'Pretty Boy' Floyd Mayweather Continues to Depress
by
Richard McManus
1/23 - Saturday Night "Pretty Boy" Floyd Mayweather improved his record to 33-0, 22 KO's with a 8th Round knockout against Henry Brusles. It was only
Mayweather's second knockout win since 2001 and his second fight in 14
months.
Now Floyd deserves some credit. He's managed to remain undefeated as a
pro while earning some decent wins over good fighters like Diego Corrales,
Jose Luis Castillo and Jesus Chavez.
He's also had some pretty lackluster performances against the likes of
Victoriano Sosa and Carlos Hernandez. There was also the fight most
recently against Demarcus Corley. This was a fight which the boxing
media
hierarchy and the rulers over at HBO tried to persuade the boxing
public
that Floyd was "auditioning" for the Pound for Pound crown. In
reality,
Floyd did to Corley exactly what Zab Judah did to him a few months
prior and
nobody was ever foolish enough to suggest that Zab Judah even belonged
in
boxing's mythical Top 50.
Now, with this said it has become painfully obvious that Mayweather is
plainly one of the most overrated boxers in the game. His defining win
was
more than four years ago against Diego Corrales. Since then Floyd has
done
nothing to raise his stock. The best fighter he's faced has been Jose
Luis
Castillo, whom he faced twice, and most experts seem to think that the
fighter's split their two meetings.
The crew over at HBO, Jim Lampley and the rest of the guys continue to
mention Floyd Mayweather as one of the best fighters in the game. They
mention him in the same sentence as Bernard Hopkins. Lampley even
referred to Bernard and Floyd as 1 and 1A in the Top 10 Pound for
Pound.
Based on what?
Floyd Mayweather is probably one of the biggest underachievers in
boxing
right now. And I used to like Floyd and even pledged to root for him
if he
ever fought Naseem Hamed. Historical perspective now shows me that
when
compared to Floyd it can be said that at least The Prince brought
something
to the ring every time out. He gave every thing he had, he wasn't
afraid to
get hit, never crawled into a defensive shell and was never booed in
his
hometown. Floyd simply chooses to win ugly and/or sloppily every time
out.
Much of this can probably be explained with a simple application of the
principles of Economics 101 and the idea that investors always look for
a
return on their investment. The fact of the matter is that HBO has
invested
millions of dollars trying to make Floyd a star and to no avail.
Boxing
fans don't even look forward to Mayweather fights. To get him to
headline a
Pay Per View card they're going to have to match him up against boxing
mega-star Arturo Gatti. Ask yourself this: Who is really the headliner
in
that fight?
To apply the economic criteria of the Mayweather situation to baseball
you
could say that the situation compares to the 1999 Los Angeles Dodgers
and
the mutually destructive relationship that existed between Starting
Pitcher
Carlos Perez, General Manager Kevin Malone and a the dugout Gatorade
Cooler.
Kevin Malone gave Perez a $6 Million a year contract and Perez promptly
went
out and put up a record of 2-10 with a 7.43 ERA. Watching the Dodgers
trot
Perez out to the mound every fifth day amounted to the infamous Chinese
water torture being applied to diehard Dodger fans everywhere.
But having given him such an enormous contract the Dodgers simply could
not
afford to take him out of the starting rotation no matter how many 8
earned
run pitching lines showed up in the box score the day after he started.
There was simply too much money invested to turn back.
It's the same with Floyd. HBO has to get a return on their investment.
Now you say, well at least he knocked out Henry Brusles on Saturday,
that
counts for something right? My response is this: What did you expect,
it
was a total mismatch going in. Besides, who the heck is Henry Brusles
and
did you know he was still fighting 6 and 8 rounders just over 2 years
ago?
The fact that HBO matched Mayweather with such a non-threat in the
lead-up
fight to the Gatti PPV may suggest that HBO may be privy to information
about Mayweather that the general boxing public may not know. Why was
he
put in there against a guy that posed no threat?
One interesting event that took place half way through the fight was an
exchange between Jim Lampley and the Pretty Boy. And truth be told, it
probably lends some credence in a strange way to what I'm saying on
this
page. Lampley took it upon himself to ask Floyd if the liked the
Eagles or
the Falcons to win the NFC Championship game.
Now the fact that Floyd picked the Falcons was shocking enough. But
the
fact that this exchange was even able to take place says two things.
One,
it says that Floyd is only using about 3% of his natural talent at any
given
time. His mind always appears to be elsewhere. Maybe he's thinking
about
which club his posse is going to hit later that night or whether or not
he
needs a bigger plasma screen HDTV so his crew can play Knockout Kings
2005.
To make another baseball analogy, if Floyd Mayweather were a baseball
player
he'd be Manny Ramirez tossing out number two into the crowd and jogging
in
while the runner on third tags up and jogs home.
Another truth that this exchange reveals is that there is an unusual
silence
in the arena when Floyd fights, making it possible for him to carry on
normal conversations with people in the crowd.
In this writer's opinion Floyd still has lots of work to do to earn a
place
in the Top 5 of Boxing's mythical Pound for Pound. A win over Gatti
would
be a start, but let's see him win some legitimate fights against the
likes
of Kostya Tszyu, Miguel Cotto or Shane Mosley. More fights against
fighters
the caliber of Demarcus Corley, Phillip N'dou or Henry Brusles simply
aren't
enough.
Discuss this at our Boxing Forum
