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Floyd Mayweather's 10 most likely opponents topped by Amir Khan after Pacquiao loss
Story from Grand Rapids Press
What Floyd Mayweather does now that Manny Pacquiao has been victimized by a spurious loss to Tim Bradley remains to be seen, but here's my opinion of the 10 most likely opponents once the Grand Rapids native proceeds with his boxing career:
10. Sergio Martinez Mayweather isn't a middleweight. He isn't even really a junior middleweight, even though he twice has won titles at 154 pounds, without actually weighing that much. But Martinez, the most-recognized middleweight champion, has said he would cut down from 160 to fight Mayweather, and his promoter Lou DiBella has pushed for the fight. There's a bigger difference than one division of separation indicates, but work out the money and the catch weight, and it could happen.
9. Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. Again, Mayweather doesn't care to fight at middleweight, but should he lean that way, Chavez is low-hanging fruit with a World Boxing Council title and an undefeated record, pending the result of his fight with Andy Lee this weekend. The kid is strong and hits hard. And Mayweather would have to go all the way to 160 to fight him, because Chavez was using diuretics to make the limit against Cedar Springs' Troy Rowland back in 2009 (Nevada overturned his victory and ruled the bout no contest). Chavez is the son of the legend, has a loyal following, and did I mention he's low-hanging fruit with a middleweight title?
8. Juan Manuel Marquez II If Mayweather can't get a more alluring target into the ring, and if Top Rank goes ahead with Bradley-Pacquiao II, the best way for Mayweather to remind everyone how he dominated the man who almost beat Pacquiao last November is to do it again. Marquez has big name value. His third fight with Pacquiao only raised his profile, even in defeat. Top Rank could get him a big payday. Then again, if the promotional barriers can be broken down, why not make the fight everyone wants, instead of this one?
7. Nobody While a fight against any of the aforementioned is possible next, none is likely. Neither is retirement. Nevertheless, Mayweather has been in jail since June 1, where he was when Pacquiao lost. That's bound to change his perspective some, and while he'll probably fight again, the purpose of this exercise is to rank what happens next, not what happens long-term, and a retirement announcement is more likely than a fight against a middleweight.
6. Victor Ortiz II The first fight ended with that bizarre fourth-round head launch by Ortiz, followed moments later by Mayweather knocking him out when he wasn't paying attention. There's some question whether it makes any sense. Marketing a rematch on a strange ending in which the fouler got what he deserved isn't much of an angle, since the fight clearly was starting to go Mayweather's way before the unsatisfactory ending. But they've done business before, it's a better option than a lesser-known fighter like Devon Alexander, Lamont Peterson and Andre Berto took themselves out of the running when they tested positive for PEDs, and even Ortiz must wonder what would have happened if his fight with Mayweather had reached a natural conclusion.
5. Miguel Cotto II Mayweather's decision win over Cotto May 5 was exciting. It did 1.5 million domestic buys worth $94 million, and might crash the nine-figure pay-per-view realm with a few more months of trickling revenues. It's already the second-highest-selling fight not involving Mike Tyson the record was Mayweather-Oscar De La Hoya, at 2.44 million domestic buys and the sixth-highest-selling fight ever. Once Cotto left Top Rank, the fight got made in a matter of days. They did big business and people liked the fight. The rematch will look about the same, but that isn't a bad thing, given how the first one looked.
4. Tim Bradley Whether he won or not, he won. If Golden Boy and Top Rank can do business, the fight has obvious appeal. But if that's the case, why not just make Mayweather-Pacquiao?
3. Manny Pacquiao It's still the fight everyone wants. Sometimes in boxing, it's best to let go of a fight that went the wrong way, especially when everyone knows it went the wrong way, and move on to bigger and better things. Pacquiao will have to acquiesce to Mayweather's financial demands for the bulk of the money, which previously were based on Mayweather's superior sales against common opponents, and now have been bolstered by both a recurrence of that dynamic (Pacquiao-Cotto sold 1.25 million domestic pay-per-view units) and another loss on Pacquiao's record, valid or not. If Top Rank and Golden Boy are going to play nice, then do it with this fight.
2. Saul Canelo Alvarez Because it's never really reasonable to expect Top Rank and Golden Boy to play nice, and because Mayweather has the World Boxing Association's version of the 154-pound title, and Alvarez the WBC's version, and because are affiliated with Golden Boy, and because it's the classic tale of the gallant old lion (the 35-year-old Mayweather, 43-0) against the brash cub (the 21-year-old Alvarez, 40-0-1), and because Alvarez has an enormous fan base already, Mayweather-Alvarez has become the biggest fight that can be made with the current promotional barriers in place. If Mayweather wants to step right back into the fire in his next fight, Alvarez is his man.
1. Amir Khan Again, based on the assumption that Mayweather fights someone from within Golden Boy's stable, and expanded to the secondary assumption that he doesn't want someone as threatening as Alvarez, Khan becomes the perfect foil. Khan is British, which helps, because Mayweather tapped into a big fan base there while fighting Ricky Hatton in 2007. He has two losses, but one was to Lamont Peterson, a rematch scrapped when Peterson tested positive last month for PEDs, which gives Mayweather the opportunity to explain away that loss and continue his own anti-steroid crusade. And while Khan presents some danger, he has lost twice, been knocked out once, and never fought heavier than 140 pounds. Mayweather, when he said earlier this year that he hoped to fight five more times after the Cotto bout, also noted they wouldn't all be killers. Mayweather would like the fight for its promotional ease, the physical advantages he would possess, and the name value Khan offers.
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06-11-2012, 02:39 PM
