ACCORDING to Last Rounder Ni?o Vincent Armecin, he follows this column regularly but never found the time to email feedback. But my column a few weeks back on his favorite fighter, Fedor Emelianenko, gave him the impetus to share his thoughts.
Ni?o opines that Fedor is indeed the best pound-for-pound MMA fighter today, and wished that I would write more about the MMA world.
Well Ni?o, admittedly, I?m a novice when it comes to MMA commentary but after some of your fellow Last Rounders requested that I tackle a subject, which happens to be outgrowing pro boxing by leaps and bound, I promised to give it my best shot.
I?m glad you enjoyed the piece. By the way, another MMA connoisseur, my compa?ero Atty. Butch Morante is also a die-hard Fedor fan who has been bugging me to write about the fighter called ?The Baddest Man on the Planet.?
HARD SELL. Speaking of MMA, what the hell was referee Yves Lavigne waiting for before he decided to stop Matt Brown?s beat-down of Pete Sell at UFC 96?
Brown practically owned what Peter Sell had to offer in the first minute of the fight. After landing some head kicks and punches to the head, Sell was practically defenseless and was at Brown?s mercy.
What made it more unpalatable was that minutes earlier, Lavigne seemed undecided whether to continue the bout after Brown decked Sell.
Bizarre.
PRETTY BOY. The query posed more regularly to me when I make the rounds nowadays is whether I think Floyd Mayweather Jr. will return.
In a previous column I opined that the boxing world should have waved ?see you later? when Floyd said goodbye. I still believe this to be true.
But we might not be seeing him too soon. Or at least, not yet against the likes of Manny or Juan Manuel Marquez.
His father Floyd Sr. reportedly claimed that his son is now looking for a big fight. From a boxing fan?s perspective, I hope Floyd Sr. is telling the truth and this isn?t just another one of his pallid paeans.
I believe though that if Floyd comes back, he will opt to fight someone bigger, possibly a junior middleweight or middleweight. Why?
Aside from the potential weight issues for someone who has been out of active competition for some time, Floyd Jr. ?the narcissist that he is?knows he has more to lose and nothing to gain if he fights smaller guys like Marquez or Pacquiao. He doesn?t want to be in the same boat as old foe Oscar de la Hoya.
Beating ex-featherweights, no matter how good they may have become, will probably not add luster to his rather incomplete legacy.
Floyd is not anymore concerned with pound-for-pound status right now. But I?m pretty sure the ?Pretty Boy? has his sights set on all-time greatness.
It?s a wild guess, but he?s probably going to do a Sugar Ray Leonard. Retire for three years and then come back to beat an invincible and menacing middleweight champ like Marvin Hagler. But knowing Floyd, he?s going to try and outdo Sugar Ray and do it after four years.
Impossible, you say? Maybe. But those are the kinds of challenges the mercurial Floyd Jr. relishes.
Think about it. If two years from now, Kelly Pavlik is still the top guy at middleweight, he would be perfect fodder for Floyd Jr. Pavlik would tower over him by six inches and outweigh him by at least 15 pounds at fight time, but Floyd fights tall guys very well. Remember the late Diego Corrales who stood at 6-foot-1?
As shown during the Hopkins loss, Pavlik can be out-boxed because he tends to be slow and predictable?very beatable for a talented fighter like Floyd.
He won?t have to use too much speed in order to beat Pavlik, but he?ll look pretty darn good doing it and more importantly, it will embellish his resume.
LAST ROUND. It?s on an esteemed compa?ero, Atty. Mario Ortiz who?s legal wits are as sharp as a Donaire left hook. Cheers!
