By Mark Workman

When “Pretty Boy” Floyd Mayweather trounced Arturo Gatti in June, the boxing world laid witness to one of the most remarkable talents boxing has to offer. He proved with a lightning-quick fist and pure innate boxing talent that he truly is one of the sport’s pound-for-pound best.

Yet, why is a gifted fighter like Mayweather (34-0, 23 KOs) unable to commit himself to unifying the light welterweight title, thereby curing this poison of too many champions that flow through the deteriorating veins of boxing? Does he not have what it takes to be the poison’s antidote?

Or is money, not boxing glory, the only stimulant that truly motivates Floyd Mayweather?

The one thing that was immediately obvious to anyone watching Mayweather’s post-fight interview after the Gatti fight—Mayweather’s first big pay-per-view showing—was the orchestrated public image power wash that was taking place, an attempt to cleanse him of bad press due to past domestic abuse charges and soften the negative effects of his gangster bad-boy image that was heavily used to promote the Gatti fight.

Holding his young child while being very careful not to disparage in defeat the adored Arturo Gatti, Mayweather, to his credit, did without the over-the-top trash talking and all-too-familiar and worn-out braggart thing he seems to love so much. Clearly he had done enough of that in the build-up to the fight. He can sometimes push the obnoxious meter to almost Prince Naseem Hamed levels. Remember him?

We’re very aware of Floyd Mayweather’s immense talent. He doesn’t need to keep telling us about it. But when is he going to prove how superior he really is by fighting the other light welterweight champions? Talk less, fight more and you’ll win the world, Floyd Mayweather. I’ll bet the farm on it.

It was completely and utterly perplexing, not to mention annoying, to me when Mayweather a few months ago decided to challenge top-ranked middleweight contender Winky Wright, a man who campaigns 2 and 3 weight divisions above Floyd. What was the real purpose of this, other than time-wasting grandstanding for the media? Mayweather says he really wants to make this fight happen. I wonder.

The mere fact that fighters like Mayweather are even allowed to do things like this, real or unreal, is what deeply undermines the sport of boxing. Why is Mayweather not fighting the other 3 light welterweight champs to prove who the true champion is at 140 pounds?

Mayweather’s own declaration that he’s the best in his division just isn’t good enough. Prove it. Does Mayweather feel that there’s not enough money for him in those fights or simply concerned that he might not be able to defeat, Ricky Hatton, for example, the undefeated IBF light welterweight champ from Manchester, England?

Where would the NFL be if the Patriots woke up one day and decided they weren’t going to play the Eagles because they were too tough or there wasn’t enough money for them in that game? But they have no choice in the matter. That’s why the sport of football functions better than boxing and certainly has a bigger audience, keeping in mind that the sport of football and some of its players also have their variety of problems.

28 year-old Floyd Mayweather is the WBC light welterweight champion and therefore needs to be fighting light welterweights or he shouldn’t be wearing the belt. If Mayweather is going to call himself the champion of the light welterweight division then he should fight his top contenders and the other champions or relinquish the belt and throw it up for grabs to those who value the title of champion and the honor that comes with it.

I consider it a great insult to the light welterweight title and to the boxing fans that support Floyd Mayweather when all we get from him is posturing in the press and no fighting in the ring that results in a unified division because he’s more concerned with how much money he’s going to make than showing the world he’s the best fighter in his weight class.

Even if he is serious about fighting Winky Wright, and that fight miraculously happens, that still doesn’t change the fact that he’s not giving the other light welterweight contenders their just and deserved opportunities as they battle below him for their chance at his title. After all, that’s what they’re fighting for!

In my mind, the minute a fighter puts on a championship belt, he then becomes obligated to the fans who support him and to this sport as a whole to not only fight every top-ranked contender in his weight division but also has an ethical responsibility to the fans to immediately start putting forth every effort to unify the title and give us 1 champion.

We’re tired of hearing how fights can’t be made because rival promoters and television networks can’t come together and do what’s best for boxing, a sport that makes them so much money. They have as much of a responsibility to the boxing fans as the fighters themselves to do everything in their power to unify the title in every weight division. It will only benefit everyone involved in the end.

I think Floyd Mayweather just might have what it takes to beat the other 3 champions: Miguel Cotto, Ricky Hatton and Carlos Maussa. Why is he not doing it? The fans aren’t interested in paying to see Floyd Mayweather fight boxers of suspect oppositional quality on free HBO but are very happy to spend their pay-per-view dollars to see him fight the other champions and unify the light welterweight title.

IBF champ Ricky Hatton has just announced that in November he’ll face WBA light welterweight champ Carlos Maussa, the brawler from Colombia who recently banged out Vivian Harris. My hat goes off to the 2 of them, as they both are doing what’s best for boxing and move towards a unified division. Why can’t Floyd Mayweather step up to the plate and fight WBO champ Miguel Cotto and then the winners of those 2 unification matches battle it out in the spring for the undisputed title? We can only hope.

As much as it massages Floyd’s ego to brag about beating Winky Wright, something I’m not convinced he can do, we really have no interest in hearing it. We want to hear that Floyd is fighting the other 3 light welterweight champions. And please stop using money splits as the same old tired excuse as to why these fights can’t be made. The fans who follow this sport aren’t the offspring of Forrest Gump.

We’re tired of listening to champions complain about how they don’t want to fight this fighter and that fighter because those fights won’t bring in the amount of money that makes them happy. We say to those champions: unify the title and we’ll be happy to pay what you want with our pay-per-view dollars.

We’ll be happy to spend that money because then they’ll be an undisputed champion like Jermain Taylor; and that has an incredible value to boxing fans around the world. And when those undisputed champions fight we’re thrilled to pay whatever it costs to see them fight because they’ve earned it by proving that they are the true champions of the world.

The fact that these champions have the ability to pick and choose who they fight and when they fight is one of the biggest underlying problems in boxing. These choices need to be taken away from them. This is why we wait forever to see fights that are worth paying for while we’re patiently and expensively force-fed fights that aren’t.

You win the title, you fight the #1 contender in a timely manner, plain and simple, or your title gets vacated and the 2 top contenders fight for the title you chose not to defend against the best in your division. And all of this, of course, is predicated on the theory that we no longer have 4 champions but 1, the other virus that needs to be debugged in boxing.

I love this great sport and all of the good things that come from it, but there are some bad things about it that need to be changed. And until these things are fixed the people who are really shortchanged in the end are the fans who pay for boxing. They deserve to be heard and see positive results in the sport they so dearly love and support.

Certainly the other superfight that we’d all like to see is Mayweather moving up in weight a division to fight undisputed welterweight champion Zab Judah, remembering that Judah still needs to prove his best against WBO welterweight champ Antonio Margarito. But I think Mayweather owes it to his fans and the sport of boxing that have both been good to him to do his best to first unify the light welterweight title before doing this.

Providing Mayweather can first unify the light welterweight title, for us to see 2 undisputed champs such as Mayweather and Judah fighting each other is worth their combined weights in gold. Floyd should be using his power and huge marquee value to make these unification fights happen for the fans that support him and, frankly, have made him what he is today. If Mayweather wants the fights to happen, they’ll happen. But is that truly the case? It’s time to stop blaming managers, promoters and television networks. It’s time to fight.

Is Floyd Mayweather the poison’s antidote and the true light welterweight champion of the world or merely the master of the fine art of ducking? Boxing fans around the world would seriously like to know.

For comments about this article, you can email Mark Workman at mark@markworkman.com .