Floyd Mayweather Jr: The King (of contradictions) is Back

Earlier this month at a Las Vegas press conference, former pound for pound champ and linear welterweight champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. announced he was returning after a little more than a year and a half layoff from the sport of boxing. “The King is back,” his advisor and CEO of Mayweather Promotions, Leonard Ellerbe, declared. With this announcement, Mayweather would state that he was fighting the current lightweight champion, Juan Manuel Marquez, in a bout titled “Numero Uno/Number One,” which is being sold as a fight to declare who is pound for pound the best in the sport, a distinction bestowed on a fighter in seemingly endless ways depending on who you talk to. In this case, it’s a nice way of saying ‘we have one fighter who last weighed 12 pounds lighter than this other one, is skilled but smaller, fighting someone who has proven to be effective fighting above 147 pounds. So while it’s a mismatch on one level, it’s kind of fair given the skill set of the smaller Marquez.’ Since you can’t really market what is being labeled a super fight with that kind of honesty, the pound for pound label seems the surest way of selling this brand of snake oil.

Interviewing the members of the promotional team, as well as Mayweather, is always an interesting task. Straight answers are at a premium. Take for instance the weight limit for the fight. Initially, the fight was reported to be at “143 pounds give or take a pound,” according to Eric Gomez, chief matchmaker for Golden Boy Promotions. “A maximum of 144 pounds.” When Ellerbe was asked he simply repeated “It’s a welterweight fight,” three times as if it was hard to hear him from three feet away. Following the Los Angeles press conference, the fight was reported at 147 pounds, which is the welterweight limit. Just days after that, rumors began swirling that the fight was back at 144. As of press time, I had given up trying to figure it out. The bottom line is that a career featherweight, who looked maxed out at lightweight, was fighting a man last seen knocking out the former 140 pound kingpin, Ricky Hatton, at 147 pounds. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

But contradicting or hard to get answers are nothing new to Floyd Mayweather. As elusive out of the ring as he is in it, the man self billed as “Money” never met a question he couldn’t dodge or a self-justification he couldn’t conjure. Just look back at an interview he did with ESPN’s Brian Kenny, one from before his bout with Zab Judah following the Brooklynite’s loss of the welterweight crown to Carlos Baldomir. Despite the loss, Mayweather went ahead and signed to fight Judah and justified his decision to Kenny thusly.

“Well you have to realize that Zab wasn’t 100%,” said Mayweather. “He didn’t get knocked out and he didn’t lose a unanimous decision. They let Erik Morales come back and fight Pacquiao after he lost to Zahir Raheem. They let Oscar De La Hoya come back after he lost to Felix Trinidad and fight Mosley for a title. So is Zab entitled to fight me? Yes he is because he fought to a split a decision. A split decision is a iffy bout.”

“When a bout gets to a split decision,” he added, “we don’t count that in our books.”

However, in reference to his split decision win over Oscar De La Hoya he would say “It was a split decision, but Oscar and I know how it really is.”

When pressed as to why he took the Judah fight, he would tell Kenny, “I don’t make the rules. I just beat the guys they put in front of me.”

Now jump cut to 2009 and his answer to the question of why he chose to fight lightweight Marquez instead of Shane Mosley, the man currently held as the best at 147 pounds.

“Well, what I don’t understand, the thing you have to understand is that, if you go back and look at my career, years and years ago, I’ve been calling out Shane Mosley forever. Now after Shane Mosley has five losses and his career is almost over, of course he wants to fight me and get a big payday. Which, I’m not knocking Shane Mosley. He’s a helluva fighter. He’s a good fighter. But now he wants to fight now that his career is coming to an end. I wish him nothing but the best. I wish all fighters nothing but the best. But I am here to fight some more fights. If the Shane Mosley fight happens then it does. But I’m not chasing anybody. The fighters are chasing me because I’m on top of the throne. I sit on top of the throne. I left the sport as the best and I returned to the sport as still the best because nobody has beaten me. People forget that 4 or 5 years ago, when Pacquiao fought Erik Morales, he got out-boxed but just before that fight Erik Morales lost to Zahir Raheem. Fans seem to forget certain things like or how Manny Pacquiao has been knocked out twice. People forget about that. Pacquiao has three losses with two draws. With those five plus his winning record, our knockout ratio is around the same.”

A dizzying array of information but it actually never answered the question as to why Mayweather didn’t take the fight.

