Floyd shows his greatness in May Day spectacular
I don’t know what it is about Mr. Mayweather, but the prospect of writing a report after one of his fights, leaves me as unwilling as Shane Mosley appeared to be for eleven rounds on Saturday evening.
This stems not so much from his style of fighting, which personally speaking, is just as eye popping to witness as that of an aggressive, straight ahead puncher. Rather it stems wholly from his persona, which may or may not be an accurate portrayal of the man.
Mayweather rips off Ted DiBiasi brilliantly with his “Money” character, and he should be commended for his sense of business acumen. Boxing needs a guy to root against and he plays it to perfection. It’s just difficult fluffing the feathers of someone who is so clearly self obsessed and classless as a man. Next time the one you love tells you how wonderful you are, just say, “I know”, they’ll soon tell you what I mean. The remnants and off cuts which remain from the rehearsed bombast are at times repugnant.
Obviously this shows unprofessionalism on my part and it’s a kink I need to iron out, yet despite my lack of oomph this morning, I’m rarely unable to offer credit where credit is due. So then, rather than report on the action which unfolded during the actual fight, here are a few points I’ve mulled over since traipsing back upstairs to bed at 5:30 am yesterday morning, cold, knackered and largely disappointed:
- Mayweather was magnificent.
The idea that Floyd was a talented but gutless warrior is now in the recycling box. Mayweather’s boxing skill was marvellous to behold, as was his response to almost having his head handed to him in the second round. His reaction at that crucial juncture highlighted his greatness every bit as much as the one sided mastering of his opponent for the remainder of the night did.
His defence, punch accuracy, conditioning and ring generalship are simply peerless and would have allowed him to have been competitive with any welter from history. Whilst his record does not stand up against the legends he claims to have surpassed, he can satisfy himself with being the best fighter of his era. One can only imagine how far he could have climbed up those all time lists, had he approached his career in the same manner as the man he displaced in Vegas.
Floyd added three notches to his belt (the one he refused to pay for) against Mosley. He dominated the best fighter he ever fought, proved he was tough and game, whilst also showing the world that he was a supreme attacking force to boot. Of all the scenarios offered up pre-fight, I didn’t see one that predicted Mayweather would be the man coming forward and roughing up Mosley.
As sublime as he was, for me, he was better as a super feather and his performance against Corrales there, remains a notch better than this one and his finest to date.
- Mosley was poor.
Apart from 90 heart stopping seconds in between rounds one and three, Mosley was unable to get off with punches and was tottering on tired pins from the fourth round on. I’d warned myself in my ‘Case for Floyd Mayweather’ piece earlier in the week that there hadn’t ever been an instance of a 38 year old ripping up the boxing rule book to the extent Mosley needed to here, yet still went and picked the Pomona puncher anyway.
We either saw old age descend upon Sugar Shane or something altogether more worrying. This was the first time Mosley had ever been tested proficiently for the use of performance enhancing drugs, since the revelations he employed them to defeat Oscar De la Hoya in 2003. Only fifteen months ago, he was able to throw streams of power punches at Antonio Margarito, shots that were so hard they almost span him off his feet when he missed, and he threw them for nine rounds (go and see how hard it is to do that yourself against a punching bag). Here, he was gassed after three rounds. Mosley has always finished strongly in fights, ALWAYS. If he does so again in subsequent bouts away from USADA testing, it will provide the conspiritors with plenty of ammunition and in turn, reflect poorly on the sport.
Floyd fans will claim that it was Mayweather’s skill that subdued Mosley so, but I’m not buying it. I’ve seen him hit much harder with just as much regularity as Mayweather managed on Saturday and he has always found a way to respond in kind.
- The fight was a let down.
Very rarely these days, do we find promoters looking to match two great fighters who are still young enough to supply us with the level of action demanded from a boxing ‘super fight’. Fighters today are no longer able to build audiences on network television, therefore, they must toil for years to build themselves an HBO profile which would ratify their inclusion in an event style bout such as this one. Rarely is this possible before the fighter hits 30.
It also means that fighters very often must stray from their natural poundage to find a fighter who is equally well known and as high profile as themselves.
A fight which undergoes the level of hype thrown at Mayweather-Mosley, will only ever have a chance of living up to its billing if both men are young enough to perform at full pelt and are at their optimum weight. The bout was a runaway success in terms of sales, but how many of those disatisfied customers will come back for more?
- Mayweather’s strength is in his conditioning.
The wonderful Naazim Richardson alluded to it in between rounds and it’s a salient point. Mayweather is a wonderfully conditioned athlete, a multi-millionaire who trains in the gymnasium like a hungry and potless prospect. He rarely becomes tired in fights, grows stronger as the bout proceeds and looks as though he could fight another twelve rounds once the closing bell sounds.
It was his conditioning which allowed him to ride out that stormy second session. There are plenty of other welters who would have gone down and stayed down.
Incidentally, how great was it watching Richardson work? Hell his motivational skills are so good, he had me believing I could get in there with Floyd, avoiding his fireballs and trampling on his tail and whatnot.
- Pacquiao has no excuse not to take the fight.
Boxing Scene attributed the following quotes to Pacquiao yesterday: “For me, as long as the drug test is not done close to the match, I’ll agree because if they’ll [sic] get blood from me close to the match, it will be a disadvantage for me because I’m smaller and he’s big”.
Obviously there’s a chance something went adrift in translation, however, reading that yesterday made me want to spit. Is Pacquiao alluding to the fact he needs something to maintain his bulk? It’s been well documented how difficult it has been to keep his weight high enough to make welterweight.
It appears he’s changed tack again this morning: “I am willing to help out the sport for the future of the sport. I do not want to see anyone cheat or cheat this sport. For that reason I am willing to consider taking blood as close as 14 days prior to the fight”.
