In the wake of probably the best welterweight fight in eight years, we now are left with the task of rebuilding our division depth chart and potential fights.
First, Floyd Mayweather retired a few months back, leaving the top spot for Miguel Cotto, who was stopped in the 10th round in Las Vegas Saturday night by Antonio Margarito in a terrific fight that was a wonderful representation of the skills of two fighters, as well as heart and the raw brutality of the sport. For a fan, it was just fun to watch.
In reevaluating the welterweight division, let's start with Margarito. Forget which organization recognizes which fighter. Margarito, while technically the WBA champion, is the No. 1 welterweight in the world. Call him THE world champion if you may, but he's the best. To be considered the best, all welterweights now need to go through him.
Aside from a Cotto rematch or a too lucrative to pass up fight with Oscar De La Hoya, Margarito's top challengers include Paul Williams, Shane Mosley, or the winner of Saturday's bout between Joshua Clottey and Zab Judah.
Personally, my preference would be a rematch with Williams, simply because Williams is hot and coming off a revenge blowout of Carlos Quintana and doesn't have his next fight signed yet, and there is some intrigue involved because when Williams beat Margarito in July 2007, it was Margarito's first welterweight loss in 11 years. And, it was a very close fight in which Williams dominated the first half of the fight, only to see Margarito come storming back over the second half of the fight.
Will it happen? Probably not. Williams is still 6-foot-2 and still a southpaw, and coming off a devastating knockout win. Margarito can beat Williams, but it's a huge risk with a Cotto rematch a possibility early in 2009.
Mosley would be interesting, but Sugar Shane has a HBO date in the September against Ricardo Mayorga at junior middleweight. Mosley is now 36, and while he can probably still make welterweight, would he have the motivation to do it for a fight with Margarito?
I'm not saying Margarito-Mosley doesn't happen, but it's unlikely and even if it did it would be sometime in '09.
Which leaves the winner of Clottey-Judah, scheduled for Las Vegas this weekend on HBO. Let me start by saying I'm not thrilled by this fight in the least bit. First of all, the fact that it's for a belt is ludicrous, because it's the belt Margarito beat Kermit Cintron for in April, and then vacated so he could face Cotto.
Secondly, I've seen Clottey five or six times, and I will not doubt that he is a solid, top 10ish type fighter, he's not one of the top three or four fighters at 147 pounds. He squeaked by Richard Gutierrez by majority decision in July 2006, which earned him a shot at Margarito. If there ever was a night Margarito was vulnerable it was that night, but after a fast start Clottey fell apart and blamed it on a broken hand, losing a wide decision. He responded with wins over Diego Corrales, Felix Flores, Shamone Alvarez and Jose Luis Cruz. Corrales was a big name because what he did at junior lightweight and lightweight, but he was moving up two weight classes and while a high-profile win for Clottey, he was hardly fighting a great welterweight. Flores was an unremarkable (i.e. boring) 12-round decision, as was his decision over Alvarez, which earned him a manadory shot at the IBF title. He blew out Cruz in a stay busy fight back in April.
But let's face it: Clottey is fighting for the IBF's belt because he's promoted by Bob Arum, who has masterfully manuevered himself into the position of unofficial promoter of the welterweight division. Arum knew if Margarito beat Cintron in April that Margarito would immediately vacate for the shot at Cotto. That would leave the belt vacant and give Clottey a shot at the belt. Arum then searched around for a TV date, found Judah, who was a big enough name to get HBO to sign on board.
Then, there's Judah. Since beating Cory Spinks for the top spot in the division in February 2005, Judah is 3-3 with one no contest, with two of those wins coming in his last two fights, after he lost three in a row to Carlos Baldomir, Mayweather and Cotto, with the no decision again Ruben Galvan thrown in. His two wins since getting stopped by Cotto in June 2007 were over Edwin Vasquez and Ryan Davis. Who?
It's amazing how fast Judah vaulted into the IBF's No. 3 position when HBO accepted him as an opponent for
Clottey.
That being said, should Judah beat Clottey, a fight with Margarito becomes probably an attractive one for camp Margarito because of Judah's name. If Clottey wins, what interest would be out there for a Margarito-Clottey rematch?
So, what will happen. If I had to guess there's a few scenarios:
* Judah wins, and Margarito faces Judah in November or December.