In their most recent interview, Brian Kenny asked Mayweather the same question. Mayweather responded with “You mean the Shane Mosley who has five losses?” Ignoring the fact that when Mayweather chose to fight them Judah was coming off a loss and had been knocked cold years before, Arturo Gatti had 6 losses, Carlos Baldomir had a whopping 9 with 6 draws, Sharmba Mitchell had four and was one fight removed from a devastating knockout, Henry Bruseles had 2 losses and was TKO’d once, DeMarcus Corley was coming off a loss and had one previous, Philip N’Dou had a TKO loss, and Oscar De La Hoya had 4 losses, one by KO. Sure, at the top levels, most fighters have losses but the question arises why is it okay for these guys to have multiple losses but not Shane Mosley who has only lost to Vernon Forrest twice, Winky Wright twice, and Miguel Cotto?

Kenny pressed further and stated that Mosley was the welterweight champ and since Mayweather retired as the welterweight champ, the fight makes sense.

“The belts don’t make me,” responded Mayweather.

Jump cut back to that pre-Judah fight interview. Judah, despite his loss to Baldomir kept his IBF belt due to the usual alphabelt gang shenanigans. Because of this, Mayweather claimed to be fighting for his fourth title in under eight years. To most boxing historians and members of the media, the title, like Arturo Gatti’s at 140, was a paper title and nothing more. Mayweather seemed perfectly fine with the situation.

“I’m a belt collector,” he said.

And the double standards just keep on rolling.

Whatever the reason for not fighting Mosley, all the answers conveniently ignore that even at 37 years old, “Sugar” Shane is on top of the welterweight division and coming off one of his biggest wins ever in dismantling and knocking out Antonio Margarito in front of a record breaking crowd at the Staples Center. Mosley/Mayweather on paper is a helluva fight and arguably the most dangerous fight for Mayweather in the welterweight division. While it’s understandable that Mayweather wouldn’t take such a fight right out of the gates of retirement, the justifications surrounding the why not ring hollow.

Fighters taking tune-ups following a long layoff is nothing new in the sport, but generally they call it what it is. Some insiders have stated that Golden Boy Promotions needed a new cash cow now that Oscar De La Hoya has retired and Mayweather fits that bill perfectly, having generated a reported quarter of a billion dollars in his last two fights. Mayweather had originally wanted a tune-up fight with a super fight salary, but HBO balked at the idea and this fight was consequently made. It kills two birds with one stone. It allows him to take a safe fight to shake the rust off while being able to market it as tough given the skills and pedigree of Marquez. After all, any man that goes 24 rounds with Manny Pacquaio and arguably wins the majority of the rounds is not exactly a tune-up. But there is a contradiction at play here.

If Shane Mosley is too tough, then how can this fight, especially considering the weight differential, be billed as anything other than a safe comeback bout? It isn’t as if Marquez is a young man moving up from weight class to weight class. Nor can the fact be ignored that in recent years, Marquez, once thought to be a defensive specialist, has been getting hit more and more and getting into war after war. Against Juan Diaz, Marquez looked to be getting blown out early before rallying in the middle rounds and knocking the younger Diaz out. It was a spectacular fight but one that showed vulnerability in Marquez. Perhaps that above all, is the reason this fight is happening. After all, beating the rival of Manny Pacquiao, who hasn’t shown vulnerability as he has moved up to the welterweight division, is a perfect way of setting up what would truly be a super fight between the current consensus number one pound for pound fighter and Mayweather.

Whatever the case, the fight is on and with it the hype train has left the station. A multi-city, international tour is already underway, tickets have gone on sale and will most likely sell out in hours, and HBO’s reality show 24/7 will be back on in full tilt to follow the fighters up to the first bell.

"Move over Paris Hilton and the Kardishians; Donald Trump,” said President of HBO Sports Ross Greenburg, “empty out the boardroom, and survivors get off the island because Money Mayweather is back on 24/7 and the first episode premieres June 27th."

In the midst of all the pre-fight hype, only one man kept it real at the L.A. presser and revealed what fight fans and media members should know right out the gate. The fight isn’t a true test of who is the best fighter in the world. It’s simply is what it is. The return of the one of the sport’s biggest names to the spotlight. Forget pre-fight prognostication. From the time the bout was signed, the outcome was assured through creative matchmaking.

"I know what's going to happen,” said Floyd’s trainer and uncle Roger Mayweather, “and I'm sure all of you know what's going to happen."

Nothing could be closer to the truth.

Source: http://www.maxboxing.com/Gabriel/Montoya052309.asp