By Mark Vester
"He's afraid to lose," promoter Bob Arum, quoted by the Arizona Republic , regarding WBC welterweight champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. (39-0, 25KOs).
Everyone has been examining the latest news of Mayweather making a possible jump to Mixed Martial Arts. ESPN were the first to break the story of a Thursday meeting between Mayweather and Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, who also owns HDNet Fights. The two sat down to discuss Mayweather's possible debut in MMA. Mayweather and Cuban became friends on the ABC reality show "Dancing with the Stars."
MMA fans are curious if Mayweather will actually go through with his journey into full contact fighting, but many boxing fans were not pleased with the news. In the opinion of many, Mayweather still has unfinished business in the sport of boxing. The business at hand, is a unification bout with WBA champ Miguel Cotto (31-0, 25KOs) of Puerto Rico.
A few weeks ago, Mayweather wished Cotto the best with his career, but sees no financial gain by fighting him at the moment. Many insiders think the real reason is the bad blood with Cotto's promoter Arum, who promoted Mayweather for the majority of his career. Mayweather, on several occasions, has vowed to never do business with Arum. Arum considers the bad blood an excuse, he says Mayweather is running scared and predicts the fight will never take place.
"I can tell you what he'll say," Arum said. "He'll say he won't fight Cotto because of me, because of Bob Arum. But that's not it. He doesn't want to take a chance. He'll never fight Cotto. Never, ever."
If Mayweather enters the world of MMA, and loses, his aura of invincibility will be shattered in the world of boxing. How would look for the sport of boxing if the number- one pound-for-pound fighter in the world is choked out, or knocked out, by a medicore mixed martial artist. I find it hard to believe that Mayweather would face a top-level MMA star in his very first fight. Most boxing writers, and MMA writers as well, see this as nothing more than a publicity stunt by Mayweather and Cuban.
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