* Clottey wins, and Margarito does get Williams in line for a rematch in November or December.
* Margarito opts for a "victory lap" fight, maybe against someone like Luis Collazo.
As for Cotto, who I believe is still the No. 2 man in the division, he said upon returning to his native Puerto Rico that he'd like to get back in the ring before the end of the year. That's pretty ambitious considering the nature of his first professional defeat.
Does he take an easy fight in Puerto Rico to rebuild his confidence? There are names out there, including Jesus Soto Karass, who recently blew out David Estrada and is also promoted by Arum, or Demetrius Hopkins, who also was promoted by Arum. Kermit Cintron, who is planning a fall comeback fight after his own blowout loss to Margarito could be interesting, especially considering both are from Puerto Rico. Cintron, who is a promotional free agent, is probably the stage of his career where he'll take the most money possible.
As far as Williams goes, what does he do if he can't get a Margarito rematch? He's got a mandatory looming against someone named Michael Jennings. Yawn. There's been talk of him moving all the way up to middleweight for a fight with Kelly Pavlik or Winky Wright. He can wait for the Judah-Clottey winner himself. Either way, given how much trouble Arum and Williams promoter Dan Goossen have dealing with one another, I wouldn't count on Williams getting a fight with a Top Rank fighter any time soon.
The other name that hasn't been mentioned in Andre Berto, who also holds the WBC belt, which is an absolute joke. It's amazing that some consider the WBC's "green" belt as the most prestigious of the belts, because that organization is as corrupt as any and has been doing it right under everyone's noses for years. I love Berto (22-0, 19 KOs) as an up-and-comer, but who has he beaten to deserve any world title claim?
I don't know one person who'd ever seen his last opponent, Miguel Rodriguez, fight and that fight - a seven round blowout for Berto - was for a vacant title? Berto has fought nothing but no-hopers and shop-warn fighters like David Estrada and Cosme Rivera, and both of those guys gave Berto trouble. I don't blame promoter Lou DiBella for keeping Berto away from dangerous Top 10 opposition, because he's not ready yet, but to call him a world champion is absurd.
This all being said, Berto defends his belt against Steve Forbes on the Mosley-Mayorga undercard. Would anybody be surprised to see Forbes outbox and frustrate Berto for a huge upset.
There was a time not too long ago that the welterweight division was considered the best, and the deepest in boxing. In 2008, there's been some very good fights, as well, but with Mayweather's retirement, Mosley's age and Cotto's recent loss and some of the luster is off the top half of the division. And a check through the depth at 147 reveals a lot of no-names as well.
No question, however, Margarito-Cotto was a special night for boxing and for the welterweight division, but what's next remains a huge mystery.
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Imagine Pacquiao vs. Hamed
In all the hub-hub surrounding Manny Pacquaio’s supposed ascension to the pound-for-pound top spot on the basis of his eighth-round stoppage of David Diaz for one version of the lightweight championship two weeks ago, my thoughts boxing wise have turned to a name from the not-so-distant past.
Remember Prince Naseem Hamed?
Go back to the late 1990s, up until April 2001, and Hamed was easily the hottest thing under welterweight in boxing — including Floyd Mayweather, Jr.
Back then Pacquaio was a no-name flyweight fighting for peanuts in the Philippines.
Naz had the flashy ring-entrances, the personality and the knockout punch that set the British boxing world on fire long before he knocked out Kevin Kelley in November 1997 in his U.S. debut in Madison Square Garden. It was after that when he became a sensation in the States as well. A can’t miss superstar.
When Marco Antonio Barrera and Erik Morales fought their memorable first fight in 2000, that set the stage for huge fights to come for both against the Prince, as both Mexicans were set to move up from junior featherweight for that purpose.
As it turned out, Barrera exposed almost every flaw Hamed possessed when he undressed and embarrassed him in Las Vegas on April 4, 2001, on the way to a unanimous 12-round decision.
Forget the 12-round decision Hamed earned in his comeback fight against Manny Calvo in London a year later, his career ended that night against Barrera at the ripe old age of 27.
All the hype, all the flash and all the superstardom vanished just like that. It was just the beginning of a long string of negative nights for Hamed, who years after his last fight served time in a British prison for reckless driving that caused a serious injury to another driver.
