sport today. It is a pairing of a wily veteran, who hasn?t lost a step, against a young bull surely fighting in his prime. Will it be the speed of Mosley and his unsuspected power that knocks Cotto from the undefeated ranks? Alternatively, will the body punching and inside fighting of the champ from Puerto Rico be too much for the older man to handle?
Inquiring minds cannot wait to pluck down the pay per view cash on this one.
Mosley has been to the well so often that it would be hard to pick against him. He is a former lightweight champion, a former welterweight champion, and a former Jr middleweight champion. He is the master of Oscar de la Hoya, going 2-0 against boxing?s king of PPV. He has had major problems with only Winky Wright and Vernon Forrest- neither of which resembles Cotto?s style of fighting.
The pro-Mosley crowd tells us that Sugar Shane is too fast and too experienced for the young gun from the island. Cotto has never encountered a fighter with this much speed and ring intelligence. Some actually think Cotto is in over his head, finally.
The pro-Cotto crowd tells us that Mosley has never met such a murderous body puncher like Miguel. We are told that the Latin fighter will come forward and trap Mosley into fighting on the inside, where the young champion excels at breaking down his opponents. Sugar Shane Mosley is in for an early night, they say.
What do I say? I say this one is hard to pick. Why are we so obsessed with predictions anyway? Can?t we just sit back and enjoy this one? That?s what I?m going to do.
My prediction is that this fight is a can?t miss homerun. No matter who comes out on top, there is almost no way this fight turns in to a yawner or a stinker. For however long it lasts, Cotto vs. Mosley will give us our money?s worth, and then some.
MAYWEATHER VS HATTON
On paper, this December tussle against the best welterweight and the best Jr welterweight is the most exciting match up in recent times, period. Undefeated fighters- 81-0 with 55 KO?s between them- this is Roberto Duran vs. Sugar Ray Leonard all over again, with a twist.
The twist is that the Leonard-like fighter has the Duran-like personality. You can say a lot of things about Floyd Mayweather Jr. Among those things are the facts that he?s arrogant beyond self-confidence and he is disrespectful toward his opponents. He tells us he wears the black hat during fight promotions by design, but it seems true that he wears the black hat because that is his personality, promotion or not.
While Floyd is nasty like Duran, he is certainly cobra fast like Sugar Ray Leonard. Mayweather?s fight style is often compared to Leonard?s, I think, in error. Mayweather may be a half of a second faster than Sugar Ray, and relies on a tight defense, but he is not the combination puncher Ray Leonard was. Leonard was much more of a complete fighter in his day than Mayweather is today. Leonard took more shots, true enough. But Ray stood and fought.
In the other corner, you have the English Mexican, or whatever it is they call Ricky Hatton. I realize Roberto Duran is not from Mexico, but Hatton borrows a nickname from Tommy Hearns (the Hit Man) and borrows a style from the great Roberto Duran. Always pressing forward, hitting the body and punching in combinations, Hatton often looks like the hands of stone, minus tan skin.
However, Ricky?s personality is nothing like that of the nasty Duran. In Mayweather vs. Hatton, it is the body punching, inside fighting Englishman who is wearing the white hat.
Yes, on paper, Mayweather vs. Hatton is hard to beat. However, in the ring, we aren?t sure what we might get.
If Floyd fights his normal safety/speed, pop and get out style for twelve rounds, fight fans everywhere will be as frustrated as Ricky Hatton. The December fight very well may not live up to the hype.
On the other hand, if these guys decide- mutually- to go at it toe to toe, (read: Leonard-Duran I), we are in for a war we will never forget. And if Mayweather decides he wants to fight Hatton and not waltz with him, Cotto vs. Mosley will be the Fight of the Year for a scant 28 days.
