By Brent Matteo Alderson
As November 4 approaches oh so rapidly, Pretty Boy Floyd is without a partner for his pay per view dance. In April directly after his win over Judah, it seemed like we were going to get to see a super fight in the fall. Shoot, even the possible substitute matches and then their substitutes looked tantalizing. Mayweather versus De La Hoya, Shane Mosley, Antonio Margarito, or Ricky Hatton all sounded good.
Even though boxing fans were crossing their fingers about the De La Hoya fight, we figured he would still end up tangling with one of the aforementioned world class fighters and our desire to see Mayweather challenged or even beaten would be fulfilled.
Then one by one, the possible challengers fell out. De La Hoya hurt his forearm and definitively ruled out a return until next spring. Since that time period Shane Mosley boosted his stock considerably with two victories over Vargas, but then after receiving a generous offer that some say was in the ballpark of eight figures, Shane, probably under the duress of his wife, stubbornly stuck with his decision not to fight until next year.
Antonio Margarito is still ready and available, but Floyd isn’t even entertaining the idea.
Quite Frankly I think it’s because Floyd isn’t very fond of Arum and has harbored an animosity towards his former employer ever since Arum went against him when he had his acrimonious split with his father, and hired James Prince, who at the time had no previous experience in the fight game, as his manager. As a result, Floyd doesn’t want to give Arum the opportunity to develop Margarito or any of his fighters for that matter and definitely doesn’t want the ex-Justice Department attorney to prosper at his expense.
Regardless of his relationship with Arum, there are supposedly eight million reasons why Floyd should take the fight with Margarito. The only other possible explanation for Floyd not taking the fight is that he doesn’t think the risk-reward scenario is beneficial to his career. He knows Margarito is a tough fight and would probably prefer to earn the big bucks spanking Ricky Hatton in a bout that wouldn’t jeopardize a possible golden payday against the Golden Boy.
Sugar Shane is probably just as dangerous as Margarito because of his speed, but at least Shane brings some other things to the table that makes the risk worth the reward. First Shane is probably one of the sport's fifteen most marketable fighters so a win over him would increase Floyd’s marketability and mainstream appeal and it would also add to Floyd’s legacy since Sugar Shane is a future hall of famer who is coming off of a couple of impressive performances. If Floyd should be scared of anybody knocking him out of the possible May date with Oscar, he should be worried about Shane, who is faster and has a lot more experience than Margarito. Yet Floyd is willing to make the fight, but Mosley doesn’t want it. At least not in November.
So that leaves us with Hatton who reportedly is close to finishing a deal to fight Oktay Urkal on December 4 in a defense of the WBA Welterweight title. Conceivably Hatton could possibly step in to fight Mayweather on the November 4 date, but Hatton would be stripped of the WBA welterweight title, which doesn’t really matter since they could just schedule it for 140 so Floyd could win the real junior welterweight title.
Realistically it won’t happen this fall because Ricky is a cash cow across the pond and I don’t think his brain trust would sign for a bout that would surely end in Hatton’s first loss. In fact I think that the two established stars of the division might end up in a bidding war to attain Baldomir’s services.
The point is, Baldomir is a hot commodity right now because he’s the legitimate Welterweight champion who is coming off of a couple of noteworthy performances and appears to be very beatable. It’s been rumored that Hatton could pull out of his fight with Oktay Urkal. His father recently commented to the BBC, "We have a number of options for his next opponent which will be finalized in the next few weeks." His people could very well be trying to negotiate a fight with Baldomir, which is winnable and probably has the makings of a classic.
It would also be a viable option for Baldomir because his people will figure that they can probably squeeze out another million dollar pay day before they have to fight Floyd who would be at least a three to one favorite to beat the Argentinean. The problem with that scenario is that even if he is victorious against Hatton he probably won’t be able to get a date with Floyd in the spring because Mayweather will be tied up with either De La Hoya or Mosley.
So fighting Mayweather in the fall is probably Baldomir’s first choice and his promotional firm, Sycuan Ringside Promotions, has already made it clear that they wanted to immediately start negotiations for a Mayweather fight. Even though I think Mayweather would easily outbox the tough Argentine warrior in a way similar to how he beat Castillo the second time, Baldomir brings the same things to the fight with Mayweather that he brings to the Hatton fight.
First of all, he is the legitimate world champion recognized by Ring Magazine at 147 pounds and in the minds of purists and hardcore fans Floyd’s titles at 140 and 147 pound titles weren’t legitimate world championships. How could you call Gatti a champ at 140 when Kostya had been wreaking havoc on the division for years? Also Baldomir will probably bring in some money from Latin America television and to top it all off, Mayweather is probably salivating at a chance to fight the limited Argentinean for a multi-million dollar payday. The only problem is that I don’t know how they are going to sell it on Pay Per View. Mayweather is more popular then ever, but the fight wouldn’t do 250,000 buys.
At the end of the day I think Mayweather is going to sign to fight Baldomir because of the least risk-most reward equation. Until that fight is signed and sealed I’m going to hope and wish that Mayweather puts his personal feelings about Arum aside, forgets about a possible mega-showdown with the Golden Boy, listens to the critiscism about him ducking Margarito, and signs to fight Antonio in a bout that will be bigger than it would have been if it wasn’t for the media.
After being embarrassed by picking Vargas the weekend before I called the Gatti fight right on the money and predicted that Baldomir would win in eight. I’m still gloating over my pick since the majority of boxing writers picked Gatti. My picks aren’t always on, but I would put them up against anybody in the industry.
Kevin Iole recently wrote that Mosley deserves purse priority with Mayweather because he is the bigger attraction and I completely disagree. If Mosley has that type of marketability then why did he have to take the short end of the stick to fight Vargas after beating him the first time. Vargas-Mosley II did 350,000 buys as did Mayweather-Judah, but the fight with Zab was Mayweather’s coming out party and the publicity that the fight got from the hip-hop world as well from the mainstream media has undoubtedly boosted Mayweather’s stock. With a good promotional campaign Mayweather-Mosley would probably do around 415,000 buys.
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