There are those who followed Hamed from early in his career in Great Britain who say the decline started long before Barrera, however. He was at his best when he destroyed the likes of Juan Polo Perez, Steve Robinson, Daniel Alicea, Manuel Medina and Tom Johnson in a stretch from 1995-97. By the time he invaded the States for the Kelley fight, he wasn’t the same fighter. His lifestyle outside of the ring was affecting his performance in the gym and in his fights.
The same fighter who was knocked down by Kelley and taken the distance by the likes of Wayne McCullough and Cesar Soto was not the Naz that the Brits knew four or five years earlier.
I’m not sure I buy that, however.
First of all, his competition was much better when he left England. Nothing against the Aliceas, Medinas and Johnsons, who most American fight fans had actually heard of as opposed to the rest of Hamed’s early opposition, but Kelley and McCullough are very legitimate, world championship caliber fighters.
It’s hard for me to believe that Hamed was worse when he started being trained by Emanuel Steward than he was by his local trainers back in England.
And finally, Barrera was the only great fighter that Hamed ever fought in his career. He’s the only one close to being a Hall of Famer.
How do I evaluate the career of Prince Naseem Hamed?
I’m tempted to call him an absolute unadulterated fraud.
When finally defeated by a better fighter, his precious ego couldn’t handle it so he took his ball — not to mention millions — and went home.
But there is no question that his departure hurt the sport.
Yes, he was one of the main culprits who took advantage of HBO contracts that enabled him to fight nobodies like Soto and Augie Sanchez and Viyani Bungu for millions of dollars, along with the likes of Roy Jones and Mayweather, which definitely wasn’t good for boxing.
But he was a name, and the Barrera fight was supposed to be the first of a long string of huge fights that would have attracted a lot of attention — and fans — in a time when fans were making a mass exodus from boxing.
Imagine the slugfest he might have had with Morales. Like Barrera, Morales was a better boxer than Hamed, but could he have stayed away from a war, especially with the way the Prince would have goaded him in the prefight buildup. He could have eventually fought Marquez. Who knows? Maybe a super, super fight with Mayweather, who was fighting at 130, just four pounds north of Hamed’s 126, would have taken place.
And this was a thin, thin featherweight too. In his entire career he never fought about 126 pounds. Who’s to say he couldn’t have moved up the way Barrera, Morales, Marquez and Pacquaio have through the years?
Goodness, could you imagine an all-British superfight with Ricky Hatton?
But the fight that almost makes this writer’s mouth water was one that could have eventually happened between the Prince and the Pac-Man.
When Hamed fought Kelley in ’97, Pacquaio was still a year away from winning the WBC flyweight title.
But had Hamed still been around, this is a fight that eventually would have happened. Probably at 126, too. In November 2003, Pacquaio embarrassed Barrera in his featherweight debut. At that point, Hamed was just 29.
Who would have won?
It depends. Pacquaio is a better fighter in 2008 than he was in ’03. Back then he was a seek and destroyer and usually it worked. But something about him changed when he drew with Marquez in May 2004 and lost to Morales in ’05. He developed a Plan B.
Yes, he still likes to seek and destroy, as a limited but courage-filled fighter like David Diaz can attest, but he can box his way around the ring to set up the eventual destruction. And if he doesn’t come, he’s perfectly capable and willing to accept a decision.
It’s hard to imagine, Naz Hamed would have stood much of a chance against this Manny Pacquaio, who is a better boxer and a much busier fighter. Remember Hamed was never a volume puncher. He was much more awkward than he was fundamentally sound. Everything was about the bomb.
Maybe in ’03, however, Pacquaio would have wanted to test his machismo against Hamed. Who really was the hardest hitting 5-foot-4 fighter in the world?
Such a fight may have been electric.
Which gets back to my gut feeling that Naseem Hamed cheated the sport of boxing.
That, above all the else will be his legacy.
Remember Prince Naseem Hamed?
Go back to the late 1990s, up until April 2001, and Hamed was easily the hottest thing under welterweight in boxing — including Floyd Mayweather, Jr.
Back then Pacquaio was a no-name flyweight fighting for peanuts in the Philippines.
Naz had the flashy ring-entrances, the personality and the knockout punch that set the British boxing world on fire long before he knocked out Kevin Kelley in November 1997 in his U.S. debut in Madison Square Garden. It was after that when he became a sensation in the States as well. A can’t miss superstar.
