by David P. Greisman
For Floyd Mayweather Jr., his 36 wins, his claim for pound-for-pound status and his hopes (and expectations) of retiring undefeated as a Hall-of-Fame lock are direct results of his discipline.
And why shouldn’t he think that way? He is a professional these days in all manners of the term. Just like the differences in work ethics between pick-up basketball players – who strive for competition on the blacktop, and NBA superstars – who improve their games by practicing free throws and jump shots by the thousands everyday, Mayweather views the sport of boxing as a job that has to be done to perfection.
Thanks in part to the growing library of gym footage on the Internet, Mayweather’s workout routine is growing in legend, spawning imitators who strive to catch on to the methods that have worked so well while hoping to catch up to Floyd before he pulls even further away. Like Tiger Woods, he has forced his competitors to raise their games. After spending time as a sparring partner in Mayweather’s camp, DeMarcus Corley – who lost to Floyd in 2004 – told HBO that he had decided to incorporate 500 daily sit-ups into his own routine.
It speaks plenty to Mayweather’s discipline when he weighs in at 146 for his welterweight fight with Zab Judah and then maintains the same poundage when HBO puts him on their unofficial scales the next day. There are no massive weight drops through dehydration, no additions of over a dozen pounds between weigh-in and pre-fight instructions and no problems with stamina or facial cutting and swelling as a result.
But as much as Mayweather’s dedication in training camp has gained exposure, there was an extra emphasis on his qualities this time around when they were contrasted with his opponent this past weekend, Zab Judah.
For although Judah, too, is quite capable of making weight without much trouble, his reputation is much less than that of Mayweather. In recent years, Judah has been criticized for being immature, for underperforming and for talking trash without necessarily being able to back up his words.
What a difference a year makes.
Last year, Mayweather was on-again and off-again for his debut as a pay-per-view headliner against Arturo Gatti. Legal problems were piling up, and it didn’t seem to matter how focused Mayweather was in training camp and in the ring if he kept on providing himself with outside distractions.
A few months prior, Judah had taken short money to rematch Cory Spinks in Spinks’ hometown, and as the St. Louis native danced his way from the locker room, Judah retained a sense of maturity and drive that had been lacking in recent years.
Suddenly, Judah had grown up, gaining the welterweight championship with a ninth-round stoppage of Spinks. But his friend Mayweather wasn’t receiving the respect his past accomplishments should have earned him. Instead, he was willingly casting himself as a villain, the black hat to Arturo Gatti’s white one.
Things changed.
This weekend, it seemed almost perfect that the gloves, like the proverbial hats, didn’t match. Mayweather had on white gloves, Judah black. Judah was the defending titlist, an absurdity considering that he lost to Carlos Baldomir in his last championship defense. Mayweather was there to take Judah’s IBF belt, bringing the gold to a man more deserving of being in the upper echelons of the welterweight division, even if the belt was now made out of paper and even if the other big names at 147 were being ignored in favor of more megafights following Mayweather’s anticipated win.
In the time leading up to their bout, Judah had avoided the press, sulking in private in an attempt to prove, one, that he was focused for this fight, and two, that his excuse that the promotional work caused his loss to Baldomir was valid. Mayweather, meanwhile, was happily obliging press requests, doing interview after interview while smiling his “Pretty Boy” grin.
When Judah finally showed up for the last press conference and the weigh-in, his mouth was motoring, telling his opponent and everyone else that it was he that would be the first to beat Mayweather. As for Mayweather, he didn’t even need to turn and look at Judah, clad in sunglasses and a hooded sweatshirt like the Unabomber, but instead merely shook him off with confidence, mouthing that Judah wouldn’t and couldn’t beat him.
Two confident fighters. One who desperately needed to win and was puffing himself up for the challenge, and the other who hadn’t yet been given a loss and wasn’t about to let that happen when the pay-per-view paychecks were just now starting to line up.
The promoters hyped fight-of-the-year possibilities. The pundits knew better, typing predictions that called for Mayweather to wipe the mat with Judah.
But there was Judah, winning three of the first four rounds, even hitting Mayweather while Floyd was off balance in the second round, causing his glove to hit the canvas in a knockdown that referee Richard Steele missed.
It wasn’t yet an exciting fight – the pace was only slightly above that of the two middleweight championship bouts between Bernard Hopkins and Jermain Taylor – but Judah was landing the occasional punch, while Mayweather was lunging in awkwardly, not yet having found the right strategy to break Judah down.
Against Gatti, Mayweather won by first using fast counterpunching, and then when his opponent became unwilling to leave himself vulnerable, using extremely accurate offense to get the stoppage.
But in the Judah fight, Mayweather’s momentum turn was a direct result of his own defense. Judah, unable to land many clean punches on Mayweather, stopped letting his hands go, and suddenly Mayweather had received his cue to take over.
For the first four rounds, Mayweather was cautious, understanding, as he told Larry Merchant after the fight, that Judah was “a frontrunner.” But with less reason for defense, Floyd started going to the body, punching in combination and taking a lead on the scorecards.
