By James Blears 

Floyd Mayweather Jr and Juan Manuel Marquez will fight on July 18th, in a contest which sees them unbalanced concerning weight. 

Mayweather, who’s coming back from an "oh so brief retirement" since last June, prior to which he poleaxed Ricky Hatton in December 2007, has fought as high as the super welterweight division, but his natural category is welter at 147lbs. While Marquez who’s comfortable at featherweight or 126lbs, has only fought twice at lightweight or four pounds up. So little wonder that Golden Boy is trying hard to catchweight it at 143lbs. 

The reality is that four weight divisions separate the two and this makes the contest lopsided. 

Although Mayweather Jr is a five division WBC Champion and has the opportunity to fight for a title in his comeback because he’s also an Emeritus Champion, this fight is not being held under the auspices of the WBC. 

Nevertheless WBC President Jose Sulaiman is questioning it. He said: “They do not belong with each other. They are very far apart in the divisions. They are both fighters and will do their best, but there’s a lot of difference. There should be something to do, against allowing the freedom of promoters in the way that they are doing this.”

Don Jose also made his assessment of the relative qualities of the two by commenting: “Mayweather is a great fighter. Marquez is a very good fighter. He’s not a great fighter. Let’s make that very clear. 

“It’s difficult for me to call it a mismatch. I can tell you that there are a lot of advantages for Floyd against Marquez. But mismatch….I don’t know, because Marquez has a big heart. He’s a lion in the ring, but I think he is going to be beaten.”   

“In his last fight against Diaz he was losing the fight on all the cards of the judges and it was only because of his experience and his intelligence that caused him to change the bout and knock the other guy out.”