When Marco Antonio Barrera and Erik Morales fought their memorable first fight in 2000, that set the stage for huge fights to come for both against the Prince, as both Mexicans were set to move up from junior featherweight for that purpose.
As it turned out, Barrera exposed almost every flaw Hamed possessed when he undressed and embarrassed him in Las Vegas on April 4, 2001, on the way to a unanimous 12-round decision.
Forget the 12-round decision Hamed earned in his comeback fight against Manny Calvo in London a year later, his career ended that night against Barrera at the ripe old age of 27.
All the hype, all the flash and all the superstardom vanished just like that. It was just the beginning of a long string of negative nights for Hamed, who years after his last fight served time in a British prison for reckless driving that caused a serious injury to another driver.
There are those who followed Hamed from early in his career in Great Britain who say the decline started long before Barrera, however. He was at his best when he destroyed the likes of Juan Polo Perez, Steve Robinson, Daniel Alicea, Manuel Medina and Tom Johnson in a stretch from 1995-97. By the time he invaded the States for the Kelley fight, he wasn’t the same fighter. His lifestyle outside of the ring was affecting his performance in the gym and in his fights.
The same fighter who was knocked down by Kelley and taken the distance by the likes of Wayne McCullough and Cesar Soto was not the Naz that the Brits knew four or five years earlier.
I’m not sure I buy that, however.
First of all, his competition was much better when he left England. Nothing against the Aliceas, Medinas and Johnsons, who most American fight fans had actually heard of as opposed to the rest of Hamed’s early opposition, but Kelley and McCullough are very legitimate, world championship caliber fighters.
It’s hard for me to believe that Hamed was worse when he started being trained by Emanuel Steward than he was by his local trainers back in England.
And finally, Barrera was the only great fighter that Hamed ever fought in his career. He’s the only one close to being a Hall of Famer.
How do I evaluate the career of Prince Naseem Hamed?
I’m tempted to call him an absolute unadulterated fraud.
When finally defeated by a better fighter, his precious ego couldn’t handle it so he took his ball — not to mention millions — and went home.
But there is no question that his departure hurt the sport.
Yes, he was one of the main culprits who took advantage of HBO contracts that enabled him to fight nobodies like Soto and Augie Sanchez and Viyani Bungu for millions of dollars, along with the likes of Roy Jones and Mayweather, which definitely wasn’t good for boxing.
But he was a name, and the Barrera fight was supposed to be the first of a long string of huge fights that would have attracted a lot of attention — and fans — in a time when fans were making a mass exodus from boxing.
Imagine the slugfest he might have had with Morales. Like Barrera, Morales was a better boxer than Hamed, but could he have stayed away from a war, especially with the way the Prince would have goaded him in the prefight buildup. He could have eventually fought Marquez. Who knows? Maybe a super, super fight with Mayweather, who was fighting at 130, just four pounds north of Hamed’s 126, would have taken place.
And this was a thin, thin featherweight too. In his entire career he never fought about 126 pounds. Who’s to say he couldn’t have moved up the way Barrera, Morales, Marquez and Pacquaio have through the years?
Goodness, could you imagine an all-British superfight with Ricky Hatton?
But the fight that almost makes this writer’s mouth water was one that could have eventually happened between the Prince and the Pac-Man.
When Hamed fought Kelley in ’97, Pacquaio was still a year away from winning the WBC flyweight title.
But had Hamed still been around, this is a fight that eventually would have happened. Probably at 126, too. In November 2003, Pacquaio embarrassed Barrera in his featherweight debut. At that point, Hamed was just 29.
Who would have won?
It depends. Pacquaio is a better fighter in 2008 than he was in ’03. Back then he was a seek and destroyer and usually it worked. But something about him changed when he drew with Marquez in May 2004 and lost to Morales in ’05. He developed a Plan B.
Yes, he still likes to seek and destroy, as a limited but courage-filled fighter like David Diaz can attest, but he can box his way around the ring to set up the eventual destruction. And if he doesn’t come, he’s perfectly capable and willing to accept a decision.
It’s hard to imagine, Naz Hamed would have stood much of a chance against this Manny Pacquaio, who is a better boxer and a much busier fighter. Remember Hamed was never a volume puncher. He was much more awkward than he was fundamentally sound. Everything was about the bomb.