And then Judah went low. And not just low in terms of punching to the groin, but low in the form of disappointingly dirty tactics.
With seconds remaining in the tenth, Judah’s left targeted Mayweather’s cup. And considering the way the fight was going and just how low the punch was, it’s hard to believe Judah’s assertions that the foul was unintentional.
Following the low blow, Judah followed with a right hook rabbit punch. Mayweather was hurt, his uncle and trainer Roger had angrily stepped into the ring, and then chaos broke loose.
After the near-riot subsided, Mayweather indeed looked out of “the zone,” a feeling he confirmed to Merchant in a post-fight interview. His momentum had been halted. Instead of stopping Judah, the final two rounds went by with a detached feeling until the expected unanimous decision for Mayweather was announced.
As classless as Judah’s fouls were, though, Mayweather responded with maturity, touching gloves with his opponent after the near-riot ended and the ring was cleared. After the blatant nature of Judah’s low blow and rabbit punch and the confusion of having his uncle Roger ejected from ringside, Mayweather didn’t need to come out and show himself as the better man. He could have given in to anger, retaliated or tried for a revenge knockout.
But the victory was his, both morally and physically. He would get his 36th win, retain his pound-for-pound status and move on with sustained hopes and expectations of retiring undefeated as a Hall-of-Fame lock.
For Floyd Mayweather, all of that, with more to come, was a direct result of countless hours in the gym, an appreciation of approaching a sport as his job and, of course, an abundance of discipline.
The 10 Count
1. As long as we’re on the subject of Zab Judah and disappointments, I must give play-by-play man Jim Lampley a little criticism for furthering Floyd Mayweather’s claim as a champion in more than two divisions. While the HBO crew did an excellent job in pointing out on multiple occasions the dubious nature of Judah-Mayweather being a title fight, Lampley erred in calling Mayweather a “conqueror of three weight classes.” While I could understand the notion of Mayweather as conqueror at junior lightweight and lightweight, Mayweather’s run at 140, even with a title belt, did not complete the trifecta.
2. Larry Merchant had two great lines last night prior to Judah-Mayweather. First, he pointed out Judah’s famous bling-filled smile, commenting that it was (and I paraphrase) 20 carats worth of diamonds unfortunately located in a setting of glass. And just when I was done chuckling at the first witticism, Merchant followed up by saying that Mayweather against Judah was “flawless versus jawless.” Excellent stuff.
3. As long as I’m dishing out the compliments, much praise should go to the security and police working at the Thomas & Mack Center. Things could have gotten much further out of hand than they did following Judah’s fouls and Roger Mayweather’s entering the ring, but the officials arrived quickly and worked effectively. They prevented an ugly scene in the ring from becoming an ugly moment for boxing.
4. Lennox Lewis needs some work to improve his color commentating skills. With normal HBO announcing team member Emanuel Steward in Germany training Wladimir Klitschko for his April 22 bout against Chris Byrd, here’s hoping that HBO either brings back George Foreman for another one-night return or that Lewis finds his voice rapidly over the next two weeks before Byrd-Klitschko II.
5. If Wladimir Klitschko beats Byrd, and now that his older brother Vitali lost his election bids in their native Ukraine, what are the odds that Vitali will make a comeback?
6. On the undercard of Judah-Mayweather, Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. continued his professional amateur training by disposing of Tyler Ziolkowski with a left hook to the liver in the second round. At this point in his career, Chavez’ easy wins still mean less than fights in which he has to overcome adversity. Neither does it help his cause that Chavez gained 17 pounds following the weigh-in, meaning that he had an advantage of five inches and 15 pounds on the 5’7” Ziolkowski.
7. Joe Cortez was the referee for Chavez-Ziolkowski. My father asked the most important question in the early moments of the broadcast when, after Cortez’ pre-fight instructions, Dad turned to me and wondered why Cortez went without his trademark saying and was neither fair nor firm.
8. Jorge Arce should be on every single pay-per-view undercard.
9. Juan Diaz was impressive in taking a unanimous decision over Jose Miguel Cotto. With fellow lightweights Jose Luis Castillo and Diego Corrales likely journeying to junior welterweight following their June rubber match, the division could be his for the taking. Even with the marquee names migrating north, the possibility remains for exciting or intriguing fights against Acelino Freitas, Jesus Chavez, Zahir Raheem, Jose Armando Santa Cruz, Edner Cherry and Isaac Hlatshwayo, among the many contenders at 135.
10. Speaking of Hlatshwayo, he ended up being more than a bump in the road for Nate Campbell on ESPN2’s Friday Night Fights, taking a split decision victory and the number 2 spot in the rankings of a sanctioning body. For Campbell, who had rejuvenated his career last October by stopping prospect Almazbek “Kid Diamond” Raiymkulov, it was a major step backward as he essentially gave up a fight he could have won. As the rounds progressed, this viewer’s eyes paid more attention to what Campbell wasn’t doing as opposed to what little Hlatshwayo was. But whatever Hlatshwayo did was still more, and also more effective than Campbell’s offense, and suddenly “The Galaxxy Warrior” is forced to rebuild once more.