Mayweather buys a victory over Marquez and wants it to mean more

If you want to believe that Floyd Mayweather Jr. has thrown the gauntlet down for the king in waiting, Manny Pacquiao you certainly can.

A masterful, dominating 12-round boxing performance on Saturday night in Las Vegas against Juan Manuel Marquez would be your evidence.

But Mayweather hand-picked his opponent, a man who best fights as a lightweight and threw money, no pun intended, at the problem.

As reported, the fighters agreed on a 144 lb. fight that really wasn't. In fact Mayweather could have weighed more than he did at weigh-in (146) and unless someone from the Nevada Boxing Commission was horrified, the fight could have gone on as expected.

Floyd's penalty was to pay his opponent a hefty six-figure penalty for each pound over the agreed upon weight. The contract was changed after the fact to 147 and both fighters signed off. So don't cry for Marquez, he knew what he was doing. As the ring announcers noted, Mayweather looked comfortable at around 150 which he probably exceeded by fight time. Marquez weighed in at 142 and might have looked a bit soft in the middle.

Marquez was unable to get near his opponent except if he happened to get lucky enough to turn him around and have him backed onto the ropes. That didn't happen often since Floyd made sure to stay near the center of the ring. Tactically the way to go for sure.

Add that to the reach advantage, the small height advantage and of course the weight difference and all you heard from the HBO announcers was the word "big". Mayweather is the bigger fighter, Jim Lampley kept saying. And he clearly was.

The pathetic percentage of blows landed by Marquez was embarrassing. If this had been a tennis match, it would have looked like Roger Federer playing at his peak against a guy who was still on the college tennis team.

But the tactic that ruled the night was the lasting impression of Mayweather's total domination in the minds of fans and those who decide who is the pound-for-pound best.

HBO's Max Kellerman tried to make that point at the post-bout interview in the ring and Mayweather would have none of it. Sounding more like a politician at a town hall meeting about supposed death panels, he wouldn't touch the facts and blamed the media for asking legitimate questions about a fight that truly had no weight limit.

Kellerman might have been out of line by trying to squeeze an admission out of the victor at that moment and it disintegrated to the point where Mayweather had the microphone shut off on him.

But Max got the last word when he claimed that the lasting impression of the beat-down we had just seen was illusory when compared to the weight and size differences between the two fighters.

Fans of Mayweather, he added shouldn't use this victory as a reason to claim that he's a slam-dunk to win against Manny, which in Kellerman's opinion was all Mayweather wanted to do.

Source: http://www.examiner.com/x-426-Sports-Examiner~y2009m9d20-Mayweather-buys-a-victory-over-Marquez-but-wants-it-to-mean-more