Maybe in ’03, however, Pacquaio would have wanted to test his machismo against Hamed. Who really was the hardest hitting 5-foot-4 fighter in the world?
Such a fight may have been electric.
Which gets back to my gut feeling that Naseem Hamed cheated the sport of boxing.
That, above all the else will be his legacy.
Saturday, June 7, 2008
Mayweather Retires, Few Care
The tree fell in the empty forest, crashing and thudding the sport of boxing once again.
But nobody noticed.
In many ways, Floyd Mayweather, Jr. has been the perfect symbolic figure for all that ails a sport used to be part of the American fabric but now toils in obscurity. And it’s really not any fault of Mayweather, a one-time five-division world champion who Friday announced his retirement at age 31 with his record standing at a perfect 39-0 with 25 knockouts.
Let’s start by saying there’s no need to pass around a hat to take a collection for another punch-drunk pugilist who fought until they wouldn’t let him anymore. Floyd Mayweather, Jr. made a ton of money in boxing, and by all accounts, he still has quite a bit of it as well as the ability to speak and make rational thoughts. The fact that he’s made so much money and still has his health is part of the reason why he claimed he’s getting out at this time.
Of course, there are skeptics out there that are saying that this is a ploy. He’s angling for more money in his September rematch with Oscar De La Hoya and is using the threat of retirement as a part of the negotiation. Others are saying that he might take a year or two off, but he’ll back. They all come back eventually, especially when they have plenty of quality fighting years left.
But let’s assume that this is for real and Mayweather stays retired, and take some time to examine his career and, more importantly, his legacy.
Why exactly do so few people care about his retirement? Why aren’t there cries about how horrible it is for the sport, another death blow to a sport firmly implanted in its coffin?
This is the No. 1 performer in boxing today, and he’s every bit as talented and dominating in his sport as a Kobe Bryant is in the NBA or a Tiger Woods is in golf. I know, not as many people recognize this because until he fought De La Hoya, appeared on Dancing with the Stars, and most recently Wrestlemania, most sports fans couldn’t have picked Floyd Mayweather out of a lineup.
But he is really, really good, a sure-fire Hall of Famer, and a fighter that should be recognized as one of the all-time greats in a sport that has produced high-profile athletic superstars like Joe Louis, Sugar Ray Robinson, Muhammad Ali and Sugar Ray Leonard.
I’ve been following boxing since the late 1970s, and aside from Ray Leonard, I wouldn’t put another fighter in my lifetime in Mayweather’s class.
The problem is that boxing is a sport that is so marginal in today’s sports conscience in the United States, it doesn’t really matter if the best fighter in the last 30 years is retiring in his prime. Whether Mayweather retired or fought for another 10 years, making millions and millions of dollars and winning a dozen more titles, it wasn’t going to hurt or help boxing to any significance.
There are a lot of reasons for this. In no particular order, here are a few:
* Mayweather is simply too good to attract the attention of fans outside the hard-core boxing enthusiasts. He fought 39 times, and it’s fair to say that 37 of those fights were lopsided victories, whether by knockout or decision. And in the other two, he eked out a tougher than expected 12-round decision against Jose Luis Castillo in a lightweight title fight in April 2002, and he won a split decision over De La Hoya last May. But pool 100 people who watched both of those fights, and 80 percent of them would say that even in those fights, there was no doubt that Mayweather won.
Another thing related to this is Mayweather always went by the philosophy that a win is a win, no matter how he did it. Yes, there were times he looked exciting and fan-pleasing, but plenty of others where he was content to out-box an overmatched opponent and take a decision.
As for his other opponents, he hasn’t fought a collection of stiffs over the last 11 years. Genero Hernandez, Diego Corrales, Arturo Gatti, Zab Judah and Ricky Hatton were all fighters with considerable pedigree when they fought Mayweather, and all were soundly beaten and in some cases humiliated by Mayweather.
In many ways this is what plagued and earned Roy Jones, Jr. a lot of criticism in the hay-day of his career as a middleweight, super middleweight and light heavyweight superstar, as well. The big difference is that eventually Jones crashed and burned when his extraordinary skills deteriorated in his late 30s. Mayweather never let that happen.
