On the day of the big Pacquiao/Hatton fight, former pound4pound king Floyd Mayweather Jr. has officially announced his return to the ring. And was anyone surprised by that? I knew it would just be a matter of time before he returned. I think all the talk about Pacquiao being the best and the new pound4pound king got to him and he wants to come back to prove to the world that he is still the best and everyone needs to acknowledge that. He returns July 18 to face lightweight star Juan Manuel Marquez. Now I am a huge Marquez fan and one of those people who believe that Marquez actually should have gotten the decisions in both his fights with Manny Pacquiao. Close tough fights yes....but Marquez just squeezed them out in my mind. So with those two fights combined with his recent performances you have to place him right up there in the pound4pound rankings. But the fight with Mayweather....bad matchup. Marquez will just be too small in my opinion. He's only recently moved up to 135lbs and had a very tough fight his last time out against former lightweight champ Juan Diaz. The best fight so far of 2009! Diaz is not considered a power puncher at all but seemed to have Marquez stunned a few times in the fight which led me to believe Marquez was just not used to facing a bigger opponent. Now he wants to face Mayweather at welterweight?? The fight does make sense on a few levels. He'll make more money in this fight than any he's had before...and hey, it's Floyd Mayweather Jr., if you lose it's not really a big deal because everyone else has lost to him as well. Doesn't hurt your career to lose to the best fighter in boxing. Marquez is very tough and very strong but as I said will just be too small for Floyd at that weight and I imagine will lose a decision. After taking a year and half off from boxing after the Hatton fight, Mayweather certainly wouldn't want to jump straight into the mega fight with Pacquiao with the roll that he has been on lately. You don't want to be shaking off ring rust with Pacquiao coming straight at you. So Mayweather did the right thing by taking another fight first, and while Marquez is a great fighter, Floyd doesn't feel threatened by the smaller fighter. I just don't feel as though Marquez can be as effective as Pacquiao at the higher weights. Now after the July 18 bout I think we see a Mayweather/Pacquiao mega fight later this year. I will need to analyze this fight carefully before giving my final prediction. My initial thoughts are that Mayweather should be able to beat Pacquiao. Manny has never faced a fighter with Floyd's defensive abilities and style. BUT...if anyone has a shot at beating Mayweather...it's Pacquiao. Will be alot of excitement around this fight if it gets made.
Nice try beating the old drum about Marquez should of, would of, could of over Pacquiao..... Wahhhhh!!!!
ReplyDeleteAs for Mayweather/Pacquiao well that just might be a different story.
Yeah Yeah I know your thoughts on those fights.
ReplyDeleteAs for Floyd and Pacman I gotta see how Floyd looks in the Marquez fight...if he is back to the same Floyd as before, I just can't see Pacquiao catching clean enough to do damage.
Mayweather is a coward. Why didn't he wait one more day to sign to fight Pacquiao?! De La Hoya hadn't been the most active before facing Pacquiao either.. and I think that is part of the reason he looked as bad as he did. One's timing needs to be impeccable against a buzz-saw like Manny. Marquez though a bit of a threat (due to his sheer greatness) is way way too small, and now shop worn for Mayweather. Easy Pickins for Floyd. I hope I am wrong.
ReplyDeletePacquiao I think and hope beats the crap out of Mayweather if they ever fight.. and I agree Marquez was neck and neck with pacquiao in their fights. They could have gone either way, But Manny seems to have a lot less wear and tear coming out of them.
I don't think Mayweather is really a coward, he is just smart. I am pretty sure he is confident he can beat Pacquiao but even he knows he shouldn't go straight into that fight after a long lay off. So he took a high profile fight with alot less risk to shake off the ring rust.
ReplyDeleteLOL at Mayweather being a coward. He cleaned out almost all the weight classes he's ever fought in (aside from 147), is still the pound for pound king, and left the sport at 39-0...Dream Craft get a clue.
ReplyDeleteNo doubt, Mayweather has always been smart with his maneuvering, but at the expense of the fans and audience who pay to watch. He cheats the fans of the best fights out there. Why didn't he fight Cotto or Margarito when both were on a tear?? If Jesus Chavez hustled his ass as consistently as he did, what would these two bigger guys have done had they fought? Why didn't he fight Oscar in a rematch?? It was a close fight that could have gone either way.
ReplyDeleteAs for cleaning up the lower divisions.. other A fighters would have been so criticized for the list of guys Floyd beat during this legacy building period.
Why didn't Mayweather fight Cotto or Margarito? First of all, Cotto would have been speed-bagged and counter-punched for 12 rounds to an easy Floyd decision. As for Margarito, who had he fought when the fight was proposed? Hercules Kyvelos? That fight didn't make sense because no one knew Margarito aside from boxing purists and his fan base. Besides Floyd has had good success against taller lumbering guys (Corrales) and you saw what Mosely did to him with effective counter-punching.
ReplyDeleteMayweather against Cotto or Margarito would be competitive, and I wouldn't be surprised if Floyd won if they had fought (tough call).. But for sure, they would have been extremely grueling fights, which he was for the most part able to maneuver away from having, which is respectable from an intelligence and survival stand point, but as a fan I feel short changed on. Fighters who don't fight the real tough challenges of their era need to be looked back on appropriately. The paths of these three fighter certainly did cross. There were other guys I don't have room for here, which would have made a lot more entertainment sense and would have been more of a challenge, than the average list of guys he went through on HBO. I thought Castillo won their first fight BTW.
ReplyDeleteMosley is tough on an entire other level than Floyd.. Much respect to Sugar!
I have to agree that I also thought Jose Luis Castillo won the first fight with Mayweather...but then got completely outclassed in the rematch.
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