I’ve had it with these stipulations. Pacquiao should take the fight and take the tests. There’ll be all manner of other road blocks to navigate but this one can be flattened quick smart. If Pacquiao refuses to budge on the testing, I’ll be laying the blame squarely at his door.
- Where do they go next?
Floyd needs to fight Pacquiao, yet I’d understand if he had to go elsewhere, if Pacquiao refuses the same level of testing Mosley accepted (I’d be no less aggrieved mind you). Away from that monstrous match up, I’d be keen to see Floyd face Paul Williams or Sergio Martinez. I have a feeling though, he’ll settle for Andre Berto, which I’d find hard to get enthused over.
Mayweather also doesn’t need the bullshit anymore. Fighting like this against the best opponents available, will holler far louder than any boast he can muster to grab headlines or drive PPV buys. He should relinquish the punk act which has served him well up to this point and assume the guise of the champion he so plainly is.
The hope is that Mosley retires, although I don’t see that happening either. Shane loves the sport in the way Evander Holyfield loves the sport, which means he could be around a long while yet. There are matches still available to him, with Margarito and Cotto at light middleweight, yet his days as an elite boxing star have passed.
5 comments on “Floyd shows his greatness in May Day spectacular”
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Hey Haz. I give Floyd all the credit for making Mosley look bad on Saturday. As I wrote in 411′s roundtable preview last week, a good defense will always neutralize Shane’s offense. The first six rounds of the Oscar rematch showed this. Mosley barely landed a glove on De La Hoya in those rounds. Now as big a fan of Oscar as I am, his defense is nowhere near the same level as Mayweather’s. For me, Shane not getting off with his punches is a problem he was always going to have against a defensive genius like Mayweather.
I also wrote in the preview that if Mosley looked awful in the fight questions would be asked about his past achievements. This may be unfair, but Shane should have thought about that before he injected that crap into his body. It’s more unfair that De La Hoya has a loss against him (perhaps two) that shouldn’t have counted.
I put Mosley gassing down to him burning up nervous energy, the same way Jermain Taylor does. Don’t know what was wrong with him, but Shane looked edgy to me, even as he was walking to the ring. It also didn’t help that he was frequently missing with power shots. Loading up and missing takes it out of you.
Apart from the second round, I thought Mayweather was flawless on Saturday. Even though I predicted a wide points win for Floyd, I was shocked at the ease in which he handled Mosley from a physical standpoint. He roughed Mosley up on the inside and forced him onto the backfoot for most of the fight.
Amazing performance. The Pacquiao fight now surely has to happen and I think it will.
The thing I just don’t understand is that, ok, fighters can turn old overnight, especially at Shane’s age but, he was able to land tremendous shots, accurate and quick in round two, yet came out for the third as though round two had never happened. He looked knackered, which is strange considering the first was a fencing contest with not a lot happening.
In some ways, it reminds me of the Lewis-Holyfield first fight. Holyfield had a decent round three (nowhere near as good as Mosley’s round two) yet for the rest of the fight was controlled and neutralised by Lennox. It was even odder that he came back next fight to almost gain revenge (Lewis was messed up bad at one point, possibly the seventh).
My criticism of Floyd going in, was that he lacked heart. It made sense with regard to his selection of easy opponents. That was blown apart here, there aren’t many who would have responded as he did to Mosley’s second round assault. He also showed me he’s a true welter, he’s grown into the weight nicely. As I said, I’d quite fancy Williams’ chances, but will most certainly not be backing or picking against him again.
The drugs issue is getting to me a bit. I love the sport because usually, the truth will out. The ability for some to get away with cheating using PEDS just makes me want to puke. The tests Mayweather insisted on should be mandatory, right across the board. Also, cheaters (if they did so knowingly) should be banned, as in banned for life.
I know what you mean about him looking nervous coming in, his whole camp looked like they were going to the gallows, again, most strange.
If I remember correctly, Holyfield predicted a third round stoppage prior to the Lewis fight. When that didn’t happen, Evander looked really dejected and was in a slump for the rest of the fight (although I still maintain that Lewis blew that one).
Ironically, I think round two was when the fight turned in Mayweather’s favour. He was badly hurt, yet finished the round stronger. Speaking from personal experience, when you hurt a man with the best punch you got and they keep coming at you it’s entirely disheartening.
Completely agree with your stance on PED’s. It’s most annoying that a lot of people within the sport want to bury their heads in the sand with regards to this subject, but it’s present and needs to be tackled. When you got one of the best heavyweights of all time and one of my personal favourite fighters linked with ‘roids it sickens me that all the memories I have of that man are now tainted .
Evander let himself slip into dangerous territory, thinking a third round win was pre-ordained. The bell to end the round must have been one hell of a bubble burster.
There’s a lot of head burying in boxing. Let’s get real, gaining 20 pounds of pure muscle within a short period, whilst appearing ‘ripped’ to use the terminology and becoming hugely powerful in a heavier weight class in the process, is unlikely to have been achieved naturally.
If we look around us, there are a fair few fighters who have managed this feat, some of them personal faves of mine. Kinda makes you wanna hurl.
Boxing has always relied heavily on its history. If folk start pissing on the achievments of great fighters from its past by artficially souping up their bodies, where are we?
Thing is, being linked with such skulduggery sticks. Look at Aaron Pryor, forever tainted by the little black bottle. He’s usually hard to rate by experts as they can’t decide what they’re dealing with. The same fate will befall this other lot.
At the end of the day, fighters fight for money, yet it’s the respect and kudos the sport brings them that really matters to most of them. Imagine fighting for an entire lifetime, only to be remembered with an asterix.
Yep, that’s pretty much how I feel on the subject too. Let’s hope the commissions wake up to this cancer.