In comparing Mayweather to Leonard, while the competition that Mayweather has fought has been good, Leonard’s was outstanding. Unfortunately for Mayweather, Wilfredo Benitez, Robert Duran, Thomas Hearns and Marvin Hagler didn’t fight in his era.
While he proved on TV last year that he could dance pretty well on stage, in the ring, Mayweather just didn’t have as many dance partners that could keep up with him.
* Boxing today just isn’t what it was in previous decades in terms of exposure, and it starts in the amateurs, most notably the Olympic Games.
When Leonard was an Olympic champion in 1976, everyone of his fights was as much a fixture to the ABC Olympic coverage as were Bruce Jenner’s races on the track or Nadia Comaneci's balance beam routines in gymnastics. Amateur fighters didn’t have to wear head gear those days and the stark differences between amateur boxing and pro boxing weren’t nearly as great as they are today.
Fans watching those Montreal Games were left with the impression that Ray Leonard was a boxing star even before he turned professional. In turn, every time he fought professionally early in his career, TV networks raced for the rights to cover it, because they knew he was a household name and people would watch.
Such was not the case by the time Mayweather came along. Really since NBC took over coverage of the Summer Olympics in 1988, it has continued to place less and less emphasis on boxing every four years. Like was the case in 2000 and ’04, Olympic boxing in the 1996 Atlanta Games was a second class citizen. It would have been impossible for even an American gold medalist, as was the case with Philadelphian David Reid, to get the kind of push enjoyed by Leonard or any of his contemporaries.
As for Mayweather, it didn’t help that he lost controversially in the semifinals and had to settle for a bronze.
Because of his abilities and the fact that Top Rank and Bob Arum signed him and featured him often on TV early in his career, Mayweather received much more a financial and publicity boost than most amateurs do when turning pro, but with much less fanfare than used to be the case.
* Because of the way the economic scale is tilted in professional boxing today, there was very little incentive for Mayweather or the people around him to make him into the type of figure that people could relate to or recognize, especially early in his career. It didn’t matter that he wasn’t a household name or thought of as a great athlete on par with those in the major sports, Mayweather was still paid like one.
He was signed by Top Rank, one of the highest-paying promoters in the sport. All of his fights were on TV. By the time he fought for his first pro title in 1998, he was being paid handsomely by HBO. This man was making millions long before he started to gain mainstream notoriety or started to fight in pay-per-view main events.
Boxing rewards fighters for a lot of reasons, and ignores others for a lot of reasons. Not making too much of a political analogy, the reality is that the differences between the upper class in the sport and the middle and lower classes are as stark as those that have existed in everyday American life over the last seven or eight years.
Mayweather was one of the well-paid elite. Fighting for survival hasn’t been part of his equation throughout most of his career, and boxing is a sport driven by the appeal of such stories.
* Like it or not, personalities sell too. While Mayweather’s background and personality might be relatively indicative of the modern superstar athlete today, it’s not a big seller to the type of fan that has paid for boxing in this country.
Firstly, his background. Yes, he comes from a family of fighters, from his father to his uncles, but the Mayweathers aren’t exactly the Waltons. With apologies to Floyd’s uncle Jeff, the Mayweather family is about as likable as the Mansons.
Floyd Sr. was an average fighter at best, who served time in prison for selling drugs. He’s by all accounts a very good trainer, but the only thing he seemingly does better is talk about how great a trainer he is.
Uncle Roger Mayweather, Floyd Jr.’s current trainer, was a very good pro boxer and a two-division world champion, but he almost always played the villain role. He’s also pretty proud of his own ability to train fighters and like his brother has done time in prison.
As for Floyd Jr., he is hardly the modest type, is known for his extravagant lifestyle, his bling and the posse that travels with him wherever he goes. Throw in multiple scraps with the law over domestic violence charges and a bar fight assault, which has led to numerous stints on probation, and it’s safe to say boxing isn’t the only family pastime that he’s carried on.
As far of sports in general, especially boxing, we don’t expect our fighters to be saints or choir boys, but some make it very difficult to root for.
No doubt, we haven’t heard the last of Floyd Joy Mayweather, Jr., who through the years has gone by the nicknames “Pretty Boy Floyd” and “Money Mayweather.” He may or may not fight again.
But guys like him crave the spotlight and being told how great he is. Money or not, ego drives many a boxing career, and it’s hard to imagine too many with larger egos than Mayweather.
As a boxing fan, however, his retirement is a reason for considerable sadness.
Not necessarily because he won’t be fighting De La Hoya again, or an attractive opponent like Miguel Cotto in the future. But rather because so few people care.
But nobody noticed.
In many ways, Floyd Mayweather, Jr. has been the perfect symbolic figure for all that ails a sport used to be part of the American fabric but now toils in obscurity. And it’s really not any fault of Mayweather, a one-time five-division world champion who Friday announced his retirement at age 31 with his record standing at a perfect 39-0 with 25 knockouts.
Let’s start by saying there’s no need to pass around a hat to take a collection for another punch-drunk pugilist who fought until they wouldn’t let him anymore. Floyd Mayweather, Jr. made a ton of money in boxing, and by all accounts, he still has quite a bit of it as well as the ability to speak and make rational thoughts. The fact that he’s made so much money and still has his health is part of the reason why he claimed he’s getting out at this time.
Of course, there are skeptics out there that are saying that this is a ploy. He’s angling for more money in his September rematch with Oscar De La Hoya and is using the threat of retirement as a part of the negotiation. Others are saying that he might take a year or two off, but he’ll back. They all come back eventually, especially when they have plenty of quality fighting years left.
But let’s assume that this is for real and Mayweather stays retired, and take some time to examine his career and, more importantly, his legacy.
Why exactly do so few people care about his retirement? Why aren’t there cries about how horrible it is for the sport, another death blow to a sport firmly implanted in its coffin?
This is the No. 1 performer in boxing today, and he’s every bit as talented and dominating in his sport as a Kobe Bryant is in the NBA or a Tiger Woods is in golf. I know, not as many people recognize this because until he fought De La Hoya, appeared on Dancing with the Stars, and most recently Wrestlemania, most sports fans couldn’t have picked Floyd Mayweather out of a lineup.
But he is really, really good, a sure-fire Hall of Famer, and a fighter that should be recognized as one of the all-time greats in a sport that has produced high-profile athletic superstars like Joe Louis, Sugar Ray Robinson, Muhammad Ali and Sugar Ray Leonard.
I’ve been following boxing since the late 1970s, and aside from Ray Leonard, I wouldn’t put another fighter in my lifetime in Mayweather’s class.
The problem is that boxing is a sport that is so marginal in today’s sports conscience in the United States, it doesn’t really matter if the best fighter in the last 30 years is retiring in his prime. Whether Mayweather retired or fought for another 10 years, making millions and millions of dollars and winning a dozen more titles, it wasn’t going to hurt or help boxing to any significance.
There are a lot of reasons for this. In no particular order, here are a few:
* Mayweather is simply too good to attract the attention of fans outside the hard-core boxing enthusiasts. He fought 39 times, and it’s fair to say that 37 of those fights were lopsided victories, whether by knockout or decision. And in the other two, he eked out a tougher than expected 12-round decision against Jose Luis Castillo in a lightweight title fight in April 2002, and he won a split decision over De La Hoya last May. But pool 100 people who watched both of those fights, and 80 percent of them would say that even in those fights, there was no doubt that Mayweather won.
Another thing related to this is Mayweather always went by the philosophy that a win is a win, no matter how he did it. Yes, there were times he looked exciting and fan-pleasing, but plenty of others where he was content to out-box an overmatched opponent and take a decision.
As for his other opponents, he hasn’t fought a collection of stiffs over the last 11 years. Genero Hernandez, Diego Corrales, Arturo Gatti, Zab Judah and Ricky Hatton were all fighters with considerable pedigree when they fought Mayweather, and all were soundly beaten and in some cases humiliated by Mayweather.
In many ways this is what plagued and earned Roy Jones, Jr. a lot of criticism in the hay-day of his career as a middleweight, super middleweight and light heavyweight superstar, as well. The big difference is that eventually Jones crashed and burned when his extraordinary skills deteriorated in his late 30s. Mayweather never let that happen.
In comparing Mayweather to Leonard, while the competition that Mayweather has fought has been good, Leonard’s was outstanding. Unfortunately for Mayweather, Wilfredo Benitez, Robert Duran, Thomas Hearns and Marvin Hagler didn’t fight in his era.
While he proved on TV last year that he could dance pretty well on stage, in the ring, Mayweather just didn’t have as many dance partners that could keep up with him.
* Boxing today just isn’t what it was in previous decades in terms of exposure, and it starts in the amateurs, most notably the Olympic Games.
When Leonard was an Olympic champion in 1976, everyone of his fights was as much a fixture to the ABC Olympic coverage as were Bruce Jenner’s races on the track or Nadia Comaneci's balance beam routines in gymnastics. Amateur fighters didn’t have to wear head gear those days and the stark differences between amateur boxing and pro boxing weren’t nearly as great as they are today.
Fans watching those Montreal Games were left with the impression that Ray Leonard was a boxing star even before he turned professional. In turn, every time he fought professionally early in his career, TV networks raced for the rights to cover it, because they knew he was a household name and people would watch.
Such was not the case by the time Mayweather came along. Really since NBC took over coverage of the Summer Olympics in 1988, it has continued to place less and less emphasis on boxing every four years. Like was the case in 2000 and ’04, Olympic boxing in the 1996 Atlanta Games was a second class citizen. It would have been impossible for even an American gold medalist, as was the case with Philadelphian David Reid, to get the kind of push enjoyed by Leonard or any of his contemporaries.
As for Mayweather, it didn’t help that he lost controversially in the semifinals and had to settle for a bronze.
Because of his abilities and the fact that Top Rank and Bob Arum signed him and featured him often on TV early in his career, Mayweather received much more a financial and publicity boost than most amateurs do when turning pro, but with much less fanfare than used to be the case.
* Because of the way the economic scale is tilted in professional boxing today, there was very little incentive for Mayweather or the people around him to make him into the type of figure that people could relate to or recognize, especially early in his career. It didn’t matter that he wasn’t a household name or thought of as a great athlete on par with those in the major sports, Mayweather was still paid like one.
He was signed by Top Rank, one of the highest-paying promoters in the sport. All of his fights were on TV. By the time he fought for his first pro title in 1998, he was being paid handsomely by HBO. This man was making millions long before he started to gain mainstream notoriety or started to fight in pay-per-view main events.
Boxing rewards fighters for a lot of reasons, and ignores others for a lot of reasons. Not making too much of a political analogy, the reality is that the differences between the upper class in the sport and the middle and lower classes are as stark as those that have existed in everyday American life over the last seven or eight years.
Mayweather was one of the well-paid elite. Fighting for survival hasn’t been part of his equation throughout most of his career, and boxing is a sport driven by the appeal of such stories.
* Like it or not, personalities sell too. While Mayweather’s background and personality might be relatively indicative of the modern superstar athlete today, it’s not a big seller to the type of fan that has paid for boxing in this country.
Firstly, his background. Yes, he comes from a family of fighters, from his father to his uncles, but the Mayweathers aren’t exactly the Waltons. With apologies to Floyd’s uncle Jeff, the Mayweather family is about as likable as the Mansons.
Floyd Sr. was an average fighter at best, who served time in prison for selling drugs. He’s by all accounts a very good trainer, but the only thing he seemingly does better is talk about how great a trainer he is.
Uncle Roger Mayweather, Floyd Jr.’s current trainer, was a very good pro boxer and a two-division world champion, but he almost always played the villain role. He’s also pretty proud of his own ability to train fighters and like his brother has done time in prison.
As for Floyd Jr., he is hardly the modest type, is known for his extravagant lifestyle, his bling and the posse that travels with him wherever he goes. Throw in multiple scraps with the law over domestic violence charges and a bar fight assault, which has led to numerous stints on probation, and it’s safe to say boxing isn’t the only family pastime that he’s carried on.
As far of sports in general, especially boxing, we don’t expect our fighters to be saints or choir boys, but some make it very difficult to root for.
No doubt, we haven’t heard the last of Floyd Joy Mayweather, Jr., who through the years has gone by the nicknames “Pretty Boy Floyd” and “Money Mayweather.” He may or may not fight again.
But guys like him crave the spotlight and being told how great he is. Money or not, ego drives many a boxing career, and it’s hard to imagine too many with larger egos than Mayweather.
As a boxing fan, however, his retirement is a reason for considerable sadness.
Not necessarily because he won’t be fighting De La Hoya again, or an attractive opponent like Miguel Cotto in the future. But rather because so few people care.
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